The Ten Grounds

Chapter Twenty-Six

 

 

Sutra:  

He further makes the following reflection: “All living beings are within the dangerous roads of birth and death and are about to fall into the hells, animals, and hungry ghosts. They enter the net of evil views. They are confused by the thick forest of stupidity. They follow deviant paths and practice inverted conduct. They are like blind people who do not have guides. Roads which do not lead to escape they think lead to escape. They enter into the states of demons and are seized by evil bandits. They accord with the demons’ mind and become far removed from the Buddhas’ intentions. I should pull them out of such danger and difficulty and cause them to dwell in the City of the Fearlessness of All Wisdom.  

Commentary:  

The Bodhisattva on the Second Ground, the Ground of Leaving Filth, leaves all afflictions far behind. He also leaves all of his bad habits and faults, and all defilement. To have no defilement of mind means to have no thoughts of desire. It means that he has:

Severed desire and cast out love;
Returned to the origin and gone back to the source.

We people are not that way. Ordinary, common people, if told to get rid of their desire and cast out love say, “I want to have even more desire. I want to have even more love.” If you tell them to have fewer afflictions, then they get angry even more often. They take afflictions and ignorance for food to eat and for clothes to wear, which they cannot do without. At every meal they eat their fill of afflictions, to the point that their stomachs are about to burst. But, they still don’t know how to stop those afflictions. People are just that kind of strange entity.

Human beings are especially weird entities among the weird. If you tell people to do things one way, they insist on doing them another way. Not following the rules is their talent. When the Bodhisattva sees those kinds of living beings, he pities them, and so, he further makes the following reflection: “All living beings, without exception…” What’s mean by “living beings?” It means those who are alive because a multitude of conditions have come together. It’s not one factor alone that makes a person. There are a number of factors involved. “They are within the dangerous roads of birth and death.” On that dangerous road of birth and death it is very easy to do wrong; and as soon as one does something wrong, one falls into the three evil destinies. If you perform good merit and virtue, you can be born in the heavens or be an asura or a person, but if you commit offenses, then you fall into the hells, become hungry ghosts, or turn into an animal. And so, in a single thought it’s the halls of heaven, and in a single thought it’s the hells. In a single thought it’s the fruit of Buddhahood. And in a single thought one is an animal. It’s all in that single thought.

“And they are about to fall into the hells, animals, and hungry ghosts.” The danger on that road is that you never know when you are going to fall into the hells. Hells are not like human jails. We build the hells ourselves. The hells are self-imposed. We prepare our hell, and when our offenses are ripe and our life comes to an end, we go to that hell to undergo suffering. There is the uninterrupted hell: a single person fills that hell, and if everyone went there, each one would fill it. It’s full if there is one person; it’s full if there are many, and so it’s called the “unspaced,” or uninterrupted” hell. Time there is also extremely long. Once you fall into the hell, you never get out. Why not? It’s due to deviant views. One falls into the hells because of deviant views. Or, one becomes an animal. There are also millions of types of animals, not just a single kind. There are horses, cows, chickens, pigs, and dogs each with its own peculiarities. Each species has its own sub-categories, which number in the millions. There are millions upon millions of hells, just as there are millions upon millions of kinds of animals.

Hungry ghosts, too, have millions of varieties. Some are rich ghosts who have money. But money to them is not several million dollars, for example, as it is with people. “Money” to them is great power and spiritual penetrations. Actually, “spiritual” penetrations is not exactly the right word for it; they are “ghost” penetrations. Ghosts have five of the Six Spiritual Penetrations, but not the penetration of the extinction of outflows.

Those are the rich ghosts. The poor ghosts are the ghosts who have no “money.” That doesn’t mean they lack our pretty, printed bills. It means they don’t have any power. They have no spiritual penetrations to speak of. They know very little about what’s going on. It’s not as in China where people burn paper money for the ghosts to use that makes the ghosts rich. It doesn’t work that way. No one has ever proved whether it’s of any use to burn paper money for ghosts to use.

The way I see it is, if there were some use in burning paper money for ghosts, then when ghosts got that paper money, it would be as when we people strike it rich. That is, if you burn more for them they receive more, and if you burn less they get less. If it did work that way, then all Westerners when they died would become poor ghosts, for in the West paper money is very seldom burned, and if money is not burned, then the ghosts won’t have any money to use, right? And so they would be poor ghosts. It isn’t that way. If people believe that, I think they are wrong. Burning paper money is simply symbolic. As it is said:

Thoroughly go through the funeral rites for parents and the worship of ancestors.

