The Analogy of the Transformed City

Chapter 7

Sutra:

And he extensively set forth the Dharma of the twelve causes and conditions: ignorance conditions dispositions. Dispositions condition consciousness. Consciousness conditions name and form. Name and form condition the six sense organs. The six sense organs condition contact. Contact conditions feeling. Feeling conditions craving. Craving conditions grasping. Grasping conditions becoming. Becoming conditions birth. Birth conditions old age and death, worry, grief, suffering and distress.

When ignorance is extinguished, dispositions are extinguished. When dispositions are extinguished, then consciousness is extinguished. When consciousness is extinguished, then name and form are extinguished. When name and form are extinguished, then the six sense organs are extinguished. When the six sense organs are extinguished, then contact is extinguished. When contact is extinguished, then feeling is extinguished. When feeling is extinguished, then craving is extinguished. When craving is extinguished, then grasping is extinguished. When grasping is extinguished, then becoming is extinguished. When becoming is extinguished, then birth is extinguished. When birth is extinguished, then old age and death, worry, grief, suffering and distress are extinguished.

Outline:

M2. The twelve causes and conditions.

Commentary:

He extensively set forth the Dharma of the twelve causes and conditions. You have heard about them many times before. The list here is given twice. In the first list of twelve, they give rise to one another. This is called “the door of production.” In the second list of twelve, they are extinguished one after another in turn, and this is called “the door of returning to extinction.” This is the Dharma cultivated by the Conditioned Enlightened Ones. The Hearers cultivate the Four Truths. Right after the Buddha realized the Way, he first taught the Four Truths and then the Twelve Causes and Conditions.

You say, “I have heard about the Twelve Causes and Conditions so many times but I do not understand them at all. As quickly as you read them now, I further do not understand them.”

If you really do not understand though I have explained the Twelve Causes and Conditions so many times, then why should I bother talking about them? I present them to you so that you can become familiar with them and cultivate according to them. To really understand them, however, you must first certify to the Fourth Fruition of Arhatship. When you get enlightened, you will understand them. Before you become enlightened, you would not be able to understand them. So, do not worry about it. Just investigate it: ignorance conditions activity and so on. Keep looking into it until, suddenly, you understand.

Sutra:

When the Buddha spoke this Dharma, amidst the great assembly of gods and humans, six hundred myriads of millions of nayutas of human beings, because they did not grasp at any dharma, had their minds liberated from all outflows. All attained profound and subtle Dhyana concentration, the Three Clarities, the Six Penetrations, and perfected the Eight Liberations. The second, third, and fourth times he set forth this Dharma, thousands of millions of nayutas of living beings, their numbers like the Ganges’ sands, also because they did not grasp at any dharma, had their minds liberated from outflows. From that time onwards, the assembly of Hearers was unlimited, boundless, and unreckonable.

Outline:

L3. Attaining the Way upon hearing the Dharma.

Commentary:

Shakyamuni Buddha first explained the Dharma of the Four Truths for the five thousand myriads of millions of Great Brahma Heaven Kings, sixteen princes, and hundred thousand myriads of millions of living beings, then he turned the Dharma wheel of the Twelve Conducts thrice. Finally he spoke the Dharma of the Twelve Causes and Conditions for Those Enlightened to Conditions. When the Buddha, Great Penetrating Wisdom Victory, spoke this Dharma, turning the Dharma-wheel of the Four Truths and the Twelve Causes and Conditions, amidst the great assembly of gods, the vast assembly of Great Brahma Kings, who had requested the Buddha to speak the Dharma, and humans, the millions of living beings, six hundred myriads of millions of nayutas of human beings, because they did not grasp at any dharma.

At that time, the Thus Come One Great Penetrating Wisdom Victory spoke the Four Truths and the Twelve Causes and Conditions. As Shakyamuni Buddha explains this chapter on the Analogy of the Transformational City, he describes the causes in the distant past. There are six hundred myriads of millions of nayutas of humans in the great assembly too. What does that mean? If you do not grasp at any dharma, how can you understand all dharmas? Grasp here means “to take in,” “to receive.” It means that they did not accept any evil dharmas. It does not mean that they did not accept any good dharma.

