The Wondrous Adornments of the Rulers of the Worlds

Chapter One, Part Three

 

Sutra:

The Buddha’s powers of spiritual penetrations are unobstructed.
He sits under the Tree of Enlightenment in all the ten directions,
Proclaiming Dharma like clouds filling every place.
Jeweled Crest hears thus and resists not.

Commentary:

The Buddha’s powers of spiritual penetrations are unobstructed. Nothing blocks or hinders the wonderful powers of spiritual penetrations of all Buddhas of the ten directions. He sits under the Tree of Enlightenment in all the ten directions. The Tree of Enlightenment is the bodhi tree. In all Buddhalands of the ten directions, the Buddha awakened to the Way while seated beneath the bodhi tree. The bodhi tree is the tree of the Buddha’s Enlightenment, and it’s called the King of Trees.

The Buddha is the King of Dharma, who has awakened to all dharmas and achieved the fruition of Buddhahood. Under the Tree of Enlightenment, the Buddha is proclaiming wonderful Dharma like clouds in the sky, filling every place throughout the Dharma Realm, enabling all sentient beings to obtain the universal shade from the cloud of Dharma. The Dharma is like a cloud above the head of each sentient being, bringing cool refreshment, happiness, and comfort. Also, each being obtains just that Dharma appropriate to him or her, just as when there is rain from clouds in the sky, and all living things absorb the amount of rain they need. Garuda King Jeweled Crest hears thus about this kind of state and dharma door, and resists not. He had no doubts in his mind. He clearly understood this dharma door.

Sutra:

In the past the Buddha cultivated various practices,
Universally purifying the vast, great paramitas–
Making offerings to all the Thus Come Ones.
King Swiftness thus deeply believes and understands.

Commentary:

In the past the Buddha cultivated various doors of practices . He was able to do what is hard to do, endure what is hard to endure, take what is hard to take, eat what is hard to eat, and be patient with what it is hard to be patient with. He cultivated all the dharma doors that are most difficult to practice—much like the Living Buddha of Gold Mountain of whom I spoke before.

“Living Buddha” is a made-up name. He wasn’t really a Buddha, but he did practice the doors of conduct most people can’t cultivate. Seeing his small amount of spiritual penetrations, people began to call him the “Living Buddha” but it was only a nickname, not the reality. However, he was able to practice great kindness towards those with whom he lacked affinities, and great compassion of oneness with everyone.

How did he cultivate such great kindness towards beings with whom he had no affinities? In Burma, due to the hot climate, any food left over from a meal had to be discarded and could not be saved, for it would spoil. Sometimes in the temple where he was living, there was a lot of leftover food. He would personally collect the rice and vegetables and feed them to the cows, at the same time speaking Dharma for the cows—not just one or two, but a great many cows. The cows welcomed him as soon as they saw him coming, and he would feed them, day after day, creating affinities with cows. Furthermore, when people made offerings of food to him, he didn’t eat it himself. What he ate was discarded peelings and rinds, such as melon rinds, peanut shells, banana skins, apple parings, and newspapers. In general, he would eat all such things that were remotely edible. He fed the good food offered to him to the crows. All he had to do was say, “Who is reciting Namo Amitofo [Homage to Amitabha Buddha]?” and the crows would come flying to him and he would feed them. He also fed the good food to the dogs along with the crows, and ate the bad food himself. That’s known as practicing great compassion of identity in substance. He was one with sentient beings.

Who among us can eat newspapers and peanut shells and give the good food to animals? No one. That’s an example of practicing what is hard to practice. Most people like to eat good food, but he fed the good food to crows. That illustrates his cultivation of great kindness towards those with whom one lacks affinities, and great compassion of identity in substance. To start with he had no particular ties with cows, but he fed them and created affinities. When affinities are lacking, one should create some. He was kind and compassionate when he lacked affinities with sentient beings.

