Light Enlightenment

Chapter Nine

 

Sutra:

He accords with and enters all the Dharma that the Buddhas speak.
His vast, great wisdom is without obstruction,
And he has already completely understood all places of practice.
This is the power of expedients of the cultivation of self-mastery.

He constantly dwells in Nirvana, which is like empty space:
Appearing by transformation according to minds, there is nowhere that he does not encompass.
He relies on the unmarked and yet takes on conditioned marks.
This is the power of expedients of the one who has arrived at what is difficult to arrive at.

Commentary:

He accords with and enters all the Dharmas that the Buddhas speak. He accordingly enters all the 84,000 Dharma doors spoken by the Buddhas of the ten directions and three periods of time; the past, present, and future. He totally understands and deeply enters into all Dharma doors. Because he is able to deeply enter into all Dharma doors, he therefore attains great wisdom. He,

Deeply enters the Sutra Store and has wisdom like the sea.
Just as we say in the second of the three refuges:
I take refuge with the Dharma and vow that living beings
will deeply enter the Sutra Store and have wisdom like the sea.

His vast, great wisdom is without obstruction, because his wisdom is like the sea, he attains unobstruction. He attains unobstructed wisdom. And he has already completely understood all places of practice. “All places” refers to all the states of the Buddha. “Practice” means all the Dharma doors that the Buddha cultivated. “He has already completely understood” means that he has already thoroughly cultivated to the ultimate. He has already done what had to be done and he doesn’t have to undergo further existence.

This is the power of expedients of the cultivation of self-mastery. This power of expedients comes from self-mastery. How does one attain self-mastery? It’s from cultivation that one attains self-mastery. If you don’t cultivate then you can’t attain the power of expedients of self-mastery.

He constantly dwells in Nirvana, which is like empty space. The Buddha constantly abides in Nirvana, the Pure Land of Eternal Stillness and Light. Appearing by transformation according to minds, there is nowhere that he does not encompass. Although he dwells in the Pure Land of Eternal Stillness and Light, he is as if abiding in empty space. that’s because emptiness is boundless and so is the Buddha’s dharma body.

Therefore, in order to save beings he appears by transformation according to their minds. And yet there is nowhere that he does not encompass. There isn’t any place where he can’t go. He relies on the unmarked and yet takes on conditioned marks. He relies on what is unmarked and yet there is nothing which is unmarked. This is the true, actual mark, the true, actual principle.

This is the power of expedients of the one who has arrived at what is difficult to arrive at. This means to arrive at the position which is difficult to arrive at, where one’s own enlightenment is complete, one’s enlightening of others is complete, and one is complete in enlightenment and practice. That’s called perfecting the three enlightenment and being replete with the 10,000 virtues. This is the power of expedients that a Buddha can manifest.

Sutra:

He recollects and completely understands and knows
Morning and night, days and months, years and kalpas,
As well as worlds characterized by beginnings and ends, creation and destruction.
This is the power of expedients of the mastery over time and numbers.

Living beings undergo production and extinction.
Their form or formlessness, their thought or lack of thought.
All names such as these, he completely understands.
This is the power of expedients of dwelling in that which is inconceivable.

Commentary;

He recollects and completely understands and knows morning and night, days and months, years and kalpas, as well as worlds characterized by beginnings and ends, creation and destruction. “Morning” refers to when it is light out and “night” refers to when it is dark out. “Days” are governed by the sun and “Months” are governed by the moon. The sun is yang and the moon is yin. There are twelve months in a year and there is one increase and one decrease in a kalpa. The Buddhist Sutras often mention the “six periods of the day and night”. The three periods of the day are the beginning, middle, and latter parts of that period. the three periods of the night are the beginning, middle and latter parts of that time period. One day consists of twelve hours, and one night consists of twelve hours.

Day begins as the yin energy starts to rise, which is when the sun comes up. It goes from : mao: 5-7am, Ch’en: 7-9am, szu: 9-11am, wu: 11-1pm, wei: 1-3pm, to shen: 3-5pm. that’s a day. Then evening goes from: yu: 5-7pm, hse: 7-9pm, hai: 9-11pm, tze: 11pm-1am, chou: 1-3am, to yin: 3-5am. these are the twelve hours of the day and night. A day and night has twelve periods, making a total of twenty-four hours, because there are two hours in each period. these twelve periods are what is known as the six periods of the day and of the night.