It’s a way of showing one’s concern and one’s respect for their memory. But it’s very difficult to say whether those things really have any use or not.

Hungry ghosts, for several hundred great kalpas, never have one drop of water to drink. If any of the good things we have to eat enter the mouth of a hungry ghosts, they turn into fire and burn its mouth. So, all of you think it over: how can perfectly good things to eat turn into fire in the mouths of those ghosts? This happens because of their karmic obstacles. I remember in the 33rd year of the Chinese Republic, which was 1044, in the Hunan province, on the Mainland of China, there was a famine. There was no harvest that year, so there was no grain, and people had nothing to eat.

Then, there also were many locusts that appeared in the sky. Locusts blackened out the sun. They were so thick in the air that people could catch a whole netful with a single random swipe, and they cooked them to eat because they had nothing else. The locusts had eaten all of the crops they had planted, so they were going to eat the locusts in return. But once the locusts had been cooked, no one could bear to eat them, because they turned into excrement. That was due to the karmic obstacles of those living beings. So, everything depends upon living beings’ karma.

Hungry ghosts never find anything to eat because their karmic obstacles are too heavy. Good things to eat turn to fire in their mouths because their karmic obstacles obstruct them. If you talk in detail about hungry ghosts, you’ll find there are millions of categories of them, and you could never describe them all.

“They enter the net of evil views.” Evil views means deviant views, those that are not proper-deviant knowledge and deviant views. “They are confused by the thick forest of stupidity.” The dense woods of stupidity confuses them. “They follow deviant paths,”- outside ways that are not proper and correct-“and practice inverted conduct.” Everything they do is upside-down. “They are like blind people who do not have guides.” They are like people who have no eyes who have no one to lead them, no one to point out the way. “Roads which do not lead to escape”-roads which do not lead out of the Three Realms-“they think lead to escape.” They think they are the roads to ending birth and death.

“They enter into the states of demons.” They are turned by demonic states and become part of the demon king’s retinue, “and are seized by evil bandits.” They are trapped by the demons and do what the demons tell them to do. “They accord with the demons’ mind, and become far removed from the Buddhas’ intentions.” They no longer follow what the Buddhas intend. “I should pull them out of such danger and difficulty. Now I should save them so they escape from suffering and attain to bliss.

I should get them off that dangerous road, out of all those difficult circumstances, and cause them to dwell in the City of the Fearlessnesses of All Wisdom, so that they dwell in the Four Fearlessness, in the City of All Wisdom.” If they dwell in the City of All Wisdom, they won’t be able to fall into the three evil paths. Because they will have wisdom, they will know enough not to follow deviant views. And because they won’t run after deviant views, they will have proper knowledge and proper views. To dwell in proper knowledge and proper views is, itself, the City of All Wisdom, the city of having proper and correct wisdom.

There is an announcement, which is that Gold Mountain Temple has produced a freak. It’s Heng Sure. How is he a freak? It’s because next month he wants to start on the first Monday, and bow once every three steps from Gold Wheel Temple in Los Angeles to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Northern California. Why does he want to do something so stupid as that? It’s because he knows that his offense karma from the past is very heavy and he is afraid of falling into the three evil destinies. Now he wants to use his merit and virtue from bowing every three steps to repent of his previous offense karma. Also, he hopes that the merit and virtue from this will prevent disasters in the world, and that all of humankind will be at peace. So I say that he is a modern-day freak.

Now I think that anybody who has a question can ask it. Whether it’s a big question or a little question, and old question or a young questions-all may be asked. We have a lot of people here, and we’ll divide them up according to ability. The old will answer the old questions; the young will answer the young questions. The good will answer the good questions, and the bad will answer the bad questions. We’ll divide them up according to categories.

Question:

“I’m a little confused about the road to enlightenment, which I presume is the basis for our being here-to become enlightened. And I presume also that it takes more than one lifetime to become enlightened, because we don’t learn very fast. And I hear that Abbot say that we lose the knowledge that we gained during each lifetime. So I wonder what it is that we carry over, on that road to enlightenment.”

Answer:

“Karma. Not necessarily karmic obstacles, just karma. If you do good, you have good karma; if you do evil, you have bad karma.”

Question:

“I still don’t understand… I want to know what carries over lifetime after lifetime that leads one to become enlightened. Can you carry over work in one lifetime to the next lifetime to achieve it eventually?”