He also liked to liberate life, always lots of living creatures each time. He would go to the fish market and purchase all the fish that were alive, all the live turtles, and anything else that was living—no matter how many there were. Then he would liberate them into the river. That’s what he liked to do. Such things are not easy to accomplish. He didn’t have any money, but he wanted to purchase those creatures to liberate life. However, the merchants all knew him and knew that his disciples would pay for whatever he bought, and so they sold those animals to him. This monk practiced all kinds of ascetic practices that most people can’t do. And he didn’t seek fame or benefits.

That’s also a way of Universally purifying the vast, great paramitas. “Purifying” here means completing, fulfilling all the paramitas. It can also mean cleaning them up so that they are perfecting the paramitas to the ultimate point, until all have reached the other shore.

Making offerings to all the Thus Come Ones. The Buddha practiced making all types of offerings to all of the Thus Come Ones, all Buddhas of the ten directions. He used his body, mind, nature and life to make offerings, unlike us who can’t stand a little suffering or hardship. That won’t work. You have to offer up your body and mind to the Buddha for it to count.

Take for example the practice of sleeping sitting up. Some of you, rather than sitting in full lotus, sleep with your leg stretched out. You sit on a square bench, but you have another bench in front of you to hold your outstretched legs. That’s not sleeping sitting up; it’s sleeping outstretched, even though your resolve for the Way is, of course, better than if you simply lay down. But that’s not enough. It’s not the way an old cultivator sits, that is, without unfolding his legs for several days and nights, as Venerable Master Xu Yun used to do in Southeast Asia . As soon as you unfold your legs, you have no power of samadhi.

I told you before about how the Living Buddha of Gold Mountain displayed his samadhi-power in Hong Kong. He was like that too: he kept sitting. It wasn’t that he kept his legs folded as long as other people were around to observe him, but unfolded them on the sly when no one else was there. He wouldn’t cheat himself.

The Buddha cultivated all kinds of ascetic practices. It may be the same practice, but some people really sleep sitting up without stretching out their legs. You may insist that you stay sitting, but you aren’t really sleeping sitting up if you are constantly stretching out your legs. I know some of you still can’t take it and extend your legs. Actually you could stand up if your legs hurt. If you can learn to sleep standing up, you will really be outstanding. So far there isn’t a Bodhisattva in this world who sleeps standing up. If you stand, as soon as you fall asleep you fall over—but you pick yourself up and stand again. That would be even harder.

King Swiftness deeply thus believes and understands this state and the practice of making offerings. Some people are thinking to themselves, “So it turns out we can’t even be the least bit sloppy when practicing sitting up!” Not only while sleeping sitting up, no matter what dharma door you cultivate, you can’t be sloppy. If you are the least bit casual, your will not accomplish samadhi successfully, and you won’t achieve the real power of samadhi or of wisdom, and won’t be able to become enlightened. Those who become enlightened are intent upon their practice at all times, and don’t dare be lax in the least. That’s the only way to achieve anything. If you cultivate for a while but keep stopping, you won’t be late by just one eon, it will take two eons longer.

Sutra:

In each and every pore of the Thus Come One,
Boundless practices universally appear in a single thought.
Such inconceivable states of the Buddha as these
Steadfast Adornment sees completely and clearly.

Commentary:

In each and every pore of the Thus Come One, / Boundless practices universally appear in a single thought. “Thus Come One,” one of the ten titles of a Buddha, is another name for “Buddha.” It also means not having come from anywhere and not going anywhere—-being one come “thus.” A pore is the smallest area on the body of a Thus Come One, and yet the smallest area can hold limitlessly many world-systems, the dharma realms of the ten directions. That’s the great appearing within the small, and the small appearing within the great. In each one of the pores of the Thus Come One, in the space of a single instant of thought, that is, the shortest interval of time, the worlds of the ten directions universally appear. In this case, boundlessly many practices, dharma doors cultivated by the Thus Come One, all appear.

Such inconceivable states of the Buddha as these are as just described: the minute being able to contain the immense, and the immense containing the minute. The various states of non-obstruction of great and small, of many and few, and of long and short time intervals defy conceptualization. Who has such states as these?