This method of calculating time originated in India. In China too, they calculated by twelve periods in a day and night. But now most people think in terms of twenty-four hours. A year has twelve months. Some months have thirty days, some have thirty-one, and some have only twenty-nine days. A year has 365 days. “Kalpas” translates as divisions of time. At this time, we’re in the decline of a kalpa. what does it mean to say that the kalpa is decreasing? A kalpa increases until people’s average life span is 84,000 years. Then every one hundred years the life span of people decreases by one year, and their height decreases by one inch. From the peak of the kalpa when the life span was 84,000 years until now, people’s life span has decreased to an average of 50-60 years. when it has decreased to the point where people’s life span is 30-40 years, three disasters will ensue.

Fire will burn the first dhyana, water will flood the second dhyana, and wind will blow the third dyhana, and there will be epidemics. There won’t be any cures for the sicknesses. Even the doctors will die. They’ll visit the sick and end up dying themselves! One knows not how many people will die in this way. Why will there be epidemics? It’s because there will be too many people in the world. If some people didn’t die in that way, then the world would be in an even worse mess. The epidemics won’t be controlled by scientific, philosophical, or medical methods. People will just stand by and wring their hands because there won’t be any way to stop them. Some people will survive the epidemics, however, and life will go on until the average life span is ten years. they will get married after only a few years and have children and die by the time they’re ten years old.

At that time people’s minds will be the very worst. The world will be full of weapons and poisons. People will even take blades of grass and kill one another using them like knives. It will be even more violent than present-day wars. Most people will be exterminated. Very few will remain.

But at that point people’s life span will begin to increase. Why will they increase? It’s because people will truly repent. They’ll say, “Oh, in the past we were really wrong and should very quickly repent.” After they have repented then their efficacious light returns and their wisdom increases. They no longer have such massive hatred, greed, and stupidity. Greed is nothing more than sexual desire, and hatred is one’s temper. If one didn’t have hatred in one’s mind, then one wouldn’t have a temper. One does stupid things because of stupidity. One can’t do things clearly. No matter what one does, it’s done in a confused way. This is what is known as being upside down. Being upside down means being crazy. Why does one do crazy things.? It’s because one gets confused and one’s ignorance is too heavy. When things reach that point it’s very dangerous.

The kalpa will increase and every hundred years the life span will increase one year and the height by one inch. It will keep increasing until it reaches 84,000 years. that is what is known as one increase and one decrease and it makes up one kalpa. One thousand of those kalpas makes a small kalpa. Twenty small kalpas make a middle kalpa, and four middle kalpas makes a large kalpa. You can try to figure out how long that is.

The text says, “As well as worlds characterized by beginnings and ends, creation and destruction.” within this cycle worlds are created, they dwell, they are destroyed, and then they become empty. These are called the four marks. It takes twenty kalpas for a world to be created. It’s created little by little. Then after a world is created, it dwells. The time of dwelling is good--times prosper. At present our earth is in the stage of dwelling. It hasn’t yet been destroyed. The time of dwelling lasts twenty kalpas; then the world goes bad. the time of destruction also lasts twenty kalpas. After it is destroyed there is a period of twenty kalpas in which it is empty. the cycle of creation, dwelling, destruction, and emptiness continually repeats itself.

People are the same way. we go through birth, dwelling, change, and death. Birth takes the first twenty years. No matter how intelligent you are, you have to go through this period of learning from birth to age twenty. After that there’s a period of doing things, which is called dwelling. You go through this period of doing things for twenty years too. You may make money, or perhaps create a revolution, or become President. However, it’s not easy to become President before you’re forty.

