Happily Dwelling Conduct

Chapter 14

 

Sutra:

“Because one skillfully cultivates such peaceful and happy thoughts, he will not oppose his listeners’ intentions. If asked difficult questions, he does not answer by resorting to the Small Vehicle Dharma, but uses only the Great Vehicle for his explanation, which causes his listeners to obtain the Wisdom of All Modes.”

Outline:

J2. The conduct of “contemplating”

Commentary:

Because one skillfully cultivates such peaceful and happy thoughts, because one does not have these faults—one does not gossip about people’s good and bad points and one does not resent people—his mind is peaceful and happy and without thoughts of greed, hatred or stupidity, he will not oppose his listeners’ intentions. He should not go against the wishes of his listeners. If he pays no attention to his listeners whether they ask about the advantages or the disadvantages of something, he is opposing their intentions.

If asked difficult questions, he does not answer by resorting to the Small Vehicle Dharma, but uses only the Great Vehicle for his explanation. If people ask him about the principles, he should not answer them in terms of the Small Vehicle Dharma. He should use only the wonderful Dharma of the Great Vehicle to answer them, which causes his listeners to obtain the Wisdom of All Modes. His listeners will then obtain the wisdom of All Modes.

Sutra:

At that time, the World Honored One, wishing to restate his meaning, spoke these verses, saying:

“The Bodhisattva ever delights
In tranquilly speaking the Dharma;
On pure ground
He arranges his seat,
Smears his body with oil,
And washes away dust and filth.

Wearing fresh, clean clothing,
Completely pure, within and without,
Seated securely on the Dharma seat,
He responds to questions.”

Outline:

H2. Verses
I1. The statement in verse
I2. The explanation in verse
J1. Verses about the conduct of “stopping”
K1. Verses about not slighting others

Commentary:

At that time, the World Honored One, wishing to restate his meaning, spoke these verses, saying. Shakyamuni Buddha wanted to explain the meaning yet another time in a bit more detail, so he used verses to say:

The Bodhisattva ever delights in tranquilly speaking the Dharma. He speaks the Dharma in order to bring peace and calm to living beings. On pure ground, he arranges his seat. This refers to “entering the Tathagata’s room.” He smears his body with oil, and washes away dust and filth. Wearing fresh, clean clothing. This refers to “donning the Tathagata’s robe.” Completely pure, within and without. Inwardly, he has no false thinking; outwardly there is no dirt or filth. Seated securely on the Dharma seat. This refers to “sitting in the Tathagata’s seat.” He responds to questions from living beings, speaking the Dharma for their sake.

Sutra:

If there are Bhikshus
Or Bhikshunis,
Upasakas
Or Upasikas,
Kings, princes,
Ministers, scholars, or commoners,
By resorting to the subtle, wonderful principle,
With harmonious mien he speaks for them.
If there are difficult questions,
He answers in accord with principle.

Outline:

K2. Verses about not praising and not disparaging

Commentary:

If there are Bhikshus or Bhikshunis, Upasakas or Upasikas—left-home men, women, at-home men or women, kings, princes, ministers, scholars, or commoners, ordinary folks, by resorting to the subtle, wonderful principle, with harmonious mien; that is being neither jocular nor overly serious or stern looking, having a peaceful countenance that shows not the least bit of temper, very harmoniously he speaks for them.

If there are difficult questions, he answers in accord with principle, as the question requires.

Sutra:

Using causes and conditions and parables,
He explains and makes distinctions,
Through his use of such expedients,
All are moved to bring forth the resolve,
Which gradually increases
As they enter into the Buddha Way.

Outline:

K3. Verses about not speaking of faults

Commentary:

Using causes and conditions and parables, he explains and makes distinctions, but he does so using the Great Vehicle Dharma, not the Small Vehicle Dharma. Through his use of such expedients, all are moved to bring forth the resolve, which gradually increases as they enter into the Buddha Way. All bring forth the Bodhi heart which increases day by day so that they eventually accomplish the Buddha Path.

Sutra:

Casting out thoughts of laziness
And slothful thinking,
Freeing himself from all worry,
He speaks Dharma with a compassionate mind.

Outline:

K4. Verses about not harboring resentment

Commentary:

Casting out thoughts of laziness and slothful thinking, attitudes of laxness and sloppiness, freeing himself from all worry and afflictions, he speaks Dharma with a compassionate mind for the benefit of living beings.

Sutra:

By day and night he ever speaks
The supreme teaching of the Way.
By means of causes and conditions
And limitless analogies
He instructs living beings,
Leading them to be joyful.