You may remember that Shariputra’s uncle, One of Great Joy, in debating with the Buddha, took “non-accepting” as his viewpoint. Then the Buddha, asked him, “If you take “non-accepting” as your viewpoint, do you “accept” that viewpoint or not? Shariputra’s uncle was stumped. How could he “not accept” his own viewpoint? That would mean he did not even have a viewpoint. On the other hand, if he did accept it, then he was contradicting his first premise! He took it pretty hard, because before the debate he had made a bet with the Buddha, saying, “If I lose, I will cut off my head and give it to you. If you lose, Buddha, then you must return my nephew, Shariputra, to me, and I will take him home.” The Buddha defeated him with just one sentence, “Do you accept your viewpoint or not?” There was no way he could win!

The Uncle had set up his argument, saying; “I would not accept anything you say, right or wrong, deviant or proper. “I will act like a deaf-mute. I would not even listen!” He thought this was extremely clever. If he did not listen to anything the Buddha said then he could not lose. The Buddha simply replied, “That is fine with me, your viewpoint of non-accepting. But, do you accept your viewpoint or not?”

So, he lost. He refused to admit that he had agreed to certain conditions. He was annulling the contract that he had signed. Scared stiff, he turned and ran. At that time there were no cars or trains, and he did not have a horse. He just hoofed it down the road. He took the “shoe-leather express.” His legs were obedient. They “accepted” his commands to run? He ran two or three miles. Until it occurred to him, “I am a man. I made an agreement with the Buddha to cut off my head if I lost. How can I run away like that? I am no sissy! I had better face up to things and go back.” Heroically, he ran back to the Buddha, saying, “Shakyamuni Buddha, I bow before you. I respect you a great deal. I admit that I lost, and now I must ask you to give me a knife.”

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “What do you want a knife for? Are you planning on killing the Buddha?”

“No!” he said. “I am going to kill myself!”

“What for?” asked the Buddha.

“I agreed that if I lost, I would give you my head. I lost, and, being a hero, I must keep my word.”

Shakyamuni Buddha said, “You are really stupid! You have studied the Four Vedas and the other treatises for eighteen years. How did you get so stupid?”

“S-s-s-stupid?” he stammered.

“I do not accept your agreement, and I do not want you to cut off your head. I do not want your old head!”

The uncle thought, “This Buddha sure is kind and compassionate! The Buddha really is different from ordinary people. Great! Since I get to keep my head, I might as well give my whole body to the Buddha.” Then he said, “Buddha, I will do whatever you tell me to do!” and he left home. He had gone to get his nephew back from the Sangha, but he ended up leaving home himself. All because he took non-accepting as his viewpoint.

Here the text says, “Because they did not grasp at any dharma.” This means that they did not accept any evil dharmas. It does not mean that they did not accept any good dharma. Because they did not accept any evil dharmas, then they had their minds liberated from all outflows. What are outflows? If you want to know what outflows are, you should first find out what outflows are not, or rather, what non-outflows are. I will give you an example: take a look at this teacup. Does it have any holes in it, any outflows? It has no outflows, of course, and so it can hold the tea. If it had outflows, it could not hold the tea.

Would you say that our bodies had outflows or not? Hah! Our bodies are bottomless pits. You fill your body up today, and tomorrow it all runs out. Then you fill it up again, and the next day it all flows out again. Obviously one’s excrement and urine are outflows. They flow out, and we have practically no control over it. Our bodies have nine orifices which constantly secrete impure substances: there is secretion of the eyes, wax in the ears, snot in the nose, saliva in the mouth, besides excrement and urine, but, these are very common, ordinary outflows and are not that important. The greatest outflows are the ones you are not even aware of: greed, hatred, stupidity, pride, and doubt.