They belong only to a Buddha; no one else has such states. These are subtle, wonderful, and inconceivable states. Garuda King Steadfast Adornment sees these states, completely and clearly, understands them, and enters this door of liberation.

Sutra:

The Buddha’s practices are extensive and inconceivable.
Sentient beings cannot plumb their depths.
The ocean of the Teacher’s merit, virtue, and wisdom
Is the place of practice for King Sustain.

Commentary:

The Buddha’s practices are extensive and inconceivable. The Buddha cultivated all kinds of methods of practice, of which there are said to be eighty-four thousand. The Buddha perfectly cultivated them all. That’s why it’s said that you won’t find so much as an area the size of a particle of dust in the entire world that is not a place where all Buddhas of the past sacrificed their lives while cultivating the Bodhisattva Way .

When the Buddha was practicing the Path of a Bodhisattva, he benefited sentient beings, even being willing to rescue and help the most evil beings among them. For example, the Buddha cut off his flesh to feed an eagle. Once an eagle was trying to catch a pigeon to eat. The pigeon, having no place to hide, ran to the lap of an old cultivator, who was actually an incarnation of the Buddha when he was cultivating in a past life. The Buddha took the pigeon in, but the eagle said, “It’s all very well and good for you to save the life of that pigeon, but without meat to eat I will die of starvation. You save his life, but I lose mine. Is that impartial kindness and compassion? No.”

When the old cultivator heard the eagle that is able to talk and reason with him, he replied, “Okay. You just need meat, and any meat will do, won’t it? You don’t necessarily have to eat the pigeon, right?”

“As long as I have meat to eat, it doesn’t have to be pigeon,” the eagle answered.

Thereupon the old cultivator, piece by piece, cut the flesh—of which he didn’t have a lot—from his own body, and fed it to the eagle. The first morsel was not enough to fill the eagle, so he cut off another. After the eagle had eaten it, he said, “That still won’t do. I haven’t had enough to eat. Your meat is so lean, it’s like eating nothing.” When the old cultivator had cut all the flesh from his entire body and given it to the eagle to eat, the eagle said, “That’s pretty much it.” Then both the pigeon and the eagle flew away, and in the sky they revealed their true identity as gods who had come to test the old cultivator. Moreover, all the flesh he had cut from his body grew back just as it had been before.

When he started cutting his flesh, he didn’t have any idea that he was being tested by gods. He just was intent upon feeding the eagle. Eagles are extremely vicious birds, but he was able to sacrifice the flesh from his own body for the eagle. Would you say that method of practice is hard to cultivate? He made offerings of his own flesh to a deadly vicious bird. That’s true cultivation of the Way. Cultivators must sacrifice everything, and look on everything as very ordinary, as did Sãkyamuni Buddha when he cut off his flesh to feed the eagle.

Another time the Buddha renounced his body to feed a tiger, tigers being the most terrible of beasts. Sãkyamuni Buddha was cultivating in the mountains while at the level of planting causes. Once there was heavy snowfall for several days, preventing the animals from coming out. Two tigers were searching in vain for food to eat. The older tiger was on the verge of starvation, and the younger tiger was roaming with it. It looked as if the older one was so weak from hunger it could hardly move. When Sãkyamuni Buddha, who was a cultivator in that life, saw this, he felt so sorry for the tiger he resolved to sacrifice his own body to keep the tiger alive. Think it over. If we met a tiger, we would run away at once. It would never occur to us to voluntarily give the hungry tiger our body as meat. But the Buddha was able to do those kinds of things. We need to reflect on whether or not the Buddha’s way of thinking is the same as ours.

Some people are thinking, “I’ll go look for a tiger, or an eagle, to feed.” If you want to find one, you won’t. The Buddha was not trying to find them—he encountered them. All you have to do is want to cultivate the Bodhisattva Way, renouncing what others are unable to renounce, and eventually the day will come when your work will be successful. You don’t need to be impatient. That’s why the text says that the Buddha’s practices, and his strength of conduct, are vast, great, and inconceivable. You can’t conceptualize them mentally or express them verbally.