Next is change. Just when you’re about to become successful in your life work, just when you’ve got a little going for you, a change set in. The change is leading to your death. You’re in the prime of life, but then the change starts and you get older day by day. Day by day you become more useless. Not only are you useless, after age sixty, the myriad sicknesses attack you. From age forty to sixty is when sickness starts coming and from sixty to eighty is the period of death. No matter who you are, you can’t get out of birth, dwelling, change, and death. The worlds go through creation, dwelling, destruction, and emptiness and people go through birth, dwelling, change, and death.

Years also go through a cycle of seasons- spring, summer, fall, and winter. Spring lasts for three months and it’s the time of birth. Summer lasts also for three months, and it’s the time of dwelling. Fall lasts for three months, and it’s the time of change, and then winter also lasts for three months and it’s the time of death, or emptiness. Every day, every month, and every year has birth, dwelling, destruction, and emptiness. the verse mentions the beginning and end of all worlds, but as I mentioned earlier, basically there isn’t a beginning or an end. If you take a zero and cut it open there it becomes one. that is the beginning of numbers. By adding zeros to the one, it becomes endless.

That’s what is meant by no beginning and no end. “He recollects and completely understands and knows” them all. Within the Buddha’s wisdom, in one thought, all worldly dharmas can be known. This is the power of expedients of the mastery over time and numbers. He has the power of expedients that comes from the wisdom over time and calculations.

Living beings undergo production and extinction, their form or formlessness, their thought or lack of thought--all names such as these, he completely understands. Every kind of living being has production and extinction. Some have though and some are without thought. those are four kinds of living beings. There are also those born from womb, those born from egg, those born from consciousness, those born from transformation, as well as others. The Buddha knows all the different names of living beings. This is the power of expedients of dwelling in that which is inconceivable. This power of expedients functions when one attains inconceivable wisdom.

Sutra:

He can understand all that has been spoken
Throughout past, present, and future times,
And he knows that the three periods of time are completely equal.
This is the power of expedients of incomparable liberation.

Commentary:

He can understand all that has been spoken throughout past, present, and future times, Past, present, and future are called the three periods of time. “All that has been spoken” refers to all the languages of living beings. Every kind of living being has its own language depending on its species. Even among human beings there are many different languages. Every country has different races of people and their languages differ. It’s very difficult to understand them all. If one were to study languages from the time one was born until one’s death, one still couldn’t lean them all. The most learned people in the world may know anywhere from ten to thirty languages, but nobody professes to know them all. No one knows the languages of 150 to 160 countries in this world. No one’s power of knowledge can penetrate that much.

But the Buddha doesn’t need to study. He has great wisdom which is able to understand. all languages. He can penetrate without study. He penetrates without being taught. How is he able to penetrate without having studied or without being taught? He’s attained genuine wisdom which illumines all doctrines so that principles and specifics are unobstructed. And so the line of verse says, “he can understand all that has been spoken.” And he knows that the three periods of time are completely equal. He knows that the three periods of time--the past, present, and future--are level and equal. They’re all the same. There’s nothing different about them. Although they’re the same, none of the three periods of time can be gotten at. Why? Because past thoughts cannot be got at, present thoughts can’t be got at, and future thoughts can’t be got at. This is the power of expedients of incomparable liberation. This point of view, theis kind of wisdom comes from the power of expedients of incomparable liberation.

Someone may say, “Some people know all the languages of the world. You’ve just never met them.” There may be people, for example, in the United Nations who can understand all the languages of the world. But they’re only able to understand a very little bit; they can’t completely understand them. Perhaps they are able to speak a sentence of English, Japanese, German, French, Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish, but understanding one sentence from each country doesn’t count as knowing all the languages of the world. That’s called only having partial understand. They haven’t completely understood. In China alone, there are five major dialects. Even in that one country, people can’t understand each other. When I first went to Canton I couldn’t understand a single word that people spoke. To go even a step further, even within a single family, people sometimes can’t understand each other. So you see it’s not easy to understand all languages.