Greed is an endless outflow. The more you get, the more you want. It is insatiable. If you obtain the object of your greed, then you just want more. If you cannot get it, you get afflicted, your ignorance arises, and you get stupid. Why do people do stupid things? Because of hatred, which comes from greed. Greed, hatred, and stupidity--these three poisons are everyone’s outflows. If you can be without greed, hatred, and stupidity, then you are without outflows.

If you have no afflictions and no ignorance, then you have no outflows. Those who have cultivated their dispositions will not get angry, even when scolded, even if you hit them, they would not get angry. It is not that they are incapable of anger; they simply do not indulge themselves in it. Everybody has a temper. Even the Bodhisattvas have tempers; the equal enlightenment Bodhisattvas still have one portion of temper, about as much as a hair. If they break through this hair-like particle of ignorance, then they can become Buddhas. But, because they have not broken through this ignorance, they have not become Buddhas.

We say, “break through” ignorance, but that has a negative connotation of destroying something. I lecture on this principle a bit differently from others: I say you do not have to break through it, you must transform it. Change ignorance into wisdom. Ignorance is the foundation to wisdom. Ignorance disappears once it is turned into wisdom. Ignorance is just your basic stupidity. If you change it into wisdom, it disappears. Prajna Wisdom is just that which is transformed out of ignorance.

All outflows, refer to greed, hatred, and stupidity, but you could expand this list to include the eighty-four thousand outflows. In general, outflows are just our afflictions. If you have one portion of affliction, you have one portion of outflows. If you have ten portions of affliction, you have ten portions of outflows. If you have a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand portions of afflictions, you have that many outflows. Therefore, if you want to get rid of outflows, it is very simple: just do not get angry. Get rid of afflictions.

“But, that is very simple,” you say.

Simple it may be, but you cannot do it! If you can do it, it is easy. If you cannot do it, it is very difficult.

Affliction is obviously no good; everyone knows this. But everyone takes his afflictions as more important than food. If they do not get afflicted for even the space of a single day, they feel as if they had not eaten—they are starving! Once they give rise to afflictions, then they feel as if they had eaten their fill. They do not think of anything at all--perfectly satisfied. They do not worry about their family, they do not worry about their country, and they quit concerning themselves with their own bodies. So, I always say you take affliction as a meal and eat one helping after another.

At home, you eat home-type afflictions; at school, you eat school-type afflictions; in society, you eat society-type afflictions; in the country; you eat national-afflictions; in the world, you eat international afflictions. Whatever you do you give rise to a corresponding affliction. Whatever afflictions you have, you cannot put them down. You cannot put them down; you cannot put them down. One year, you cannot put them down; ten years, you cannot put them down; but after a hundred years, you certainly must put them down. Hah! You will put down what you can put down, and you will also put down what you cannot put down. Hah! See? When it is all over, you will still be thinking, “I did not get my fill of afflictions--yet.” Wait until next life and I will eat some more. Then, in your next life you will once again take afflictions as your food and drink. That is outflow for you.

Had their minds liberated from all outflows. The text says that their minds were liberated, but it does not say that their bodies were liberated. They still have bodies, so how could you say they had been liberated from them? Their minds had been liberated. This means they had no minds at all. But it was not like Bi Gan whose heart was plucked out of his chest by the King of Chou. It means, rather, that their minds were free of all afflictions. The absence of affliction is the attainment of liberation. After all, what is liberation? It is just having no affliction.

When the Fourth Patriarch went to see the Third Patriarch, the Third Patriarch asked him, “What are you doing?”

The Fourth Patriarch answered, “I am seeking liberation. Will you help me attain liberation?

The Third Patriarch said, “Well, who has bound you up?”

As soon as the Fourth Patriarch heard this sentence, he suddenly became enlightened. “Ah! I am free. No one is tying me up. Why should I seek liberation?” Saying that their minds had been liberated just means that they had no more afflictions, no more greed, anger, and delusion.