Sentient beings cannot plumb their depths. They cannot fathom how the Buddha’s doors of conduct are cultivated. The ocean of the Guiding Teacher’s merit, virtue, and wisdom . “Guiding Teacher” is another title of the Buddha, who is a great guide for sentient beings. His meritorious qualities and his wisdom are oceanic in extent. This is the place of practice for the Garuda King named Great Ocean ’s Power to Gather and Sustain. He cultivated this kind of state and entered this door of liberation.

Sutra:

The Thus Come One’s limitless light of wisdom
Can destroy the net of sentient beings’ delusion,
Saving and protecting those in all worlds.
Solid Dharma maintains thus, and speaks.

Commentary:

The Buddha’s, the Thus Come One’s limitless light of wisdom / Can destroy the net of sentient beings’ limitless delusion and karma. We sentient beings in the world have been trapped by the net of ignorance, delusion, and creation of karma, much like fish caught from the sea in a fishnet. In the world we have been scooped up from the sea of wisdom by the net of our delusion and karma, which are so heavy. Once caught, we become stupid and can’t get out of the net of that delusion. That is, we can’t escape from the Three Realms—the Desire Realm, the Form Realm and the Formless Realm—because the net of delusion covers us.

The Buddha uses the limitless light of wisdom to destroy that net of delusion, saving and protecting those in all worlds of sentient beings so they achieve liberation. Garuda King Solid Dharma maintains thus, and speaks about this state. It’s the door of liberation he entered and the state he obtained.

Sutra:

The citadels of Dharma are infinitely broad,
With more and various gates than can be counted.
The Thus Come One appears in the world to open them wide.
Wondrous Cowl-Crown understands and enters thus.

Commentary:

A citadel of Dharma is a city where Dharma is spoken, where Dharma is propagated. Any Way-place is a citadel of the Buddha’s Dharma. That’s why the text says: The citadels of Dharma are infinitely broad. The Buddha spoke Dharma for forty-nine years, expounding sutras in over three hundred assemblies. Everywhere he went he established citadels of the Dharma, blowing the great Dharma conch, beating the great Dharma drum, and setting up great banners of the Dharma. Thus it’s said, “He founded citadels of Dharma place after place, and broke through nets of doubt layer by layer.” The cities of Dharma are inexhaustible—they are endless, with more and various gates than can be counted. How many gates are there in all? Cities must have gates or how could people go in and out? Without gates they would be ghost towns. Citadels of Dharma must have open doors, not closed ones. Only if the gates are opened can the Dharma circulate. There are 84,000 doors of Dharma, and each and every door can lead directly to the fruition of Buddhahood. No matter what Dharma you cultivate, if you cultivate it diligently, you can have accomplishment. For that reason the doors are described as being countless.

The Thus Come One appears in the world to open them wide. The Tathagata in the world greatly expands the citadels of Dharma and proclaims the Dharma, enabling sentient beings to be free from suffering, attain bliss, end birth, cast off death, and ultimately become Buddhas. Garuda King Wondrous Cowl-Crown understands and enters thus. He understood this kind of passage into liberation.

Sutra:

The Dharma bodies of all Buddhas are one
True Suchness, equal and undifferentiated.
The Buddhas through this power constantly abide.
King Adroitly Appearing Everywhere speaks of this fully.

Commentary:

The Dharma bodies of all Buddhas are one. All Buddhas of the ten directions and three periods of time share one and the same Dharma body; and the Buddhas’ Dharma body has no differentiations. An analogy for this is the way the lights from all lamps are one brightness. There is no distinction between one brightness and another. One’s brightness is another’s brightness, and that one’s brightness is also the brightness of the first. The Buddhas’ Dharma body is like that brightness of lamps, which has no distinctions to it. That’s why the text says that all Buddhas have a single Dharma body.

The light of all the Buddhas’ wisdom is one, and all Buddhas have a single sound. For that reason, there is no distinction between Buddhas. They are all characterized by True Suchness, equal and undifferentiated. The nature of Buddhas is True Suchness, and it is sameness. The sameness of True Suchness is one, without distinctions. Buddhas are not like us sentient beings, who discriminate between this and that, you and me, sentient beings and lifespans. For a Buddha, all is the same. Therefore it is said that all Buddhas of the ten directions and three periods of time share a single Dharma body, which is exactly what is being discussed in this text.

