Praises at the Summit of Mount Sumeru

Chapter Fourteen

 

 

III. The Bodhisattvas speak verses in praise.

J. Solid Wisdom Bodhisattva of the Zenith

Sutra:

Then Solid Wisdom Bodhisattva,relying on the Buddha’sawesome spiritual power, universally contemplated the ten directions andspoke in verse. 

Commentary:

Then after the ninth Bodhisattva Unsurpassed Wisdom finished his verses, it was the turn of Solid Wisdom Bodhisattva to speak. Why was he named “Solid Wisdom”? He used the power of wisdom to cultivate the Bodhisattva Path. His state was such that: “The eight winds could not move him as he sat upon the purple-golden lotus.” But he wasn’t like Su Dongpo [poet and scholar of the Song Dynasty in China], who understood some intellectual chan. Su Dongpo was quite conceited and liked to show off.

Because he was satisfied with his petty attainment, he limited his own progress. He had attained some states of light ease in his cultivation. Through regular practice of meditation, he had attained some states of dhyana. When he sat in meditation, he felt as if his body was very large and he was bowing to the Buddhas of the ten directions. He felt as if he and the Buddhas of the ten directions were emitting light that illuminated the entire universe. He composed a verse describing his state:

Bowing my head to the god among gods,
The light from my hairmark shines throughout the universe.
The eight winds cannot move me
As I sit upright on a purple-golden lotus.

The Buddha is the god among gods, the sage among sages. Su Dongpo felt his state was ineffably wonderful, and he wanted to let everyone know about it. At that time, there was a famous Chan Master named Foyin in the region of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. He was the Abbot of Jiangtian Monastery (commonly known as Gold Mountain Monastery) in Zhenjiang. Su Dongpo, wishing to show that his skill was no less than that of the Chan Master, wrote out his verse and told his attendant to deliver it to Gold Mountain Monastery. When Chan Master Foyin read it, he wrote two words on it: “Fart! Fart!” and returned it to the attendant. The attendant was probably illiterate and so he obediently took it back to show Su Dongpo. Su Dongpo saw the two words and furiously thought, “How dare you scold me when I’ve written such a fine verse! I’m going to set things straight with you!”

He stormed across the river and asked the Chan Master, “Why did you write ‘Fart! Fart!’ on my verse?”

Chan Master Foyin replied, “I thought you said the eight winds couldn’t move you. How come my two little farts have blown you all the way across the river?” Su Dongpo realized that his skill couldn’t match up to the Chan Master’s. He quickly bowed to the monk and returned home to continue cultivating.  

The eight winds are praise, ridicule, suffering, joy, benefit, harm, gain, and loss. [Sometimes gain and loss are replaced with slander and flattery.]

Praise means telling you how good you are, how you are the best. If you don’t have any skill in cultivation, then as soon as you hear praise, you feel as joyful as if you were in the heavens.

Ridicule means insulting and teasing you until you find it as unbearable as being in the hells. You get frustrated and upset, thinking, “Why is that person making fun of me? I really detest him.” As soon as you get upset, it’s like being in the hells. You don’t have to wait till you die to go to heaven or hell. If you live happily, you’re already in heaven. If you are full of worries, you’re in hell. When you lose your temper or get depressed, you’re just punishing yourself. It’s a lot of suffering.

If you can’t take suffering when it comes, you’ve been moved by the eight winds. If you’re swayed by joyful states, you’ve also been blown by the eight winds. If beneficial things make you happy and unbeneficial things upset you, you’ve been blown by the winds of benefit and harm. The winds of gain and loss (or slander and flattery) can also sway you.

It’s not easy to recognize the eight winds and to remain unmoved by them. You may say, “I won’t be moved,” but if you don’t recognize the state when it comes, you’ll still be moved. Then you’ll have to start all over again in your cultivation.

This Bodhisattva wasn’t moved by the eight winds, so he had solid wisdom. He could recognize states. He could turn states around and not be turned around by states. He could alter the situation and not let the situation change him. Some people say, “I can’t cultivate because of the situation I’m in. I can’t do anything about it.” What do you mean you can’t do anything about it? That’s just an excuse. Just see through the situation. Don’t be turned around by it. You should influence the situation, and not let it influence you. That’s what Solid Wisdom Bodhisattva could do.

Relying on the Buddha’sawesome spiritual power, he universally contemplated the causes, conditions, and dispositions of sentient beings throughout the ten directions to determine how he could save them from suffering and make them happy. And then he spoke in verse to give all of us sentient beings of the present time a chance to hear the Proper Dharma.

