The Ten Grounds

Chapter Twenty-Six

Sutra:  

At that time, Vajra Treasury Bodhisattva addressed moon of Liberation Bodhisattva saying: Disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva who has already purified the Third Ground and who wishes to enter the Fourth, the Ground of Blazing Wisdom, should cultivate ten doors for understanding the Dharma.

What are the ten? They are: contemplating realms of living beings, contemplating realms of Dharma, contemplating realms of worlds, contemplating realms of empty space, contemplating realms of desire, contemplating realms of form, contemplating realms of formlessness, contemplating realms of vast minds’ faith and understanding. The Bodhisattva, using these ten kinds of doors for understanding Dharma, obtains entry to the Fourth Ground, that of Blazing Wisdom.  

Commentary:

When the great assembly and Moon of Liberation Bodhisattva had finished speaking the preceding verses, at that time, Vajra Treasury Bodhisattva addressed Moon of Liberation Bodhisattva saying: Disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, the Great Bodhisattva, who has been cultivating and has already purified the Third Ground, having well cultivated and purified it so he has been certified to it, and who wishes to enter the fourth, the ground of blazing wisdom, at that time should cultivate ten doors for understanding Dharma. What are the ten?

They are: Contemplating realms of living beings-contemplating all the various causes and conditions underlying the realms of living beings; contemplating realms of Dharma, what period the Dharma has reached, whether it is the Proper Dharma Age, the Dharma Semblance Age, or the Dharma Ending Age; contemplating realms of worlds-contemplating all the living beings of world-realms and what period the world-systems themselves have reached in the cycle of coming into being, dwelling, decaying, and going empty; contemplating realms of empty space-what Dharma should be spoken upon contemplation of the realm of empty space; contemplating realms of consciousness-contemplating the realm of consciousness of all living beings;

contemplating realms of desire, what desires living beings have, and which dharmas need to be employed to save living beings in the heavens of the Desire Realm; contemplating realms of form-what methods need to be used to rescue living beings in the heavens of the Form Realm; contemplating realms of formlessness-what means to employ to cross over living beings in the heavens of the Formless Realm; contemplating realms of vast minds’ faith and understanding-what level of understanding has been reached by the living beings in the heavens who have vast minds; contemplating realms of great minds’ faith and understanding, what level of understanding has been attained by beings in the heavens who possess great minds-those who are about to undertake cultivation of the Bodhisattva Way.

The Bodhisattva, using these ten kinds of doors for understanding Dharma, obtains entry to the Fourth Ground, that of Blazing Wisdom. By employing those ten kinds of doors to understanding Dharma, he can enter the position of the Fourth Ground on which one’s wisdom is as bright as a blazing fire.

Sutra:

Disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva, while dwelling on this, the Ground of Blazing Wisdom, then can, by using ten kinds of wisdom for maturing dharmas, obtain those internal dharmas and be born in the Thus Come One’s household, what are the ten? They are: by having a deep mind that does not retreat; by giving rise to pure faith in the Triple Jewel which is ultimately indestructible; by contemplating the production and extinction of all activities; by contemplating the non-production of the self-nature of all dharmas; by contemplating the comings into being and destructions of world realms; by contemplating how there is production because of karma; by contemplating birth and death and Nirvana; by contemplating the karma of living beings and countries; by contemplating the boundary of before and the boundary of afterwards; by contemplating what has no exhaustion. Those are the ten.

Disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva who dwells upon this, the Fourth Ground, contemplates inside his body, making a methodical contemplation of the body, diligently and heroically is mindful of wisdom and expels worldly greed and worry.

Commentary:

Vajra Treasury Bodhisattva calls out again: All of you disciples of the Buddha, do you know that the Bodhisattva, while dwelling on this, the Fourth Ground, the Ground of Blazing Wisdom, then can, by using ten kinds of wisdom for maturing dharmas-employing ten kinds of wisdom to contemplate and bring to maturity all dharmas that he cultivates-obtain those internal dharmas, dharmas pertaining to the mind within, and be born in the Thus Come One’s household. He is born in the family of the Buddha.