“I cannot do it!” you say.

If you could, you would be liberated yourself! It is just because you cannot do it that you do not attain liberation. Your body cannot be liberated, nor can your mind.

All attained profound and subtle Dhyana concentration. Is that something you attain? How do you get it? The Heart Sutra says, “There is no wisdom and no gain.” Then, if there is wisdom, there is gain. Why does the text say, they “gained” it?” Because they did have wisdom. With wisdom, they gained these qualities. Then how did they get their wisdom? They got rid of their ignorance. Once rid of afflictions, they obtained wisdom.

You say, “Then I will throw my ignorance away and get some wisdom.”

If you throw away your ignorance, you will throw away your wisdom as well. Then you would not have either one! Affliction itself is wisdom. If you do not know how to use it, it is affliction. If you can use it, it is wisdom. So we say,

Affliction itself is Bodhi,
Birth and death, Nirvana.

If in the midst of affliction, you can wake up and turn that affliction into Bodhi, then, right in birth and death, you attain Nirvana. There is no Nirvana apart from birth and death, and there is no Bodhi apart from affliction. Before, when lecturing The Sixth Patriarch Sutra, I talked about Bodhidharma’s two disciples, Fo Tuo and Ye She . They said to the Venerable Yuan, “You see: The hand makes a fist and the fist makes a hand. Was that fast or not?”

The Venerable Yuan answered, “Very fast.”

They said, “Affliction is Bodhi; birth and death are Nirvana—it is just that fast.”

The Venerable Yuan was immediately enlightened. So, you should not think that affliction is eighty-four thousand miles away from Bodhi. And do not think that birth and death are eighty-four thousand miles away from Nirvana. They are immediately interchangeable.

To attain the profound and subtle Dhyana concentration referred to in the text you must cut off affliction. Turn affliction into wisdom. It is profound as in The Heart Sutra, “practicing the profound prajna-paramita.” It is subtle as in the verse we say, “Supreme, profound, subtle, and wonderful Dharma.” Proficiency in Dhyana samadhi is not gained externally. It comes from the awakening of one’s own self-nature. The self-nature takes itself across through a process of self-cultivation and self-understanding. You do not get it from outside. So do not seek it externally. It is the scenery of your nature land. Your original wisdom is within you. It is within your own self-nature. It is not external to it.

Dhyana is a Sanskrit word. It means “stilling thought.” It also means “cultivation of thought.” Dhyana samadhi is the attainment of the advantages of “stilling thought”, or “cultivating contemplation”. To gain skill in it you must actually practice it.

Attaining the profound and subtle Dhyana concentration, they perfected the Three Clarities, the clarity of the heavenly eye is also called the penetration of the heavenly eye. It is called a “clarity” because with it one can see all marks. The clarity of past lives refers to knowing what went on in the past not only in one lifetime, but through many lives into the past. It means knowing in which life you were a Bodhisattva. “Ah! I have practiced the Bodhisattva Way in the past. In such and such a place I taught and transformed living beings. I did this in the past. I should continue to do so now.” In the past you made a vow to teach living beings, and so now in the present you make that vow again. You sit there and see, “Oh, I left home during the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Shariputra and I were brothers! My older brother leaves home in every life to be a Bhikshu and I should do the same. If he goes on ahead, I should not fall behind.” With the clarity of past lives you see, “In the past during the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, I went and bowed to him. At that time, I heard him speak the Sutras, and so now I am very intelligent and can understand all the Sutras as soon as I read them. In fact, if I do not understand something, I often have a dream and understand it through the dream. I dream,

The phoenix has not come,
And the river sends no map.
I am finished.

That is something I said myself in the past!! Gee! I said those words in the past, and so, hearing them now I am deeply impressed.”

