Bodhisattvas Asks for Clarification

Chapter Ten

 

 

SUTRA:

Just as a vairambha tempest
Can cause the entire Earth to shudder,
So, too, the Buddhas’ field of blessings,
Moves the Three Realms’ sentient beings. 

Just as a conflagration,
Can burn up every kind of thing,
So, too, the Buddhas’ field of blessings,
Can burn up all that which is conditioned. 

COMMENTARY:

Now, the field of blessings is likened to vairambha tempests. What is a vairambha tempest? [Environmentally, it is a violent wind]; internally, it stands for the lack of patience. If you are impatient, then you can create a vairambha tempest. Being patient, you will not generate a vairambha. The vairambha is said to be very swift and fierce. It is somewhat like the tornadoes and hurricanes that have been occurring frequently in this country, except that it is even more devastating than those types of winds. However, even it cannot blow out the meritorious virtue that one creates.

When the Buddha was in the world, one day a donor brought a hundred catties of scented oil to the monastery and went before the Buddha to light oil lamps. However, each time he lit a lamp, the flame would die out right away of itself. He would light it again, and it would die out again. Even though there was no wind that day, the lamps would snuff themselves out. On another day, a beggar made an offering of one catty of oil, which is a little more than a pound. The monk in charge of lighting the incense and lamps used that oil to light the lamps, and those lamps never went out by themselves. Since they did not keep the lamps lit at night, someone had to go blow them out. However, no one was able to snuff them. The monk in charge of the incense and lamps exclaimed, “How strange! Why are we unable to blow out these lamps?”

Mahamaudgalyayana said, “I do not believe that they cannot be blown out!” and he himself tried to blow them out. He huffed and puffed, but he could not extinguish them either. Since he could not blow them out, he lost patience and said, with a slight tinge of anger, “I cannot believe these lamps cannot be extinguished. How can we let this be?” Then he used his spiritual powers to invite a vairambha tempest, and he directed it to blow out the lamps. But blow as it did, it still could not blow them out. So even Mahamaudgalyayana’s spiritual powers were of no use and could not help the matter.

Then the monks thought, “This is simply too strange. Let us go ask the Buddha about it.” So the monk in charge of the incense and lamps said to the Buddha, “First one person gave us 100 catties of scented oil, and although the lamps could be lit quickly, they quickly went out. 

Today, a beggar brought one catty of oil. The lamps lit using his oil cannot be snuffed out no matter how hard we blow at them. What is the reason for this?”

The Buddha replied, “What is the reason? The man who donated 100 catties of oil is a rich man. Compared to his fortune, 100 catties of oil are not even worth a penny. But when the beggar gave one catty of oil, he had used up his life’s savings to buy that bit of oil. He was poor and could only buy one catty of oil, and it took all the money he had saved up in his entire life. Thus, when he brought that oil here to light lamps before the Buddha, the force of his offering was especially long-lasting, and even a vairambha tempest could not snuff it out. His was genuine merit and virtue.

Therefore, when wealthy people create merit and virtue, it is not necessarily true merit and virtue. When people who have no money still manage to create merit and virtue, their merit and virtue is genuine. For example, if you have billions of dollars, and you donate a million, or ten million dollars, that is only a tiny fraction of your total wealth. Compare this to a person who has very little money but who donates all his earnings to the monastery.

For example, one layperson has given all his earnings to help Gold Mountain Monastery, and as a result the monastery has become more adorned and more excellent as a place of practice, with each passing day. This is genuine merit and virtue. All of you should understand this point. If we make offerings to the Triple Jewel with a sincere heart, then even if the amount of our offering or the quantity of money is small, the merit and virtue will be limitless. On the other hand, if you create merit and virtue with the motive of seeking fame or profit, then no matter how much you give, you will only gain the reward of being born in the human realm or the heavens. Such merit and virtue is not ultimate or genuine.

This metaphor for the field of blessings is a vairambha tempest. Its strength, ferocity, and speed can cause the entire Earth to shudder. This wind very quickly blows over the entire planet earth. “Shudder” here does not refer to earthquakes. This wind is not that powerful. However, it can blow over the earth until the earth starts to shake and tremble.

So, too, the Buddhas’ field of blessings, where beings can plant blessings, moves the Three Realms’ sentient beings. The Three Realms are the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. The beings in these realms are “moved”, just as a vairambha tempest causes the earth to move and shake. When the Buddha speaks the Dharma to teach and transform beings, they receive the influence of his instructions and are thus “moved.” This is a metaphor using a vairambha tempest that makes the Earth shudder to describe the Buddhas’ field of blessings that shakes beings in the Three Realms. These beings are the ones that the Buddhas teach and transform.

Sometimes in the course of the sutra lecture, I explain the sutra. At other times I ask some of my disciples to explain it. Thus some people have gotten upset and let loose their vairambha tempest. This shows that in learning the Buddhadharma, they have learned some spiritual powers. However, suppose everyone were to loose their vairambha tempest. Then the world would be buffeted about. Therefore, people should rein in their vairambha tempests by using a little patience. When you listen to the Buddhadharma, sometimes you will like what you hear, and sometimes you will dislike it. Sometimes other people will explain better than you do, and sometimes their explanation will not be as good as yours. In all these cases, you need to have a bit of patience. As students of the Buddhadharma, we should not let loose our vairambha tempests no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. This is of the utmost importance.