Answer:

“You can carry it over. However, unfortunately not just what you do, but what all we people do is not completely good. It’s a mixture of good and evil. Just take people here who are cultivating the Way for example-just talk about the people at Gold Mountain Temple. They cultivate and take two steps ahead, but at the very least retreat one step backwards. I have a disciple who knelt before me and said, ‘Shr Fu, every time I advance one step I retreat three steps. There is nothing I can do about it.’ So you see, the problem is there.”

Question:

“Is the bad carried over too?”

Answer:

“Yes, you take the bad with you as well. Whatever color you stain your white cloth is the color you take along with you. The white cloth represents the self-nature, and dyeing it a color stands for your creating good and bad karma.”

Question:

“Yesterday you talked about how people who have killed in their last life sometimes live a day, and sometimes live a month or a few months, and I find it very difficult. We tend to grieve so much more when someone is younger. My cousin just lost a seven-month old baby boy, and it’s so hard to understand the reason for that. Did you say that when someone dies at such a young age it’s because they killed in their past life?”

Answer:

“You should realize that when, in the person’s past life, he killed some kind of creature or other, the friends and relatives of that creature also were very grieved. Not to talk about anything else, just say he killed a chicken. When a chicken is killed, all the other chickens start cackling sadly, crying over the chicken that was killed. Or take crows. If you catch a small crow, the crow’s mother will do her best to get the baby crow back, even if it means losing her own life. This happens among most animals and birds.

“For example, if you catch a mother hen’s baby chicks… Of course this is the scientific age, and most chickens are hatched in incubators. Science has dispensed with mother hens no one protects the chicks, and so you can easily take and kill them and eat their flesh. But when the old mother hen is out walking with ten or so small chicks, if anybody grabs one of them, the old mother hen will go to war with that person. That actually happens. We feel it is painful when someone in our family or circle of friends dies. When we kill someone in the family or circle of another kind of creature, the relatives and friends of that creature also mourn. It works the same way.”

Sutra:  

He further makes the following reflection, “All living beings are swallowed up in the great torrent’s waves. They enter the flow of desire, the flow of existence, the flow of ignorance, and the flow of views. They revolve in the whirlpool of birth and death. They toss and turn in the river of love. They are carried away by the galloping flood, and have no leisure to contemplate.

They follow after awakenings to desire, awakenings to hatred, awakenings to harming, and do not give them up. In the midst of that they are seized by the rakshasas of the view of a body. They are on the point of eternal entry to the dense forest of love and desire. They bring forth deep defiled attachment towards what they greedily love. They dwell in the fertile plain of pride. They settle in the town of the six places. They have no one good to save them. They have no one to rescue them.  

“I should bring forth the thought of great compassion towards them, and use all my good roots to rescue and save them, so they have no calamities or disasters, leave defilement, are at peace, and dwell on the jeweled island of All Wisdom.  

Commentary:  

He further makes the following reflection. The Bodhisattva who has certified to the Second Ground, the Ground of Leaving Filth, thinks as follows. Before he wanted to cause living beings to dwell in the City of the Unconditioned of All Wisdom. This time his contemplation is, “All living beings are swallowed up in the great torrent’s waves.” The great torrents are just as when a great flood pours into the sea. It causes great waves to rise up, and if anybody stands where this great tide occurs, they will be pulled under by the current, and drowned by the water.

“They enter the flow of desire,” that fast flood, and “the flow of existence.” They enter into the flood of the Three Realms and the Twenty-Five Existences, or the Three Existences, and “the flow of ignorance, and the flow of views.” They enter into the flowing river of ignorance, of not understanding anything, of lack of comprehension. “They revolve in the whirlpool of birth and death.” In the sea of birth and death they are caught up in the whirlpools formed by the waves. “They toss and turn in the river of love.” They are spun around by love and emotion, which are like a rampaging river. “They are carried away by the galloping flood.” The waves stir up the current very fiercely, and it is like a galloping horse. At any moment the person could be carried into the sea, “and have no leisure to contemplate.” While this is happening, there is no time to observe what’s going on.

“They follow after awakenings to desire, awakenings to hatred.” They awaken to views of desire and of hatred, to the knowledge of how to have thoughts of desire and how to lose their tempers; “awakenings to harming.” They learn how to do harm. They flow along with them “and do not give them up.” They flow along with the currents of desire, hatred, and harming, which they never relinquish. “In the midst of that, they are seized by the rakshasas of the view of a body.” One’s view of a body is like a rakshasa ghost. They are ensnared by their attachments. “They are on the point of eternal entry to the dense forest of love and desire.” The rakshasa ghosts seize them and drag them into the very thick forest of love and desire.