“The phoenix has not come, and the river sends no map. I am finished.” Those lines were spoken by Confucius. The phoenix no longer shows up, mystic oracles no longer emerge out of the river. I am not going to work anymore. During the time of Fu Xi , a turtle rose out of the river with a chart on its back, giving him the idea for the eight trigrams of the Yi Jin g . I am not going to work anymore. I am going to retire.”

Or, they see, “In the past I was a thief. Now I am going to change and be good.” Such are the benefits gained from knowing past lives. Others see, “Oh, how strange! In the past I have been a pig, a cat--everything! When I was a cat, I could climb trees. When I was a dog, I guarded the door. When I was a pig, I just loved to eat. Gosh! That is really weird. Like Zhe Gong said, ‘Strange, strange, bizarre indeed!’”

One disciple made a vow to become an animal to teach animals. At first, I was surprised that he wants to be an animal, but then I thought, “I think everyone at one time or another has been an animal.” It is just that you have forgotten. Since you do not have the knowledge of past lives, you cannot see it, and so you think you are so outstanding. Actually, we are all about the same. There is not much difference, really.

The clarity of extinction of outflows means that all faults and habits are gone, outflows are ended. The most important thing is to have samadhi. With samadhi you can arrive at the stage of no-outflows. As long as you have outflows, the cause of the hells remains, as well as the cause of the hungry ghosts, and the cause of the animals. If you have extinguished outflows, then you have closed the doors to the hells, to the animal realm, and to the realm of the hungry ghosts. If you get rid of outflows, you are safe. If you have any outflows at all, then they will always be cropping up all over the place. The three evil paths will be waiting for you. The ghosts will be calling for you to come to them, and the animals will be waving frantically at you, saying, “Hey!! Come on over here!”

The Six Penetrations, six spiritual penetrations: the Penetration of the Heavenly Eye, the Penetration of the Heavenly Ear, the Penetration of Past Lives, the Penetration of Others’ Thought, the Penetration of the Extinction of Outflows, and the Penetration of the Complete Spirit. If you attain these Six Penetrations, you can make infinite transformations, as you will.

The Heavenly Eye is difficult to obtain. Most people would have to cultivate for five hundred great eons in order to attain the Six Spiritual Penetrations. If you have planted many good roots in former lives, you may meet a Good Knowing Advisor who will teach you a special Dharma-door. Then you would not have to pass through five hundred great eons to attain the Penetrations. Of all the people who cultivate the Way, why do so few obtain spiritual powers? It is because the merit and virtue they have accumulated through cultivation does not exceed the amount of offense-karma they have created. So, not only do people not attain the Six Spiritual Penetrations, but even if they do obtain them, they will lose them again.

Everyone can count up his daily score. During any given day, do you give rise to more proper thoughts or to more deviant thoughts? Do you have more false thinking or more thoughts of cultivation? You should be able to figure it out for yourself. If you have more false thinking than thoughts of proper cultivation, then you have created more offense-karma than merit and virtue. If all day long you do not have any false thinking, but just singlemindedly cultivate the Way, then you have more merit and virtue than offense karma. It is a very important point.

Some people cultivate and attain the Five Eyes and Six Penetrations because they have little false thinking and their thoughts of cultivation are firm and singleminded. In the Buddhist Lecture Hall now, there are many people who are just about to attain the Five Eyes. Why? Because they cultivate the Thousand-Hands, Thousand-Eyes Dharma of the Forty-two Hands. This Dharma will cause you to increase your eyes and hands. If you feel that your two eyes are not enough, you can grow some more. I am not joking! You can be meditating in one place, but you will know what is going on all around you outside.

“Isn’t that just false thinking?” you say.

On the part of ordinary folk, it is not false thinking. From the point of view of a Bodhisattva, yes, it is still just false thinking. It depends on where you are at. What for common people is false thinking, for ghosts is not. Ghosts do not have “false” thinking, they have “rotten thinking.” They just think about rotten things. When ordinary people meditate and are able to go outside, that is not considered false thinking. But, for Arhats, it is false thinking because Arhats should always be in samadhi. When you are in samadhi, you should not be running outside to mind other people’s business. Arhats have some leftover habits, habits going back many lifetimes and many eons, which they have not cut off. So, what is false thinking for common people is not false thinking for Arhats. What is not false thinking for Arhats is false thinking for Bodhisattvas.