The Buddhas through this power constantly abide. The Buddhas, relying on this kind of power of the sameness of True Suchness, this state of non-differentiation, constantly abide in this state. Garuda King Adroitly Appearing Everywhere speaks of this fully. He was able to completely describe this entrance into liberation.

Sutra:

In the past, the Buddha gathered in beings in all realms,
Radiating light throughout all worlds.
Using various expedients, he displayed taming and subduing.
Contemplating the Oceans awakens to this supreme dharma door.

Commentary:

In the past, the Buddha gathered in beings in all realms. In the past the Buddha used all of the existences—existence in the Desire Realm, existence in the Form Realm, and existence in the Formless Realm—to gather in and teach sentient beings. There is a saying: “If you wish to bring someone into the Buddha’s wisdom, first bait the hook with something that person likes.” You might want a particular sentient being to obtain the wisdom of a Buddha, but if you simply tell him to study it, he won’t listen to you. “What’s the wisdom of a Buddha?” he will say. “What’s the difference between the Buddha’s wisdom and mine? My wisdom’s greater and loftier than the Buddha’s, so why should I study the Buddha’s wisdom?” Consequently you need to use an expedient method. If you want him to obtain the wisdom of a Buddha, first give him something nice, a little something that he likes. For example, beings all like honey, so you begin by inviting him to eat some honey. After eating it, he’s delighted and says, “This honey is really good! How did you get it?”

You tell him, “This honey was produced from the Buddha’s wisdom.”

When he hears you say that, his reaction is, “Oh! The Buddha’s wisdom can produce honey! Then I want to study the Buddha’s wisdom. How can I obtain it?”

You tell him, “You need to practice giving, holding precepts, patience, vigor, dhyana concentration, and wisdom. Perfect those Six Paramitas, and you will have the Buddha’s wisdom.” This is an analogy. Don’t think that there is really honey to eat, becoming so excited that you spill the honey all over the stairs as you eat. Then you are too attached to this honey. This is what’s called, “If you wish to bring someone into the Buddha’s wisdom, first bait the hook with something he likes.” Whatever it is that sentient beings like, you use that to take them across. That’s how the Buddha taught and transformed sentient beings, using expedients.

Radiating light throughout all worlds. / Using various expedients, he displayed taming and subduing. The Buddha used all kinds of expedients to tame all sentient beings, causing them to renounce the deviant and return to the proper, get rid of falseness and retain earnestness, and turn back from confusion and return to enlightenment. Contemplating the Oceans he awakens to this supreme dharma door. This dharma door is especially supreme. This state is especially rare. This is the passage into liberation that Garuda King Universally Contemplating the Oceans was able to understand, awaken to, and enter.

Sutra:

The Buddha regards all lands
As settled on a sea of karma.
He rains down Dharma everywhere upon it.
Dragon Voice is liberated thus.

Commentary:

The Buddha regards all lands / As settled on a sea of karma. The Buddha uses the eye of wisdom to contemplate all lands throughout the ten directions. All those lands throughout the ten directions are, without exception, based upon the sea of karma. That is, they are formed from the karma created by sentient beings. Sentient beings bob up and down in the sea of karma, with no fixed position. Once born, they are carried along by their karma; and the same thing happens when they die. After being reborn, they die again; and having died, they are reborn. This life they may be called Zhang, and in the next life Li. A person might be named Gary in this life and be called Steve in his next rebirth. It never ends. They don’t know that with the turn of the head one can reach the other shore. Instead, they float along in the sea of karma. For that reason, he rains down Dharma everywhere upon it. The Buddha speaks Dharma universally to teach and transform sentient beings, like the falling of rain in the sea of karma. Who understood this state? Dragon Voice is liberated thus. Garuda King Dragon Voice and Immense Eyes entered this passage into liberation and understood this state.

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