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊

Sometimes we have an opportunity to give a lecture outside. On such occasions, you should select four people from among yourselves to speak. We have too many people, and if every person took a turn to speak, it would take too much time. Each of the four should speak for five or ten minutes. When we go outside, we do not need to sit together or sit outside. We can split up and mingle with the crowd, with some sitting in the middle, some sitting at the back. That way we will understand what other people think of us and how they react to us. If they think highly of us, we should not get conceited. If they criticize us, we ought to improve ourselves and correct our faults. If you don’t change, you will always be wrong, and that’s not right. As it’s said, “Zilu rejoiced in hearing of his faults. Yu would bow when he heard wholesome words.” We must be open to criticism from outsiders, and we must bravely change our faults. When we leave the lecture place, we should quickly gather together and not lag behind so that we don’t get lost. Every one of us should understand these points.

Venerable Master: Have you ever killed fish?

Disciple: Yes, I have.

Venerable Master: Have you ever killed mice?

Disciple: No, but one time a mouse fell into a water basin and drowned.

Venerable Master: It wasn’t you who caused it to drown?

Disciple: No.

Venerable Master: Have you ever killed a person?

Disciple: No.

Venerable Master: Did you kill your father?

Disciple: No.

Venerable Master: Did you kill your mother?

Disciple: No.

Venerable Master: When you disobey them, you are “killing” them. They feel deeply pained at heart, and it’s as if you have killed them. If you lie to them and they find out, they will also feel very hurt, just as if you stabbed them with a knife. Have you ever been in these situations?

Disciple: Yes.

Venerable Master: If you have, then you ought to repent and reform yourself. If you truly repent and reform, then your past offenses will be purified and you will not repeat them in the future. Why do you still have to think about it? Are you unwilling to give us these behaviors? Do you still want to do these things?

Disciple: No, I will not do them again.

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊

Sutra:

How magnificent is the radiance
Of the valiant, unsurpassed lord.
In order to benefit the deluded masses,
He appears in the world.  

Commentary:

How magnificent is the radiance of the Buddha’s wisdom. The Buddha’s wisdom is the ultimate. Of the valiant, unsurpassed lord. Valiant means able to endure. It doesn’t mean one is able to defeat others in battle. One is valiant in being patient, in giving, in holding precepts, in being vigorous, in developing samadhi, and in acquiring wisdom. One is strong and brave in the six perfections and the myriad practices. One is out in front of ordinary beings. “Unsurpassed Lord” is one of the ten titles common to all Buddhas.

Why did the Buddha come to the world? He came in order to benefit all sentient beings, that is the deluded masses of sentient ones. Does he benefit deluded beings by making them more deeply deluded? No. The Buddha helps them to lessen their delusion. Day by day, they become less deluded. They turn away from delusion and go back to enlightenment. That is to truly benefit sentient beings. If people are taking drugs, you can’t help them by giving them more drugs.

You have to recognize the principle. The Buddha wants sentient beings to turn away from delusion and go back to enlightenment, to give up the deviant and return to the proper, to go back to their roots and see their original face. It’s for those reasons that he appears in the world. There are three kinds of worlds: the material world, the world of sentient beings, and the world of Proper Enlightenment. The material world includes the mountains, rivers, and the vast earth with all its buildings and structures. The world of sentient beings refers to all sentient beings in the world. Those who have Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, and sages are known as the world of Proper Enlightenment. The term “world” in the Sutra text includes these three kinds of worlds. The Buddha appeared in the world to teach all sentient beings to understand their minds and see their natures and ultimately become Buddhas.  

Sutra:

The Buddha, with a heart of great compassion,
Universally observes all sentient beings.
He sees them in the Triple Realm,
Suffering in samsara’s wheel.  

Commentary:

The Buddha, with a heart of great compassion, / Universally observes all sentient beings. The Buddha has four limitless qualities of mind: limitless kindness, limitless compassion, limitless joy, and limitless giving. With kindness, he makes sentient beings happy. With compassion, he pulls them out of suffering. Great kindness is kindness shown even to those without affinities. Great compassion is the attitude that sees all beings as identical in substance. If you are kind to those with whom you have no affinities, you will gradually develop affinities with them. If you simply ignore them, you’ll never have affinities with them. That is great kindness for those without affinities. To have great compassion which regards all as being of one substance, you should always look at your own faults and not the faults of others. Does the Buddha have any faults? No. But he treats sentient beings’ faults as his own.

Truly recognize your own faults.
Don’t discuss the faults of others.
Others’ faults are just my own.
Being one with all is called great compassion.