You should not just think that false thinking is false thinking, and that is it. There are many different varieties of false thinking. What Bodhisattvas consider not to be false thinking is considered false thinking for a Buddha in his state. For example, I am teaching you to study the Buddhadharma, and you, for your part, do not consider this false thinking. But, from my point of view, it is false thinking. You guys think that I have probably got samadhi! When in reality, it is still false thinking. It is very difficult to pinpoint these things exactly unless you really understand what is going on.

With the Penetration of the Heavenly Eye, you can see all the activities of the gods; you can also see what is going on among people. With the Heavenly Eye, however, you can only see the gods moving around and stuff. You cannot hear what they are saying. If you have the Heavenly Ear you can hear them talking. They might be saying, “Hey, what a good kid, cultivating the Way. He can come up here to heaven with us pretty soon.” You can hear them praising you, “Oh, what a good boy. He has taken refuge with the Triple Jewel. He practices Dhyana meditation and is fairly sincere. He is so-and-so’s disciple.”

The Penetration of Past Lives means that you can know what people did in their former lives, what their former names were, and what they did. You might realize, “Oh, I met this person five hundred great eons ago. Hmm, I think he was my father then. And that person over there was my mother five hundred great eons ago. That one was my brother. That one was my sister.” You will know all those kinds of things. How far you can see into the past--five hundred years, five hundred centuries, five hundred eons--depends upon how much skill you have. Knowing that they were your relatives, friends, siblings, or spouse, you can think of some ways to cross them over. “They were my family and friends before, and so, no matter what, I am going to think of a way to save them in this life, to help them get enlightened.”

The Penetration of Other’s Thoughts is very strange. Before someone says something, you know what he is thinking. “Ah, that one is having such-and-such false thought. That one is thinking about her child, she really cannot put him down. That one is thinking about her mother who is sick. She is very worried about her. That one is thinking about her younger sister, “I really want to cross her over. Will she ever believe in the Buddha?” That one wants to save her mother. That one wants to save his father. See? Every living being has his own brand of false thinking. If you have this penetration, you can know what each one of them is thinking.

But, you had better be careful not to tell them that you know what they are thinking. If you do that, they would not be able to face you again. Why? Because you know their secrets. They will be afraid that you know all about them. Do not blurt out, “Hey, I know just what you are false thinking about. You are false thinking about New York.” Do not tell them these wonderful things. You may know it, but just act like you do not know it. Pretend it is not even happening. Then you can know their false thoughts from then on. Do not think that you can go telling people that you know what they are thinking.

The Penetration of the Extinction of Outflows means that you have gotten rid of all your faults and bad habits.

The Penetration of the Complete Spirit refers to having all kinds of power of magical transformation. You can be sitting in one place and at the same time go off to New York to play. You can go take a look at things in L.A. It would not even take you one second to make your return trip either. You can make a round trip faster than a rocket. But you have to gain this penetration first. If you do not have it, forget it.

This has been a discussion of the miraculous uses of the Six Spiritual Penetrations. Some people who cultivate really want to attain the Six Spiritual Penetrations. Before you have attained them, you may think that they are a lot of fun. Once you get them, however, you will find that you run into a lot of trouble. Really! You will get them and see, “Oh, the time has come for me to save him.” If you fail to save him, you have blown it. On the other hand, if you do save him, you have a lot of work on your hands. Getting the six spiritual powers means you are going to have a lot of things to take care of. You will think, “I have so much to do, I do not even have time to meditate. Do this! Do that! My work is never done!” You may think you are busy now. Wait until you get the Six Penetrations. You will be even busier.

“In that case, forget it,” you say. “I do not want them.”