But, just suppose you did understand all the languages of the world, you still wouldn’t know the languages of the animals. Birds, for example, have various languages depending on the species. Each kind of beast has its own language as well. Each creature that flies, swims, and crawls has its own language. It gets so complex that you could never expect to understand it all. Even the very small creatures have their own language. Ants speak the language of ants, and mosquito speak mosquito. All a mosquito has to do is hum and it calls all the other mosquito together. they’re saying, “We’re a party, we work together, we fly together, and we land together. “ They discuss it among themselves and say, “We should form a party and fight out enemies.” That’s the way it is in the world too. Everyone forms parties. “If you aren’t of my party, I’ll attack you. If you are of my party and you try to exert your influence over me, I’ll also attack you.” So to say that there is someone who knows all the languages of the world is not correct. The only exceptions are the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Sages. They are able to know them. But ordinary people can’t know them all.

Sutra:

At that time, the light passed through ten million worlds and everywhere illumined a billion worlds to the east. It was also like this in the south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, as well as above and below. Within each of those worlds there were a billion Jambudvipas, reaching up to a billion Ultimate Form heavens.

All of these were clearly revealed in this light.

Just as in this place one could see the Thus Come One seated on his lotus flower treasury lion’s throne, with Bodhisattvas as many as fine motes of dust in ten Buddhalands circumambulating him, so too, in each of those billions of Jambudvipas there were billions of Thus Come Ones seated in the same way.

Because of the spiritual power of the Buddha, in each of the ten directions there was a great Bodhisattva, who was accompanied by Bodhisattvas to the number of fine motes of dust in ten Buddhalands, who came to the Buddha’s place.

Their names were Manjushri and others. They came from countries called golden colored world and others and the Buddhas they served were called Unmoving Wisdom Thus Come One and others.

At that time, in the presence of all those Buddhas, the voices of the Manjushri Bodhisattvas in all those places, rang out in unison as they spoke verses:

Commentary:

At that time, refers to when the above verse was finished. The light from the bottom of the Buddha’s feet passed through ten million words and everywhere illumined a billion worlds to the east. It pervasively illumined the Golden Colored World in the east. It was also like this in the south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, as well as above and below. Within each of those worlds there were a billion Jambudvipas, reaching up to a billion Ultimate Form heavens. All of these were clearly revealed in this light. They all manifested within Shakyamuni Buddha’s light.

Just as in this place one could see the Thus Come One, Shakyamuni Buddha, seated on his lotus flower treasury lion’s throne, with Bodhisattvas as many as fine motes of dust in ten Buddhalands circumambulating him, so too, in each of those billions of Jambudvipas there were billions of Thus Come Ones seated in the same way.

Because of the spiritual power of the Buddha, all of this came about because of the Buddha’s great awesome spiritual power. In each of the ten directions there was a great Bodhisattva, who was accompanied by Bodhisattvas to the number of fine motes of dust in ten Buddhalands, who came to the Buddha’s place. Every great Bodhisattva had a retinue of Bodhisattvas to the number of fine motes of dust in ten Buddhalands, who went with him to Shakyamuni Buddha’s way place.

Their names were Manjushri and others. All the great Bodhisattvas were more or less the same as Manjushri Bodhisattva. They came from countries called golden colored world and others, and the Buddhas they served were called Unmoving Wisdom Thus Come One and others.

At the time, in the presence of all those Buddhas, the voices of the Manjushri Bodhisattvas in all those places, rang out in unison as they spoke verses. In each Way Place was a division-body of the Bodhisattva Manjushri, who served the Buddha of that particular Way Place. Although all the Manjushri Bodhisattvas weren’t in the same place, nonetheless, they spoke these verses is unison.

The Buddhadharma flourishes and declines according to the karma obstacles of living beings. If the bad karma of living beings is heavy, then the Buddhadharma will deteriorate. If the bad karma of living beings is light, then the Buddhadharma will flourish. Sometimes the Buddhadharma flourishes quickly and declines quickly, and at other times it flourishes and comes to an end slowly. When Shakyamuni Buddha appeared in this Saha World some people believed in the Buddha and others listened to the Buddhadharma but didn’t believe in it.