I’ve said this to you so many times that you’ve got it memorized and can recite it by heart. However, you’re not able to practice it. You still discuss other people’s wrongs all the time. As soon as you are told not to discuss others’ faults, you discuss them even more. When you talk about this one being wrong and that one having faults, you just create more trouble. If you can regard other people’s faults and mistakes as your own, without discriminating between yourself and others, then you have achieved identity in substance. If you can see all beings as being of the same substance, then that is the heart of great compassion. The Buddha uses the heart of great compassion to contemplate all sentient beings throughout the ten directions and the three periods of time. He sees them undergoing birth and death in the Triple Realm of existence—the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm.

Sentient beings’ desires are extremely heavy. Their desires prevent them from attaining the sagely fruition. Desires are the root of birth and death. You undergo birth and death because of your desires. If you can cut off desires and get rid of love, you will put an end to birth and death. When you have no desires, the gates to the hells are closed to you. In cultivation, the most important thing is to have no desires. If you have desires, you have outflows, which means you will undergo birth and death. Without desires, there are no outflows and no birth and death. That’s the desire realm.

Beings in the form realm heavens still have shape and form, but beings in the formless realm heavens have only a discriminating consciousness. That consciousness is what prevents them from transcending the Three Realms. They haven’t cut through the roots of discrimination. The form realm is higher than the desire realm and the formless realm is higher than the form realm, yet none of the beings within them have ended birth and death.

The Buddha sees sentient beings being born and dying, over and over, in the Three Realms. In this life one may be Lee’s son; in the next life one is Smith’s grandson. The life after that, one is Wang’s father. Two people who were father and son in the last life might be brothers in this life. Your father in the last life might be your grandson in this life. Truly upside-down! All these different conditions can never be clearly figured out. People might do good deeds and be reborn in the heavens. Sometimes they become asuras, hungry ghosts, animals, or hell-beings. Although they revolve in the six paths of rebirth, they don’t admit it. “How can it be so complicated? When a person dies, it’s like a lamp going out. There isn’t anything left.” This is the erroneous view of annihilationism. Other heterodox religions say people are always born as people; they cannot become animals. This is the erroneous view of eternalism. Those who are attached to the views of annihilationism or eternalism have not understood the principle of cause and effect.

Suffering in samsara’s wheel, undergoing all kinds of torment in the six paths of rebirth. The Three Sufferings are

1. the suffering within suffering

2. the suffering of destruction

3. the suffering of process

The Eight Sufferings are

1. birth

2. old age

3. sickness

4. death

5. the suffering of being separated from someone you love

7. the suffering of being with someone you don’t like

6. the suffering of not getting what you want

8. the suffering of the raging blaze of the five skandhas.

There is no way to completely finish speaking of all the various kinds of suffering. If sentient beings don’t undergo one kind of suffering, they undergo another. Perhaps one person undergoes many kinds of suffering. Sometimes many people undergo one kind of suffering. For example, in an area ravaged by war, many people die of starvation, are killed in battle, or go without clothing or shelter. That’s a case where many people undergo the same kind of suffering--of being in a war. It’s also possible for one person to undergo one kind of suffering, and for many people to undergo many sufferings. It’s hard to describe all the various situations of suffering.

Sutra:

The Sage of Proper, Equal Enlightenment alone
Is perfect in virtue, a venerated guide and teacher.
None of the beings in all the heavens
Can be a savior and protector like him.  

Commentary:

With a heart of great compassion, the Buddha pulls sentient beings out of all sufferings. He sees sentient beings turning around and suffering in the three realms of existence. The Sage of Proper, Equal Enlightenment alone / Is perfect in virtue, a venerated guide and teacher. Only the Buddha is replete with the virtue of blessings and wisdom. None of the beings in the heavens / Can be a savior and protector like him. None of the gods have the ability to save sentient beings from their suffering and make them happy. The Buddha alone is able to be the savior and protector of sentient beings in the Three Realms. Any sentient being who is willing to reform and renew himself, reflect upon himself, and turn from confusion to enlightenment, can obtain the Buddha’s help and protection. 

Sutra:

If sages like the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas
Did not appear within the world,
Not a single sentient being
Would gain happiness and peace.  

Commentary:

If sages like the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas—the multitudes of sages—did not appear within the world, in the three kinds of worlds, not a single sentient being / Would gain happiness and peace.

Sutra:

The Thus Come Ones of Proper, Equal Enlightenment
And the multitudes of worthy sages
Show themselves within the world,
Giving happiness to sentient beings.

Commentary:

The Thus Come Ones of Proper, Equal Enlightenment / And the multitudes of worthy sages of the Sangha show themselves within the world. The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha are all present. They appear in the material world, the world of sentient beings, and the world of Proper Enlightenment. Giving happiness to sentient beings. What is true happiness? The absence of suffering is true happiness. 

Sutra:

If one wishes to behold the Thus Come Ones
In order to gain wondrous benefit,
And one hears the Buddhas’ names and evinces faith,
One will be a tower for the world.