What are the ten, the ten kinds of wisdom through which one can bring internal dharmas to maturity? They are: by having a deep mind that does not retreat. The Bodhisattva brings forth a deep resolve, a great resolved, and never retreats from his resolve for Bodhi. It is also by giving rise to pure faith in the Triple Jewel. He is able to produce pure belief in the Triple Jewel which is ultimately indestructible. That pure resolve for Bodhi will never be destroyed or disappear. It is also by contemplating the production and extinction of all activities. He contemplates how all activities are produced and destroyed and are all impermanent. It is also by contemplating the non-production of the self-nature of all dharmas. The self-nature of all dharmas has no production and no destruction, the reason being that all dharmas are characterized by still extinction, having no substance of their own, but being the product of causes and conditions. Therefore it is said:

Dharmas produced from causes and conditions
I proclaim are empty.
On the one hand, they are called false names,
On the other, called the meaning of the Middle Way.

It is also by contemplating the comings in being and destructions of world-realms-how world-systems come into being, dwell, decay, and go empty-and he brings forth a great resolve for Bodhi; by contemplating how there is production because of karma, it is due to karma that all causes and retributions are brought about; by contemplating birth and death and Nirvana, he contemplates what is meant by birth and death, and what is not being born and not dying, that is, Nirvana; by contemplating the karma of living beings and countries, all beings born in a given country create a certain kind of karma and undergo a certain kind of retribution; by contemplating the boundary of before and the boundary of afterwards, he also contemplates how all false thoughts, the preceding thought and the thought after it-are produced; by contemplating what has no exhaustion, he contemplates how there is not exhaustion to living beings and no exhaustion to afflictions or any end to empty space; those are the ten. He makes those ten kinds of contemplations.

Disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva who dwells upon this, the Fourth Ground, the Ground of Blazing Wisdom, contemplating inside his body, making a methodical contemplation, in order, of what is inside the body, diligently and heroically is mindful of wisdom-mindful of All Wisdom-and expels worldly greed and worry. He gets rid of the kind of greedy craving worldly people have and their kinds of worries and anxieties.

If anyone who has committed offenses can change, repent of them, and reform, then those offenses can disappear. If you cover them up and don’t want to change, the offenses remain. When the Buddha was in the world, if any Bhikshu or Bhikshuni had committed an offense, he or she had to make a public repentance of it in front of everyone. This is as when your clothes are dirty and you wash them so they are clean again. When your mind ground is not bright and luminous, if you repent, that brightness can return to your mind ground. You go back to your original wisdom.

What prevents your inherent wisdom from appearing? It’s because each of us puts on a false mask and tries to keep other people from seeing what is wrong with us. That’s why the Buddha instructed people to repent. Sometimes someone doesn’t know what his or her offenses are, and if someone else knows what the offenses are, they should bring them up, to enable that person to return to purity. It was that way when the Buddha was in the world and is known as the Proper Dharma dwelling in the world. Afterwards, the Bhikshus and Bhikshunis forgot about repenting and covered up their offenses.

The Dharma, therefore, declined day by day. Now in this country we are emphasizing the Proper Dharma, and so, no matter who has what offense, if they can make a public repentance of it before the great assembly, after repenting and reforming they return to purity. If you don’t repent, you will always have blackness stored away in your self-nature. If you speak out and let others know of it, then you can go back to the basic purity of your fundamental nature.

In cultivation, the essential thing is not to be selfish and to have no thought of benefitting the self-to have no self. If something is harmful to oneself but of benefit to the larger group, one should not hesitate to do it. If something is beneficial to oneself but harmful to the group at large, then you can’t do it. So one takes what is beneficial to the large group as important, and is willing to divide up one’s body and grind up one’s bones to benefit the larger group. But if something has no public benefit but benefits oneself, even if it only means doing a hair’s worth of harm to the group so as to reap an enormous amount of benefit for oneself, one must not do it. So you shouldn’t be selfish, and then you can accomplish the Way cultivated by a Bodhisattva.

Sutra:

He contemplates outside his body, making a methodical contemplation of the body, diligently and heroically is mindful of wisdom, and expels worldly greed and worry. He contemplates inside and outside his body, making a methodical contemplation of the body, diligently and heroically is mindful of wisdom, and expels worldly greed and worry.

In the way, he contemplates inner feelings, outer feelings, inner and outer feelings, making a methodical contemplation of feelings. He contemplates the inner mind, the outer mind, the inner and outer mind, making a methodical contemplation of the mind. He contemplates inner dharmas, outer dharmas, inner and out dharmas, making a methodical contemplation of dharmas, diligently and heroically is mindful of wisdom, and expels worldly greed and worry.