“They bring forth deep defiled attachment towards what they greedily love.” These people develop deep defiled attachments to whatever they feel greed and love for. “They dwell in the fertile plain of pride.” They inhabit the expanse of haughtiness and arrogance. “They settle in the town of the six places.” They listen to the order of the Six Faculties: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. “They have no one good to save them.” They fall into a situation in which there is no one able to use clever, expedient devices to save them. “They have no one to rescue them.” No one can rescue those kinds of people.

“I should bring forth the thoughts of great compassion towards them.” The Bodhisattva himself says, “I should have great kindness and compassion towards those kinds of living beings, cause them to leave suffering and attain bliss, and use all my good roots to rescue and save them. I should employ all the good roots I have accumulated from cultivating to save those living beings, so they have no calamities or disasters; so living beings who are like that don’t have disasters befall them; so they leave defilement, are at peace-so that they separate from defiled dharmas and attain to purity-and dwell on the jeweled island of All Wisdom, the precious island of All Wisdom.”

Sutra:  

He also makes the following reflection: “All living beings live in the prison of the world. They have many sufferings and troubles. They constantly cherish love and hate. For themselves they become worried and afraid. They are bound by the heavy fetters of greed and desire. They are blocked and obstructed by the thick forest of ignorance. Form within the three realms, not one can by himself escape. I should cause them to leave behind the Three Existences forever, and dwell within the non-obstruction of great Nirvana.  

Commentary:

He, the Bodhisattva on the Second Ground, the Ground of Leaving Filth, also makes the following reflection. He says, “All living beings live in the prison of the world.” Their being in the world is like being in jail. They are unable to escape from the Three Realms, and so it is said:

The Three Realms are like a jail.
Birth and death are like shackles.

Those of the Two Vehicles look upon the Three realms as a prison. We people are within birth and death like birds in a cage. “They have many sufferings and troubles.” When we are born into this world, we have lots of suffering and lots of afflictions which we can’t escape.

“They constantly cherish love and hate.” They are always loving and hating, having the suffering of being separated from what they love, and being together with what they hate, and this is constantly going on. “For themselves they become worried and afraid.” They always worry and are scared, being afraid of not having food to eat, fearing they will have no clothes to wear, and worrying that they will not have any place to live. There are so many things they are afraid of. They also fear not having money to use, or not having sons or daughters. If they do have sons and daughters, they fear having no grandsons or granddaughters. They are always worried and afraid.

“they are bound by the heavy fetters of greed and desire.” They are never able to stop their greed. When they have been greedy their whole life long and the time comes to die, they can’t take anything with them. Greed and desire are like fetters, like a ball and chain that tie you up. Greed and desire fetter you so you cannot obtain liberation. “They are blocked and obstructed by the thick forest of ignorance.” The dense woods of not understanding anything, of lacking wisdom, hinders and obstructs one’s own wisdom. “From within the three realms, not one can by himself escape.” No one can, on his own, escape from the Desire Realm, the Form Realm, and the Formless Realm-those Three Realms. So the Bodhisattva says, “I should cause them to leave behind the Three Existences forever.” “I should cause living beings to throw off thee Three Existences once and for all:

Existence in the Desire Realm.
Existence in the Form Realm.
Existence in the Formless Realm.

And dwell within the non-obstruction of great Nirvana, dwell in the state of the Four Virtues of Nirvana:

Permanence.
Bliss.
True Self.
Purity.”

Sutra:  

He further makes the following reflection: “All living beings are attached to a self. They are in the cave-dwelling of all the Skandhas, and do not seek to escape. They rely upon the empty mass of the six places. They give rise to the four kinds of upside-down conduct. They are invaded by the poisonous snakes of the Four Elements. They are harmed and killed by the vengeful thieves of the Five Skandhas. They undergo limitless suffering. I should cause them to dwell in the most supreme place of non-attachment, that is, in unsurpassed Nirvana where all obstructions are destroyed.”  

He further makes the following reflection: “All living beings have minds that are base and narrow. They do not walk the most supreme path of all knowledge. Although they may wish to escape, they merely like the vehicle of Sound Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas. I should cause them to dwell in vast, great Buddhadharma’s vast, great wisdom.”  