During the Proper Dharma age one also finds aspects of both the Dharma Image age and the Dharma Ending age. When the Dharma Image age comes into being there is a prevalance of Dharma Image attitudes but there can also be some that belong to the Proper Dharma age and some that belong to the Dharma Ending age . Similarly, the Dharma Ending age contains elements of the Proper Dharma age and the Dharma Image age. You can think of time as being divided into three ages: the Proper Dharma age, the Dharma Image age, and the Dharma Ending age. Or you can combine them and say that in every Dharma age there are elements of the Proper Dharma age, the Dharma Image age, and the Dharma Ending age.

During the Proper Dharma age there are people who believe in the Buddha, and there are people who don’t believe in the Buddha. Those who don’t believe, only pay attention to the Buddha’s image. This would be the Dharma Image age within the Proper Dharma age.

When the Buddha was in the world there were a lot of people who never saw him, and they didn’t understand the Buddhadharma. That would be the Dharma Ending age within the Proper Dharma age.

During the Dharma Image age there are people who truly cultivate, certify to the Fruit and open enlightenment. That’s the Proper Dharma age within the Dharma Image age. Right at the same time, there are also people who never hear the Dharma, draw near the Sangha, or see the Buddha. That would be the Dharma Ending age within the Dharma Image age.

Now it is the Dharma Ending age, when the Dharma is declining. At this time there isn’t much Proper Dharma around and there aren’t many aspects of the Dharma Image age either. Because living beings lack a solid foundation at the present time, they don’t believe in the Buddhadharma. Because of confusion and doubts, they aren’t able to recognize the Buddhadharma clearly. They say that the Proper Dharma is the Dharma Image and they think that the Dharma Ending is the Proper Dharma. Living during this time is very dangerous because people are really confused and doubtful.

In my opinion, we shouldn’t call it Buddhism. It should be called the dharma of the minds of living beings. Buddhism is the ultimate psychology. It has ultimate, true principles. Don’t pay attention to whether the Buddha said something or not. If it is in accord with principle then it can be believed. If it isn’t then it shouldn’t be believed. So, now we are investigating the Buddhadharma and seeking true principle. We don’t have to get involved in tracing its origins, for to do so is wasting precious effort of superficialities.

Deeply enter the Sutra-store and then have wisdom like the sea.

Don’t use effort on the surface of things and never really get anywhere. That only wastes a lot of time. When we investigate the Buddhadharma, we are investigating the dharma of living beings. The first thing you must do is to know what living beings’ thoughts are like. Living beings don’t know what their thoughts are like and yet they don’t want others to know what their thoughts are either.

So, we don’t study the Buddhadharma, we study the dharma of living beings. It’s not the Buddha’s Sutras that we study, but the Sutras of living beings. Living beings, the Buddha, and the mind are three and yet one. One and yet three. If you say that you don’t believe in the Dharma that the Buddha spoke, then you can believe in the Dharma of the mind. If you don’t believe in the Dharma of of the mind, then you can believe in the Dharma of living beings. The mind, the Buddha, and living beings are three and yet they aren’t different. The mind speaks the dharma of the mind, living beings speak the dharma of living beings, and the Buddha speaks the Buddhadharma. If you believe then you believe, and if you don’t believe then there’s nothing that can be done, because in the Dharma Ending age that’s how it is.

Sutra:

He cultivated all the profuse and great bitter practices
Vigorously throughout the day and night without weariness or fatigue.
He has already rescued those who are difficult to rescue by means of his lion’s roar.
Because universally transforming living beings is his practice.

Commentary:

He cultivated all the profuse and great bitter practices. This refers to the past when the Buddha cultivated ascetic practices on the causal ground. The ascetic practices that he cultivated were limitless and boundless. It could be said that they extend vertically throughout the three limits and horizontally throughout the ten directions. The three limits are: past limits, present limits, and future limits. The three limits are also the triple realm: the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm.