Commentary:

He contemplates outside his body. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and objects of touch are what is outside the body. He contemplates that, making a methodical contemplation of the body. He follows along the body in order, contemplation all the myriad things and events outside the body, all of which speak Dharma. If you realize that everything is speaking Dharma, you will thoroughly understand the real mark of all dharmas. He makes that systematic contemplation of the body, diligently and heroically is mindful of wisdom, and expels worldly greed and worry. He is heroically vigorous at all times. We need to know how constantly to return the light and look within, and see how to expel all worldly greed and love and all worldly worry and anxiety.

He contemplates inside his body and outside his body, making a methodical contemplation of the body, both of the five skandhas inside his body-form, feeling, thinking, activities and consciousness-and of the six dusts outside his body-sights, sounds, smells, tastes, objects of touch and dharmas. Again, he cultivates diligently and heroically is mindful of all wisdom, and expels worldly greed and worry. We shouldn’t have any greed for worldly fame or profit, unlike some left-home people who are greedy for offerings. When someone donates a red envelope, they quickly think, “There must be a lot of money in it.” Then when they open it and take a look, it’s just a dollar, and they’re incredibly disappointed-all because of greed.

In that way, he contemplates inner feelings, outer feelings, inner and outer feelings, making a methodical contemplation of feelings. He contemplates like that, returning the light and turning back the illumination, in a very detailed investigation of what his inner emotional feelings are all about, as well as the feelings coming from outside. He also looks into what feelings that are both internal and external are like-that’s methodically contemplating feelings. He contemplates the inner mind, the outer mind, the inner and outer mind, making a methodical contemplation of the mind. He looks at what the mind inside is like and what the mind outside is like, along with what inner and outer minds working together are all about.

He investigates in systematic contemplation of the conscious mind. He contemplates inner dharmas, outer dharmas, inner and outer dharmas, making a methodical contemplation of dharmas. He contemplates all the dharmas inside and all the dharmas external to the body, along with internal and external dharmas, systematically contemplating dharmas, again having to do so diligently with vigor and heroically is mindful of all wisdom and expels worldly greed and worry, every kind of greed and anxiety worldly people have.

We who have left the home-life should leave the home of the Three Realms-the home of the Desire Realm, the Form Realm, and the Formless Realm. We should also leave the home of afflictions, by cutting all of them off. We also have to leave the home of the mundane, which means dispelling worldly greed and worry. It’s easy to say, but very hard to do. Yet, even so, the harder it is, the more you have to do it. If you don’t do it because it’s hard, it will never get done. As it is said:

Humaneness is difficult at first, but afterwards acquired.

If you want to master humaneness, you first must go through some very difficult experiences, and after that you come to have kindly and humane concern for other people.

Sutra:

Furthermore, to prevent all evil and unwholesome dharmas which have not yet arisen from arising, that Bodhisattva wishes to bring forth diligent vigor and makes up his mind to properly cut them off. To cut off all evil and unwholesome dharmas which have already arisen, he wishes to bring forth diligent vigor and makes up his mind to properly cut them off.

In order to cause all wholesome dharmas which have not yet arisen to arise, he wishes to bring forth diligent vigor, and makes up his mind to properly cultivate them. In order to cause all wholesome dharmas which have already arisen to remain and not be lost, he cultivates to increase and extend them. He wishes to bring forth diligent vigor, and makes up his mind to properly cultivate them.

Commentary:

The text has not finished explaining about how casting out all worldly greed and worry brings forth world-transcending bliss, and so it continues in more detailed explanation saying, furthermore, after having cultivated the Third Ground of Emitting Light and being on the Ground of Blazing Wisdom, to prevent all evil and unwholesome dharmas which have not yet arisen from arising, that Bodhisattva wishes to bring forth diligent vigor. So that all evil thoughts and unwholesome dharmas which have not arisen in his mind will not arise, he wants to be courageous, which is identical with being diligent and vigorous; and he makes up his mind, with a great resolve for Bodhi, to properly cut them off. He wants to keep all those evil and unwholesome dharmas from arising and wants to cut off all evil and unwholesome dharmas which have already arisen.

No matter who you are, or what kind of offense you’ve committed, if you can cut off those evil, unwholesome dharmas-the body’s three evil acts of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, the mouth’s four evil acts of loose, false, harsh, and double-tongued speech; and the mind’s three evil acts of greed, hatred, and stupidity-then you stop creating that kind of bad karma. In order to do that he, the Bodhisattva, wishes to bring forth diligent vigor, act with utmost courage, and makes up his mind, in a great resolve for Bodhi, to properly cut them off. Evil not yet arisen should be prevented from arising, and if it’s already arisen, one cuts it off. But what about good and wholesome dharmas?