Just as a conflagration / Can burn up every kind of thing. This metaphor is of a huge raging fire that can burn up all material things. If when the fire starts, you let your vairambha tempest fan it, then the blaze will burn up to the Heaven of the Thirty-three. So, too, the Buddhas’ field of blessings, / Can burn up all that which is conditioned. It can burn up all conditioned dharmas.

VI. The Profoundness of the Proper Teaching

SUTRA:

At that time, Manjushri Bodhisattva asked Diligence Leader Bodhisattva, “Disciple of the Buddha, given that the Buddhas’ teaching is one teaching, why is it that when beings see and hear it, they do not all sever the bonds of afflictions and free themselves? Why is it that, although there is no distinction in their form skandhas, feeling skandhas, cognition skandhas, formations skandhas, and consciousness skandhas—throughout the desire, form, and formless realms—nor in their ignorance, greed, and passion, yet some derive benefit from the Buddhas’ teaching, while others do not?” 

Then Diligence Leader Bodhisattva answered in verse. 

COMMENTARY:

At that time, Manjushri BodhisattvaMahasattva, the Dharma Prince, asked Diligence Leader Bodhisattva, so-named because he is extremely diligent and vigorous in cultivating the Buddhadharma, “Disciple of the Buddha, given that the Buddhas’ teaching is only one teaching, why is it that when beings see and hear it, when they all get to see the Buddha and hear the Dharma, they do not all sever the bonds of afflictions and free themselves?” Why is it that some beings can totally sever all their afflictions right on the spot, while others are not able to cut them off? Afflictions are like ropes binding people up. Once they break them, they are liberated. So, why do people not break them? If they could break the bonds of afflictions, they would be free of afflictions and emotional attachments. They would no longer be tied up by the five skandhas or dharmas of form.

Why is it that, although there is no distinction in their form skandhas, feeling skandhas, cognition skandhas, formations skandhas, and discriminating consciousness skandhas—throughout the desire, form, and formless realms—nor in their ignorance, greed, and passion, that is, these things are the same in all beings of the Three Realms, yet some derive benefit from the Buddhas’ teaching, while others do not? All beings are the same in that they have ignorance, greed, and passion, and the Buddhadharma is one and the same, yet its transformative effect varies. Some beings are able to derive benefit and immediately sever their ignorance, greed, passion, and afflictions, while others hear the same teaching from the Buddha but derive no benefit whatsoever. What is the principle behind this? I do not understand this at all. Please, senior disciple of the Buddha, be compassionate and explain this principle for me and all other sentient beings.

Then Diligence Leader Bodhisattva, hearing Manjushri Bodhisattva’s request, answered in verse. He used verses to very simply and clearly answer Manjushri Bodhisattva’s questions.

SUTRA:

Disciple of the Buddha, listen well,
And I will now answer truthfully.
Why is it some soon gain liberation,
While others have trouble getting free? 

In seeking to expel and eliminate
Limitless past evil deeds,
One must in the Buddhadharma be,
Courageous and constantly vigorous. 

COMMENTARY:

Manjushri Bodhisattva asked Diligence Leader Bodhisattva why it is that with the Buddha’s teaching which is one and the same, some beings hear it and can promptly sever their afflictions and transcend the Three Realms, while others, though they hear the Buddhadharma just the same, do not gain any benefit and cannot escape the Three Realms? What is the reason for this? Now Diligence Leader Bodhisattva is going to answer the questions asked by Manjushri Bodhisattva, the Dharma Prince.

Disciple of the Buddha, listen well, pay attention and concentrate on what I am going to tell you.And I will now answer your questions truthfully.

Why is it some soon gain liberation after hearing the Dharma doors spoken by the Buddha? This is because in the past, they planted good roots, and their good roots have grown or perhaps already matured. Thus, as soon as they hear the Buddhadharma, they very quickly become liberated. It is due to having planted good roots in the past that they can accomplish this.

While others have trouble getting free? There are also those who did not plant good roots in the past, who are only starting to plant them now. When they hear the Buddhadharma, since they do not have many good roots, it is not easy for them to immediately sever their afflictions and get out of the Three Realms—the desire realm, form realm, and formless realm. Since they cannot transcend the Triple Realm, they cannot liberate themselves.

In seeking to expel and eliminate afflictions, ignorance, greed, and the confusions of love a little sooner, as well as limitless past evil deeds, all that evil karma, what should one do?

One must in the Buddhadharma be, / Courageous and constantly vigorous. You should be vigorous in body and mind. Being in vigorous in body means not committing killing, stealing, and lust. Mental vigor consists of putting an end to greed, anger and delusion. Bodily vigor means diligently cultivating precepts, Samadhi, and wisdom. One must vigorously advance forward and not retreat. Then one can be liberated and end all afflictions.

SUTRA:

Suppose there were only a tiny flame;
Wet sticks would cause it to quickly die out.
Within the Dharma taught by the Buddhas,
So, too, is it for one who is lax. 

Or, suppose to make fire, one rubbed wood together,
But stopped to rest before it was produced.
The potential for fire with the stopping would die.
So, too, is it for one who is lax. 

Or, if one held a crystal under the sun,
But failed to use tinder to catch the reflection.
Consequently no fire could be obtained.
So, too, is it for one who is lax. 

Or, suppose out in the bright sunshine,
A young child shut his eyes,
And then asked absurdly, “Why can’t I see?”
So, too, is it for one who is lax. 

Or, suppose one without hands or feet,
Wished to use a blade of grass
To pierce and break the great earth asunder.
So, too, is it for one who is lax.

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