Clothing, bedding,
Food, drink, and medicine--
With respect to these
He harbors no expectations.

His single focus is to speak the Dharma
According to causal conditions;
His wish is to realize the Buddha Way
And lead living beings to do the same.
This, then, is the greatest benefit:
The offering of peace and comfort.

Outline:

J2. Verses about the conduct of “contemplating”

Commentary:

By day and night he ever speaks the supreme teaching of the Way. The cultivating Bodhisattva teaches with compassion, not just once, but day and night, always, he compassionately teaches living beings the Dharma to transform them, expounding the unsurpassed principles of cultivation and of Buddhism. By means of causes and conditions and limitless analogies, he instructs living beings, leading them to be joyful. His only fear is that living beings may not understand and so he uses limitless causes and conditions and limitless analogies to teach them and to cause them to gain great happiness, peace and long life.

Clothing, bedding, food, drink, and medicine--with respect to these, he harbors no expectations. He is not speaking the Dharma while trying to get the best clothing, bedding, food, drink, or the most nourishing medicine. His single focus is to speak the Dharma according to causal conditions; expediently for the benefit, to lead them to become enlightened. His wish is to realize the Buddha Way and lead living beings to do the same. He wants to become a Buddha dna to lead all living beings to become Buddhas. He certainly does not want living beings to be as greedy and hot-tempered as he is! This, then, is the greatest benefit to living beings, the offering of peace and comfort.

* * * * * * * * * *

There is some good news that I would like to share with everyone. Next Sunday, a week from today, we will be buying a big Way-place which can seat four hundred people. If you have faith, then send your contribution; if you do not have faith, then even if you send your contribution I do not want it. I want to make this clear: if you do not believe, then do not send your money.

I am a monk who does not eat food given out of pity. If you try to give food to a beggar without any courtesy, saying, “Here, take this and eat it!” and the beggar has any self-respect, he will leave without eating your food. That is called “not eating food given out of pity.” I am a monk who does not accept offerings made out of pity. If someone offers me money only because he wants to look good himself, I would not take his money. Whether he offers the money or not, it is all the same to me.

“Then I would not give any money,” someone says. If you do not offer money, that is even better. Do not force yourself. If you made an offering reluctantly, I would not take it either. When I was in Hong Kong, for example, Mr. Zhang Yujie sent a worker to give me two hundred dollars. I took the money and threw it out the door; I did not want it. Then the worker picked it up and left. That is the kind of disposition I have, so I want you all to understand me. If you cannot bear to give the money and you still give it, that is considered a big offering. If you have one dollar that you cannot bear to give and now you give it up, that is called a big offering. Do you all understand?

Sutra:

After my Nirvana,
If there is a Bhikshu
Who is able to expound
Upon The Wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra
With no thought of envy or anger,
With no affliction or obstruction,
He will have no worries
And no detractors.

He also will not fear
Knives or staves,
Nor will he be exiled,
Because he is secure in his patience.

Outline:

I3. Clarifying how the conduct is accomplished
J1. Statement about how the conduct is accomplished

J2. Clarifying how, when inwardly there is no offense, outer difficulties do not arise.

Commentary:

After my Nirvana. When the Buddha is dwelling in the world, that is called the Proper Dharma Age; after the Buddha’s extinction, that is called the Dharma Image Age, and then the Dharma-ending Age.

* * * * * * * * * *

Today, when the layman from Hong Kong said the worlds, “After the Buddha entered Nirvana,” his Cantonese dialect threw you off. Although this phrase sounds similar in Cantonese and Mandarin, you all could not figure out what he was saying. Then the layman began to think that you did not know anything about the Buddhadharma, that you did not understand what the “real truth,” the “worldly truth,” and the “middle truth” were. He became disdainful thinking that you had left the home-life and been studying for so long, but did not even understand such simple terms.

I came to your defense. I said, “It is not that they do not understand; they actually have a very deep understanding of these principles. They thoroughly understand the principles of the Shurangama Sutra, how much the more would they understand the Shastra you are explaining. A Shastra is very easy to understand; it is a discourse, and even those who had never studied Buddhism would understand.

First of all, they were being polite on your behalf. If they had said they understood, you would have had no reason to explain it to them. Secondly, they do not know Cantonese. Thirdly, even if they understood, they would have said they did not because otherwise you might not have gone on to explain it to them.” Once I said that he sat up and took notice. I said, “Do not look down on them. They are all extremely smart, a hundred times smarter than I am. Why are they so sincere in their studies? Because their teacher is so stupid, and they figure they can learn some stupidity from him.” When he heard that, he was not feeling so superior anymore. So after this, do not be polite. If someone makes a mistake, jump right in and challenge the person; trot out your own, unique interpretations and argue it out—test his wisdom.