Commentary:

He also makes the following reflection: The Bodhisattva on the Second Ground says, “All living beings are attached.” What are they attached to? “To a self. They are in the cave-dwelling of the Five Skandhas.” The Five Skandhas are Form, Feeling, Thinking, Activities, and Consciousness, which are like a very dark cave-dwelling. “And do not seek to escape.” It never occurs to them to get out of that cave. “They rely upon the empty mass of the six places.” Basically the six places-eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind-are an empty conglomeration, but they base themselves upon them. “They give rise to the Four Kinds of Upside-down Conduct.” The Four Ways of Being Upside-down are:

Mistaking the impermanent for the permanent.
Mistaking what is not bliss for bliss.
Mistaking what is not self for self.
Mistaking what is not pure for pure.

Those four way of being upside-down confuse one’s self-nature.

“They are invaded by the poisonous snakes of the four elements.” See how fierce the poisonous snakes of the Four Elements are! The Four Elements are:

Earth
Water.
Fire.
Wind.

“They are harmed and killed by the vengeful thieves of the Five Skandhas.” The vengeful thieves of the Five Skandhas-form, feeling, thinking activities, and consciousness-harm and kill them. “They undergo limitless suffering.” The suffering they undergo is infinite. “I should cause them to dwell in the most supreme place of non-attachment.” I should teach living beings who are suffering like that to dwell where there is not attachment, the highest location, “That is, in unsurpassed Nirvana where all obstructions are destroyed.” I should cause all living beings to obtain the happiness of having all obstacles eradicated, and dwelling in the state of Nirvana, which is the very highest.”

He further makes the following reflection. He thinks, “All living beings have minds that are base and narrow.” Living beings have petty minds which are very inferior. “They do not walk the most supreme path of all knowledge.” They don’t cultivate the very highest path of all wisdom. “Although they may wish to escape, they merely like the vehicle of Sound Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas.” Even though they might want to get out of the Three Realms-the Desire Realm, the Form Realm, and the Formless Realm-nonetheless the measure of their minds is very small. They only like the Sound Hearer Vehicle, the Pratyekabuddha Vehicle, the low and inferior way of thinking of the Two Vehicles. “I should cause them to dwell in vast, great Buddhadharma’s vast, great wisdom. Now that I realize the Sound Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas are of the Small Vehicle, I should teach all living beings to dwell in Great Vehicle Buddhadharma, that vast, great wisdom, so they obtain limitless and boundless great wisdom.”

Sutra:

Disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva in that way protects and maintains the precepts, and is well able to increase his thought of kindness and compassion.  

Disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva who dwells on this, the Ground of Leaving filth, because of the power of his vows, comes to see many Buddhas. That is, he sees many hundreds of Buddhas, many thousands of Buddhas, many hundreds of thousands of Buddhas, many millions of Buddhas, many hundred of millions of Buddhas, many thousands of millions of Buddhas, many hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas, and so forth up to and including seeing many hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of Buddhas. In the presence of all Buddhas he, with a vast, great mind, a deep mind, a reverent and respectful mind, serves and makes offerings to them by respectfully giving them clothing, food and drink, bedding, and medicines, and all the necessities of life.

He also makes offerings to all the assembled Sangha, and he transfers those good roots to Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. In the presence of all Buddhas, with a reverent mind, he further receives and practices the Dharmas of the Ten Wholesome Paths. He follows what he has received even up to Bodhi, and never forgets or loses it.  

Commentary:

Vajra Treasury Bodhisattva alls out again: All of you disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva in that way protects and maintains the precepts. He holds the precepts like that, and is well able to increase his thought of kindness and compassion. He becomes more and more kind and compassionate.

All of you disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva who dwells on this, the Ground of Leaving Filth, because of the power of his vows, the vows that he has made, comes to see many Buddhas. That is, he sees many hundreds of Buddhas, many thousands of Buddhas. He can see many hundreds of thousands of Buddhas, many millions of Buddhas, many hundreds of millions of Buddhas, many hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas, and so forth, continually increasing the number, up to and including seeing many hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of Buddhas. In the presence of all Buddhas, where all Buddhas are, he, with a vast, great mind, a deep mind, a reverent and respectful mind, serves and makes offerings to them by respectfully giving them clothing, food and rink, bedding, and medicines, and all the necessities of life.

He offers up the four types of offerings and other items which people use to maintain their lives. He also makes offerings to all the assembled Sangha, all left-home people, and he transfers those good roots to Anuttarasamyaksambodhi-the Unsurpassed, Proper, Equal Right Enlightenment. In the presence of all Buddhas, with a reverent mind, he further receives and practices the Dharmas of the Ten Wholesome Paths, the Ten Good Acts. He follows what he has received even up to Bodhi, until he becomes a Buddha, and never forgets or loses it. He never loses track of or forgets those Dharma doors.

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