The places where the Buddha practiced asceticism are all throughout empty space and the Dharma Realm. Therefore the text explains them as “profuse and great bitter practices.” What bitter practices did he cultivate? When the Buddha was on the Ice Mountains he cultivated ascetic practices for six years. Every day all that he ate was one grain of rice and a grain of sesame seed. This is the kind of extremely bitter and difficult ascetic practices that he cultivated. No matter what ascetic practice the Buddha cultivated, he did it to completion. When he cultivated ascetic practices he did it vigorously throughout the day and night without weariness or fatigue. He was vigorous from morning to night and from night to morning. There was no time when he stopped. “Weary” also has the meaning here of being irritated and out of sorts. It means that you become very unhappy about cultivating. “Without fatigue” here means that you are never lazy.

The Buddha was diligent and vigorous no matter whether it was day or night, and at no time was he lazy nor did he become fatigued. the situation now at Gold Mountain is somewhat like this. For instance, today we moved our daytime lecture to Redwood City and we were on the road for three or four hours. And on the way back everyone was worn out and yet they didn’t become wearied or fatigued. They fought with their weariness.

He has already rescued those who are difficult to rescue by means of his lion’s roar, The Buddha cultivated profuse and great ascetic practices and influenced living beings through them. Because of the Buddha’s virtuous conduct, living beings hear of his reputation and follow him and are saved. Living beings are basically very hard to save. They are difficult to tame and subdue, but the Buddha does it by using his lion’s roar. when the Buddha speaks the Dharma it has the same effect as when a lion roars. By means of it he teaches and transforms living beings who are difficult to tame and subdue. Because universally transforming living beings in his practice. Teaching and transforming all living beings is just the Buddha’s way of life. His work is to teach, transform, and save all beings.

Sutra:

Living beings flow and turn in the sea of love and desire,
Covered over by the net of ignorance, greatly worried and oppressed.
The one of utmost humaneness and courage completely pulls them out.
Vowing that it will be this way is his practice.

Commentary:

The word “living being” means literally, “born from the combination of a multitude of conditions.” Living beings include those born from the womb, born from egg, born from moisture, born from transformation, and those with form, those without form, those with thought, those without thought, and those with neither thought nor non-thought. All living beings are produced from a combination various conditions and so they turn in the six paths within the bitter sea of birth and death and can’t get out. the most difficult part of the bitter sea of birth and death to get out of is the sea of love and desire.

Living beings flow and turn in the sea of love and desire and can’t get out. The sea of suffering is so hard to escape because it is extremely difficult to extricate oneself from the sea of love and desire. You hope that those you love will live and you hope that those you hate will die. Living beings are just that upside down. They are sunk in the sea of love and desire. There are five reasons why it’s hard to get out of this sea:

1. The water is deep. The water is too deep and so it’s hard to get out. When people fall into the river of love it’s not easy to pull their two legs out if its mire. They’re sunk in it. All they do is wallow around in it.

2. The waves are swift. Our revolving and turning are just like being caught in swife waves. the waves in the ocean are huge, and it’s just because the waves of love and desire are so huge that we can’t get out. Take a look at the world, at how many living beings there are who are plagued with heavy ignorance. Men and women want to get involved in love and desire. And if they don’t get the object of their desires they will go so far as to commit suicide. Thus they are swallowed up by the sea of love and desire, and they sink and die in it. By not getting out of it you remain in the six paths where you flow and turn back and forth. suddenly you’re in the heavens, and suddenly on earth, suddenly born as a hungry ghost, suddenly as an animal, suddenly as an asura, suddenly in hell, suddenly as a person, and suddenly in the heavens again. This is what is meant by revolving and turning on the six-path wheel of birth and death. It never ends.

3. You are confused and obscured. Because you’re downing you don’t even know which way is north, east, south, or west, and you can’t get to the other shore. Since you’re confused and in the dark you can’t reach the other shore. “Confused and obscured” refers to ignorance. In this way living beings are covered over by the net of ignorance, greatly worried and oppressed.

4. You are grabbed by sea creatures. What does this mean? For instance, sometimes when you’re in the water swimming, a fish or some other sea creature will come and bite your leg or your head. Being grabbed by sea creatures is like being caught in a net of your own making. If you are in the sea of love and desire you’ll get caught in its net and you won’t be able to get out.

5. You are worried and oppressed. You’re in the sea and can’t get out and so you get worried and oppressed by the worry. You get so worried that you lose your wisdom and don’t have any strength, until you reach the point that you can’t tell north, east, south, or west.