I know this layperson has no Samadhi power; he is a straw in the wind. He talks a good game, but has no real cultivation. If you scold him, he cries because he has no Samadhi power. If you have Samadhi power, you do not cry when someone says a harsh word to you; and the more you get scolded, the less it matters. Those who understand the Buddhadharma do not laugh or cry. They do not giggle when they hear the Dharma. If you giggle, the speaker may think you do not know anything about the Buddhadharma, or he may worry that you are laughing at him because he made a mistake—and he will quit talking. No matter who is speaking the Dharma for you, if you have Samadhi you would not laugh when it is funny or cry when it is sad; crying and laughing are both wrong. So be careful. Do not think laughing is so great; you can laugh up a lot of trouble for yourself if you are not careful.

If there is a Bhikshu, if there is a left-home person who cultivates the Bodhisattva Path, who is able to expound. “Able” means “doing it”. Just do it. If you can translate but you do not—then you could say you cannot! If you cannot translate, but you do—then you could say you can. Take my three disciples here, for example, if I had just waited and not told you to translate, then you probably still would not know how to translate even now. You need to do it to learn how to do it. Then you will succeed. Ultimately, there is no big difference between being “able” and “unable”, it depends on whether you do it.

I basically cannot speak the Dharma, but I go ahead and do it because on one else is. I try it out and I learn how and all of you Americans come to listen. I get louder every day as more of you come to listen. I am not afraid of large audiences, and I am no longer intimidated into speaking softly. I speak in a big voice, unafraid someone will challenge me or debate with me. Having done it for a while, I am no longer afraid. So you could say that even though I cannot—I can! You should not think I can lecture on the Sutras. I do not even know how to listen to them! I have no ears or eyes, and I have even lost my nose. “You do not have any ears, eyes, or nose? Does that mean you do not have a mouth either?” someone asks. I have not lost my mouth, for if I had I would not be able to eat. But since I can still eat, I know that I still have my mouth. Therefore, I can still lecture on the Sutra. Is this wonderful or not? I have lost my ears, eyes, and nose, but not my mouth. Have you ever seen such a person? No? Well, that is how I am right now.

It is said,

They had eyes but could not see Nishyanda Buddha,
They had ears, but could not hear the perfect, sudden teaching.

They must have lost their eyes and ears, right? Otherwise, how could they have eyes and yet not see Nishyanda Buddha? How could they have ears and yet now hear the perfect, sudden teaching? All Buddhas are adorned with fragrant light, and no matter how far away one is, one should be able to smell it. After such long time of smelling, they still did not smell it. If they had not lost their nose, then what was the matter with them? I am not joking. I am being serious. To be able to listen to the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra, or to be able to expound upon The Wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra, this is inconceivably wonderful and miraculous Dharma!

He will speak the Dharma Flower Sutra,with no thought of envy or anger, with no affliction or obstruction. One should lose such thoughts, but this is not easy. Why not? Because as soon as you lose them, you want to look for them. People who study Buddhism are trying to find the mind, while those who do not study Buddhism casually let their minds wander off. When their minds are lost, they do not look for them. Students of the Buddhadharma are looking for the mind.

When your mind is free of jealousy, it will be free of anger. Envy is anger. If you are jealous, you will have afflictions; if you are angry, you will have even greater afflictions. Without jealousy or anger, there is no affliction or obstruction. He will have no worries, no afflictions, no obstacles towards oneself or others; even when others try to put obstacles in your way, if you have no obstacles inside, then those obstacles cannot touch you. This is the same principle as flies being attracted to filth. If you have filth inside, afflictions and obstructions will be thrown your way, like flies gathering around the garbage. If inwardly you have no obstructions, outside events will not obstruct you and you will have no worries and no detractors. Why does no one scold you? Because you do not scold them. People will scold you if you scold them; it is that simple. If you do not want people to scold you, do not scold them. It is a very obvious principle. If you do not understand this principle, you will just seek outside and ask, “Why do they scold me?” Well, why shouldn’t they?

He also will not fear knives or staves, nor will he be exiled. He will fear nothing.

Even in the face of poison, I am always calm;
When confronted by the point of a sword, I am still at ease.