Commentary:

If one wishes to behold the Thus Come Ones... Suppose one hasn’t seen the Buddha and wishes to do so. Why? In order to gain wondrous benefit. What is wondrous benefit? It is to rely upon the Dharma to cultivate, so that one can eventually attain Buddhahood. This is the very best benefit—the attainment of Unsurpassed Proper and Equal, Right Enlightenment. And with the wish for that benefit, if one hears the Buddhas’ names and evinces faith, / One will be a tower for the world. Such a person will be like a light-tower, a bright light for those in the world. Why? Because he is someone who seeks to be enlightened. To become enlightened, one must have wisdom. With wisdom, one will have light and will be like a light-tower. 

Sutra:

We wish to see the World Honored Ones
So as to gain great benefit.
Those who hear this wonderful Dharma
Shall all attain the Buddha Path.

Commentary:

We—Solid Wisdom and the other nine Bodhisattvas, and all of us sentient beings of the present time—wish to see the World Honored Ones / So as to gain great benefit. We all want to see the World Honored Ones because we want to attain the great benefit of realizing Buddhahood. Those who hear this wonderful Dharma, the inconceivable Dharma that the Buddhas speak, shall all attain the Buddha Path. The Dharma Flower Sutra says, “If there are people who go into a stupa or temple with distracted minds and merely put their palms together, nod their head slightly, or recite ‘Namo Buddha’ once, they shall all attain the Buddha Path.” All you have to do is recite “Namo Buddha,” and you shall realize Buddhahood. Our cultivation is very easy compared to the difficulties Shakyamuni Buddha went through to realize Buddhahood. All we have to do is go to a temple and put our palms together, nod our head, and recite

Namo Buddhas of the ten directions and three periods of time,
Namo the Honored Dharma spoken by the Buddhas of the ten directions and three periods of time, and
Namo the Sangha of sages and worthies of the ten directions and three periods of time.

Even if you don’t recite the names of the Triple Jewel, but only recite “Namo Buddha,” you will still become a Buddha.  

Sutra:

In the past all these Bodhisattvas,
By the Buddhas’ awesome spiritual power,
Attained the pure, clear wisdom eye
And understood the Buddhas’ state.

Commentary:

In the past all these Bodhisattvas who have come to the vajra bodhimanda beneath the bodhi tree, by relying on the Buddhas’ awesome spiritual power, / Attained the pure, clear wisdom eye which perceives the ultimate truth of all things.  

And thus understood the Buddhas’ state. What kind of state is that? It’s like empty space. Space is empty, and yet it includes within it all things with shape and form. All Buddhas are like empty space, yet they can produce wonderful existence. Emptiness does not hinder existence, and existence does not hinder emptiness. Emptiness and existence are nondual. That’s the state of all Buddhas. 

Sutra:

Now we see Nishyanda,
And our pure faith has redoubled.
The Buddhas’ boundless wisdom
Can never be completely expressed.  

Commentary:

Now we see the pure Dharma body, the perfect reward body, and the myriad transformation bodies. In particular, we see the ten-thousand-foot tall body of Nishyanda Buddha, which Shakyamuni Buddha has manifested. And our pure faith has redoubled. It has been increasing without cease. Our faith is pure and clean, without defilement.

Some people believe in the Buddha because they see the Buddha’s fine features and characteristics. They become attached to the Buddha’s appearance. Their faith is not pure; it is mixed with greed for the Buddha’s adorned characteristics. Some people study the Dharma, not because they wish to spread Buddhism, but because they want to be great Dharma Masters. They want to be able to out-debate everyone. This is not pure faith either; it is defiled. Some people say they believe in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, but they give rise to impure thoughts when they see a Dharma Master. Theirs is not a pure faith either. Pure faith is sincere and earnest faith, without the least bit of defilement, emotion or love in it.  

The Buddhas’ boundless wisdom transcends the wisdom of sentient beings in the other nine Dharma Realms. No matter how you try to describe the Buddhas’ wisdom, it can never be completely expressed. You could never completely express it because it’s boundless. If we delve deeply into the Sutra Treasury, we will have sea-like wisdom. The Buddha’s wisdom surpasses the cognition and language of sentient beings. There’s no way to use language to fully express the Buddha’s wisdom.

Sutra:

Superior Wisdom and the other Bodhisattvas
And I, Solid Wisdom,
Through countless millions of eons
Could never fully express it either.  

Commentary:

Solid Wisdom Bodhisattva says: Superior Wisdom Bodhisattva of the western direction and the other Bodhisattvas of the other eight directions and I, Solid Wisdom Bodhisattva of the upper direction, through countless millions of great eons / Could never fully express it either. There’s no way to completely express the Buddha’s wisdom and states.

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