For these five reasons it is very difficult for people to get out of the sea of love and desire.

The one of utmost humaneness and courage completely pulls them out. The Humane One refers to the Buddha. He diligently cultivated ascetic practices and by getting rid of love and desire he was able to get out of the sea of love and desire. He swept them out of his mind. He became pure and without defilement and so his bright wisdom manifested. Vowing that it will be this way is his practice. Living beings should vow to follow the Buddha and get rid of their love and desire, and all emotion. That is what is called true and actual practice.

Sutra:

We in the world are remiss and attached to the five desires.
We make unreal discriminations and thereby receive a score of suffering.
We should uphold and practice the Buddha’s teachings and always gather in our minds.
Vowing to save all such as these is his practice.

Commentary:

We in the world are remiss and attached to the five desires. This line refers to the sentient world, which consists of all living being. the material world is made up of the mountains, rivers, and the great earth. And the world of Proper Enlightenment is made of the Sages, the Buddhas, and the Bodhisattvas. We in the sentient world are remiss, but the material world is not, and neither is the world of Proper Enlightenment. It’s only the sentient world that is remiss. “Remiss” means excessive, reckless, and careless. Excessive, reckless, and careless are words that describe someone who doesn’t follow the rules. It means being in opposition ot the Dharma and not accepting the Dharma. “Remiss” also means that when people do things, they don’t do them in accord with the Dharma. “Attached to the five desires” means that people aren’t able to give them up. What are the five desires? They are:

1. wealth
2. sex
3. fame
4. food
5. sleep

People who are attached to wealth are greedy but are never satisfied. No matter how much money they have, they never feel there’s enough. For instance, Onassis was one of the wealthiest people in the world. But his wealth was not as great as the wealth of the King of Saudi Arabia. And yet, even with all of his wealth, the King of Saudi Arabia was killed by his nephew. And with both of his hands empty, he went off to a place he had no idea he’d have to go to. So, people who are greedy and confused over wealth still come empty handed and go empty handed.

Those people who are attached to forms are greedy for beautiful forms. They feel that sex is the most desirable thing in the world. But in the end it all amounts to nothing.

Some people are attached to fame. All they think about is how to make their own name bigger day by day. They want the whole world to know their name. But no matter how big their name gets, they still will die. And when they die their name stays behind and doesn’t accompany them.

Some people think that food is the very best. They think of ways to eat well, and they think that the more they eat the better . They eat so much that their faces turn yellow and their bodies become obese, yet it never occurs to them that they are eating themselves to death.

Then there are people who think that wealth, sex, fame, and food are no big deal, but they think that sleep is really fine. they sleep all day and all night. they sleep, wake up to eat, and then go back to sleep again. they waste their entire lives sleeping.

These five desires--wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep--are the five roots of the hells. these are the five pathways that lead people to the hells. But nonetheless, we people in the world are attached to them. We make unreal discriminations and thereby receive a score of suffering. The five desires have no true substance. They’re basically false, but still people are attached to this falseness and don’t recognize it clearly. So, they create all kinds of offense karma and then in the future have to undergo all kinds of suffering as retribution. They give rise to delusion, create karma, and then have to undergo the retribution.

We should uphold and practice the Buddha’s teachings and always gather in our minds. We should offer up our conduct in accord with the Buddha’s teachings and constantly gather in our minds. We should watch over our minds and when they start to have false thinking, gather them back in. Don’t let yourself have so much false thinking. If you do, your hair will turn white. Vowing to save all such as these is his practice. We shouldn’t become attached to the five desires, but should offer up our conduct in accord with the Buddha’s teaching, constantly gather in our minds, and never be lazy. We should constantly be mindful of impermanence and be careful not to be lax. We should make the vow to save and liberate all living beings in the world. This is the kind of conduct that we should practice.

Sutra:

Living beings become attached to a “self” and enter birth and death.
They seek its boundaries but cannot obtain it.
We should wholeheartedly serve the Thus Come One and obtain the wonderful Dharma.
Expounding it to others is his practice.