That is perfectly all right. However, it is a part of the Path of Cultivation, and eventually you must attain them in order to teach and transform living beings. Do not be afraid of too much work. The more work you do, the more merit and virtue you will have. If you just do a little work, you only gain a little merit. It is better to be busier than to take naps all the time. Those who cultivate must not be afraid of trouble; they should not be afraid of being too busy. Do not be afraid that living beings will be hard to save. The harder they are to save, the harder you must work to save them. If one does not listen to you, keep on instructing him until he does. Do not worry about the energy expended.

And perfected the Eight Liberations. In order to have the Eight Liberations, you must have samadhi power. Without samadhi power, you cannot be liberated. Unless you are liberated, you are tied up. Who ties you up? You tie yourself up!

The Eight Liberations are:

1. The liberation in which inside there is form; outward form is contemplated.

2. The liberation in which inside there is no form; outward form is contemplated.

Inside, there is no emotional love, no material attachment, and no desire. Outwardly, however, form is still seen, but inside it is empty. When an external state arises and things are no longer empty, then you do not have this liberation. Perhaps ordinarily you have not the slightest desire. You have no greed, no hate, no stupidity at all. That is called “inwardly there is no form.” Inside you are very pure, clear, and lucid. But that is only when no external state exists to upset you. Once an external circumstance arises, your samadhi power is not yet perfect.

When you see some external state, basically you should not let it affect you. But, now you see a state, and you get all excited! Say, a lot of people show up and you fear trouble. You think immediately about running off to the mountains to cultivate alone, eat when you are hungry, sleep when you are tired, meditate when you feel like it, and recite the Sutras when you want to. You feel that would be much better than having to be with all these people. But such thoughts indicate that you are not truly liberated. You are simply attached, turned by states. If you are not turned by states, then as the saying goes,

When you see affairs and are awake, you can transcend the world.
If you see affairs and are confused, you fall beneath the wheel.

If you see something and you wake up, then you are liberated. You qualify for the second of the Eight Liberations: Inside there is no mark of form, and outward form is contemplated. You are not turned by external states.

3. The pure body of liberation certifies to the perfect dwelling. At this time, there is no inside or outside. This state is arrived at through the cultivation of dhyana meditation at the level of the Fourth Dhyana.

4. The liberation of emptiness without limit. You realize that you cannot find the limit of space, that space is infinite. That is liberation.

5. The liberation of consciousness without limit. Consciousness is very subtle, and also boundless.

6. The liberation of nothing whatsoever.

7. The liberation of neither perception nor non-perception.

8. The liberation of the samadhi of the extinction of feeling and thought.

These Eight Bodies of Liberation are also called the Eight Great Sovereign Selves once you attain them. Consequently, you will receive the eight kinds of liberating wisdom. Let us talk about these gradually when the opportunities come up. I will explain more and more each time, rather than finishing everything at once. If I finish everything at once, I would be out of a job.

The first explanation is on the Dharma of the Four Truths. The second explanation is on the Dharma of the Twelve Causes and Conditions. The third explanation is on the Six Paramitas. The explanations during this first period is the Teaching of the Tripitaka, during the second period he explains the Agama, during the third period is Vaipulya, during the fourth is Prajna. The fifth is period of Dharma Flower Nirvana.

The Storehouse Teaching is called the “Half-word Teaching.” It was only “half.” When you get to the Prajna Period, it is the “Full-word Teaching”. Some understand the full teaching through the half-teaching. To speak the “Full-word Teaching” to those of the “Half-word Teaching”. This is the Vaipulya Period. hat is called clarifying the “Full-word Teaching” to the “Half-word Teaching.”

The second, third, and fourth times he set forth this Dharma, thousands of myriads of millions of nayutas of living beings, their numbers like the Ganges sands, also because they did not grasp at any dharma, had their minds liberated from outflows. From that time onwards, the assembly of Hearers was unlimited, boundless, and unreckonable.

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