In order to cause all wholesome dharmas which have not yet arisen to arise-that is, not being greedy, angry, or stupid, not killing, stealing or committing sexual misconduct, not speaking loosely, falsely, harshly, or in a double-tongued manner, which together constitute the Ten Wholesome Acts of refraining from the ten kinds of evil karma-he wishes to bring forth diligent vigor and makes up his mind to properly cultivate them. Again, one must be courageous in one’s vigor, be greatly resolved on Bodhi, and actually go and do the work. In order to cause all wholesome dharmas which have already arisen to remain and not be lost, to hang onto those good dharmas which have come into being, he cultivates to increase and extend them. He wishes to bring forth diligent, courageous vigor and makes up his mind to properly, reliably and actually, cultivate them, so those states of wholesome dharmas daily expand and grow.

Sutra:

Moreover, this Bodhisattva cultivates the samadhi of zeal, cutting off activities and accomplishes the basis of psychic power, relying on disgust, relying on leaving, relying on extinction, and makes transference to renunciation. He cultivates the samadhi of vigor, the samadhi of thoughts, and the samadhi of contemplation, cutting off activities, and accomplishes the Bases of Psychic Power, relying on disgust, relying on leaving, relying on extinction, and makes transference to renunciation.

Commentary:

Moreover, continues Vajra Treasury Bodhisattva, this Bodhisattva we’ve been talking about cultivates the Samadhi of zeal. This is the first of the Four Bases of Psychic Power among the Thirty-seven Wings of Enlightenment, the Stations of the Bodhi Share Dharmas which the Bodhisattva was previously described as taking rebirth in order to perfect. This includes cutting off of all evil activities while bringing forth all good conduct. There are:

Eight Cutting-off Activities (Conducts of Severance)

1. Zeal (to do so).
2. Diligence (of applied effort).
3. Faith (in what is certified to).
4. Securing (oneself in joy).
5. Mindfulness (dwelling in “stopping”-shamatha).
6. Proper Knowledge (dwelling in “contemplating”-vipashyana).
7. Reflection (one’s mind operating according to stopping and contemplating).
8. Renunciation (of views of states that appear).

And the Bodhisattva thus accomplishes the Bases of Psychic Power, the fruit of Samadhi. He does this by relying on disgust for all dharma-doors of evil actions, by relying on leaving them-cutting them off-by relying on extinction of those doors to evil conduct; and he makes transference to renunciation. He transfers this to the cultivation of all practices of giving. One must give away what one cannot bear to part with, and put down what one does not want to let go of. He cultivates the samadhi of vigor, always keeping at his cultivation of samadhi, which is the second Basis of Psychic Power. He also cultivates the samadhi of thought, so that his mind in samadhi is not moved by the Eight Winds:

The Eight Winds

1. Approval.
2. Ridicule.
3. Suffering.
4. Happiness.
5. Benefit.
6. Devastation.
7. Acclaim.
8. Bad repute.

(Sometimes: 7. Gain; 8. Loss.)

That means if someone praises you, your mind does not move, and it’s also unmoving if people make fun of you. No matter how much suffering you undergo, you don’t feel it’s bitter, and whatever happiness you experience, you don’t feel happy. You’re not moved by outer states or inward emotions. Benefit is when you obtain some personal advantages, while devastation means you undergo harm-but if neither situation moves you, your mind, your thought, is in samadhi. Then, too, you may be acclaimed and enjoy fame, or have bad repute and be slandered. Or else, you may get something or lose it. If your mind remains unmoved when those eight winds blow, then you have Samadhi power. But if you become delighted at a few words of praise from someone or upset when scolded just a little, you’ve been all stirred by those winds from outside-proof that you lack samadhi power. If you had it, you would be such that:

The eyes see forms and shapes, but inside there is nothing;
The ears hear defiling matters, but the mind does not know.
Then you have a bit of samadhi power, but not yet the total amount.

And he cultivates the samadhi of contemplation (mimamsa, often “worldly wisdom”), of whether or not his samadhi has reached accomplishment, cutting off all evil activities, and in that way he accomplishes the bases of psychic power, which are one of the six types of spiritual penetrations, also called the penetrations of spiritual states. He does this by relying on disgust for all worldly dharmas, by relying on leaving them all behind, by relying on extinction of all evil practice of worldly dharmas, and makes transference to renunciation. He transfers this to the Dharma-door of giving.

previous   next   Contents

Chapter 26 pages:  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15

                                 16    17    18    19    20    21    22    23    24

return to top