Commentary:

Living beings become attached to a “self” and enter birth and death. “Living beings” specifically refers to human beings, but generally it includes all other classes of living beings. No matter what kind of living being it may be, it has an attachment to a “self”, and an attachment to what is “mine”.

Ultimately, where is the self located? If you look from the tip of your head to the soles of your feet, you’ll find that the head has the name “head”, hair has the name “hair”, ears have the name “ears”, the eyes have the name “eyes”, the nose has the name “nose”, the face has the name “face”, and it goes on like this all the way down to the soles of your feet. Throughout the entire body everything has an assigned name, but there is nothing called a “self”. If there isn’t even such a thing as a self, why do you want to be attached to the existence of one? You may argue that “self” is just a general name for the body and the other names are specific designations for particular parts of the body. True enough, but if you look into it, you’ll find that the self is empty and false. What is more, you are not in control of that “self”.

What you say doesn’t count. Why do I say that? Because if you were in control then you could tell your eyes not to go bad, and they wouldn’t go bad. You could tell your ears not to go deaf, and they wouldn’t go deaf. You could tell your teeth not to fall out, and they wouldn’t fall out, or you could tell your hair not to turn white and it wouldn’t turn white. It is possible to get your hair to turn back to its normal color once it has already turned white, but it requires a bit of effort and skill to do so.

But most people have no control over their bodies and so when the time comes, their backs ache, their legs hurt, and their arms don’t listen to orders. This is especially true for people who have strokes and become totally paralyzed on one side of their bodies. this kind of illness is yet another message to get us to wake up to the fact that physical bodies are basically not “ours”. If they really belonged to us, then we would be in command of them. We would be in control. Our lack of control over them just proves that there really isn’t a “self” to begin with, how much the less anything belonging to the self. If we don’t even have control over our own bodies, how much the less can we have control over external things. Therefore, we shouldn’t be so attached.

From of old, few have lived to seventy years of age.
When you subtract the years of youth and the latter ones of old age
The time in between doesn’t amount to much.
And what is more, half of that is spent in sleep!

From the time we are born until we are twenty years of age we really don’t have much going for us. the same is true of the last twenty years of our lives--we’re not much use then, either. Our hair turns white, our eyes grow dim, our ears go deaf, and our teeth fall out. But stop and think about it, people’s teeth fall out but their tongues don’t. I met an eighty year old man once and I asked him, “Have you ever seen anyone whose tongue has fallen out?”

He said, “No I never have, but why are you asking me that?”

I said, “It’s because you are so old and I thought maybe you have seen someone whose tongue had fallen out. the reason that people’s tongues don’t fall out is because they’re pliable. the reason that teeth fall out is because they are rigid.”

If we take off twenty years for our youth and twenty years for old age then there are thirty years left in the middle, and half of that is spent in sleep. that’s fifteen years taken up with sleep, and of the fifteen remaining useful years, you have to account for the time spent eating, getting dressed, going to the toilet, entertaining, and enjoying idleness and recreation. All of that adds up to at least another five years. So what you have left is at best ten useful years. When you stop and think about it, what can be accomplished in ten years’ time? So people are born in vain and die in vain--squandering their life in between and departing empty-handed.

Someone is thinking, “Dharma Master, if you say that, then people will think they don’t have to do anything. They can just wait around for their fate to unfold.” That’s not the correct way to think, either. People should do things. But what kinds of things should they do? They should do good things and not do evil things. They should follow what is good and change from doing evil.

Because people are attached to a “self”, they enter into birth and death and they seek its boundaries but cannot obtain it. They look for the very boundaries of birth and death to find where it all begins, but they can’t find it. We should wholeheartedly serve the Thus Come One and obtain the wonderful Dharma. We should use our utmost strength in making offerings to and serving all thus Come Ones, and obtain the Wonderful Dharma. Expounding it to others is his practice. The Buddha likes to speak the Dharma and we should represent him in speaking and proclaiming it. For the sake of our nation we should teach the people and we should speak the Wonderful dharma for them. This is the kind of practice that we should undertake.

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