His attitude is, “If someone wants to chop my head off with a sword, go right ahead, no problem!” For example, the Second Patriarch, Master Shen Guang, called out, “Chop if off! Chop if off!” Then the executioner beheaded him with a single stroke of the sword. The Patriarch neither cried nor laughed, and a white liquid flowed from his neck.

Do not fall asleep! How can you sleep when I am speaking in such a loud voice? What is to be done about this?

Even in the face of poison, I am always calm;
When confronted by the point of a sword, I am still at ease.

Now, if I were to give you some of that poison, you would not dare fall asleep, because you would be at death’s door! How could you have time to sleep? However, since you are not in such a critical situation right now, you figure it is all right if you doze off for a while.

When the Second Patriarch was beheaded, a white liquid flowed from the wound. The Emperor then knew he had executed the wrong man. He built him a temple and stupa, but it was a little too late. The Emperor did not know until after the fact. He was not like the Zhu Geliang [the brilliant military strategist from the Three Kingdoms Period in China], who knew things ahead of time. One time, as Zhu Geliang was getting ready to ride off on his horse, the scouts came and told him, “General, the troops of Wei are coming to attack us now!” Zhu Geliang said, “Do not worry; their army will retreat before long.”

Later the scouts went out again and found that Cao Cao’s army had indeed retreated. If Zhu Geliang had instead said, “Please wait; let me check it out,” and then only after the scouts reported the situation a few days later did he say, “Oh, I knew all along that they would retreat,” that would not have counted; that would mean that he did not know until after the fact. It only counts if you know ahead of time. If you wait until people tell you, and then you say, “Oh! I knew about that a long time ago,” you are someone who knows after the fact. It is like me, I know just about everything, but I know it too late! I do not know things in advance. However, knowing things after the fact is also very wonderful!

“Nor will he be exiled.” No one will cast him out, throw him out, exile him. If you give the people you live with a lot of troubles, they will throw you out. For example, suppose two people who live together dislike each other deep down in their hearts. When one person sees the other, his face turns black; and when the second person sees the first one, his face turns bright red. Since they harbor grudges against each other in their minds, only angry words come out of their mouths. In such circumstances, they are bound to split up. One of them will say, “You have such a bad temper, I cannot live with you. You had better get out of here quickly!” So he throws the other person out of the house.

Now, why is that he will not be exiled? It is because he is patient. When we are patient, we will not obstruct others, and we will be oblivious to obstructions that others give us. For example, if someone scolds me, I will think, “Who is he scolding? It is not me, is it?” If he mentions my name and says that I am very bad, I will not mind it and nothing will happen. If you can be patient, then you will forget about your name and ego. Without any ego, who is getting angry? The Bodhisattva will not be exiled because he is extremely easy-going and does not respond to others’ tempers and because he is secure in his patience.

Sutra:

The wise one is thus:
Cultivating well his mind,
He is secure in peace and comfort.
As I have explained above,
This person’s merit and virtue
Cannot be exhaustively described
By means of number or parable
Throughout ten of millions of eons.

Outline:

J3. Clarifying how, when inwardly there are good dharmas, conduct is accomplished

J4. Reckoning the amount of merit and virtue

Commentary:

The wise one is thus: he does not blow up in anger over every small annoyance because he has great wisdom. He may pretend to get angry, but he does not really get angry. You should recognize this clearly. Cultivating well his mind, he is secure in peace and comfort. He is secure in this kind of happily-dwelling conduct.

As I have explained above, this person’s merit and virtue cannot be exhaustively described by means of number or parable throughout ten of millions of eons. One could never count or measure, nor describe by means of analogies or parables, the merit and virtue of this cultivator of the Bodhisattva Path. No way. This merit and virtue is limitless, boundless, unfathomable and even the Buddha using numerous analogies cannot describe it to its limits.

A case of foreknowledge can also turn into belated discovery, and knowledge after the fact can also become foreknowledge. In the past, I talked about Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng, who were experts at predicting the future and knew about everything before it happened. Once a person holding a bird in his hand approached them and said, “Can you tell me whether this bird is alive or dead?” If they had answered that the bird was alive, that person could have tightened his grip and it would have been a dead bird.

On the other hand, if they had answered that the bird was dead, the person could have opened his hand and let the bird fly away. How could they predict what would happen? Was their ability to know the future useful at this point, or did they have to wait until after the fact to know what would happen? In this case, neither foreknowledge nor knowledge after the fact could help them, so it was better not to make any prediction. After all this discussion, the conclusion is that we should depend neither on foreknowledge nor on knowledge after the fact.

End of Happily-Dwelling Conduct of the Mouth.

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