The Ten Grounds

Chapter Twenty-Six

 

 

Sutra:  

They can believe the Buddha’s merit and virtue,
And contemplate regarding living beings.
Knowing they arise from causes and conditions,
They then give rise to kindly mindfulness;

Such suffering living beings such as these,
I now should liberate and save.
For the sake of those living beings,
I should cultivate the various kinds of giving

Positions as a king, all gems and jewels,
Up to elephants, horses, and conveyances.
Head, eyes, hands, as welll as feet,
Up to even body, blood, and flesh –

Each and every thing I can renounce,
Their minds have no worries or regrets.
Seeking all the various sutra books,
Their minds are never weary or fatigued.

Well can they understand their drift and meaning,
Adapting them to practices of worlds.
Repentance and reform their own adornment,
Their cultivation is progressively more solid.  

Commentary:  

They can believe the Buddha’s merit and virtue. We who study the Buddhadharma should first clearly recognize our tenets and convictions. We should first ask ourselves, “Do I truly believe in the Buddha? Do I believe that the Buddha has limitless merit and virtue?” Why is it that the Buddha has limitless merit and virtue? It is because the Buddha in the past practiced giving on a large scale, and he was able to give away all of his wealth. He was able to take all of his inner wealth – his head, eyes, brains, and marrow – and his outer wealth – countries, cities, wives, and children – and give it away without any attachment.

They contemplate regarding living beings. Since we believe that the Buddha has limitless merit and virtue, we should constantly follow the Buddha in study and should also practice all kinds of giving. Therefore, we should contemplate all living biengs’ causes and conditions.

Knowing they arise from causes and conditions. All living beings are produced from the coming together of causes and conditions, and all have very deep relationships with us. They may have been our parents from beginningless kalpas to the present, or they may have been our elder or younger brothers, sisters, wives, or friends from beginningless kalpas to the present, so that they have relationship of an intricate network of karmas and turnings on the revolving wheel with us. Because they are aware of that relationship.

They then give rise to kindly mindfulness. I should bring forth a mind of kindness and compassion and save and rescue all of htose living beings who have relationships with me, so that they leave suffeirng and attain bliss. I should cuase them toall be happy. Such suffering living beings such as these,I now should liberate and save. If I do not save and rescue them, then there is no way to know when their suffeirng can come to an end. And so, those beings are turning on the wheel of the six destinies, being born and then dying, being reborn and hten dying again; now that I know, I should save them and cause them to be liberated.

For the sake of those living beings, I should cultivate the various kinds of giving, positions as a king, all gems and jewels, up to elephants, horses, and conveyances. I can give away all of my roayl positions to other people, and all of my gems and jewels: my gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, mother of pearl, red pearls, and carnelian – all of those seven precious things. I can give away, as well, my most cherished great elephant, or my most beautiful horses, or my finest conveyances, whether it be my car, my train, my bus, or even the airplane I own – all of that I can give away to other living beings. Those are posessions external to the body.

In addition, if somenone required my head, then I will give it to him. If someone requres my eyes, I’ll give it to him. If someone needs my hands, they are his. As well as if someone needs my feet, he may have them. Up to even body, blood, and flesh, even to the point that if someone needs my body, it, too, will be given him. Even one’s own blood, the bolld from one’s own body, is bestowed as a gift upon all living beings. Even the flesh on one’s onw body can also be given to all living beings. Right now we should all look into ourselves and ask ourselves if we can do this. If we can, then we are Bodhisattvas who have brought forth the resolve of Bodhisattvas. If we are unable to do this, should we or should we not imitate the Bodhisattva? If we want to imitate the Bodhisattva, then we should, bit by bit, go forward and act in this way.

Each and every thing I can renounce, I can give them all away. The external wealth of countries, cities, wives, and children, along with the internal wealth of head, eyes, brains, and marrow, I am completely able to give away. Their minds have no worries or regrets. After they have performed such acts of giving, they are incapable of having regrets in their minds, saying, ‘I shouldnot have given them away! such cheirshed possessions of mine – my countries, cities, wives, and children, my head, eyes, brains, and marrow – how could I have given them away to people? I should not have done that. It was too idiotic, too stupid!’ What the Bodhisattva wants to do is just what people are unable to do, the “stupid” things. He’s not just always trying to get a bargain and come out on the long end of the stick when he gives. Therefore, when a Bodhisattva gives away all external and internal wealth, he is unable to regret it.

Seeking all the various sutra books, furthermore, they find ways to study all of the books of Sutras spoken by the Buddha, and their minds are never weary or fatigued. In their minds there never comes a time when they would say, ‘I’ve looked at enough Sutras spoken by the Buddha, and I’ve recited this mantra enough; I would like to recite a new and different one.’ They could never be that way. Bodhisattvas, in reading the Sutras, never weary of a hundred recitations. Even if they have recited one hundred times, they are never tired or weary of it. In reciting mantras, too, they never weary of a hundred recitations. They never become tired of them.

We people should realize why it is we need to recite Sutras and hold mantras. It’s not just because if you recite a certain Sutra you will have a certain amount of merit and virtue. It is to cure your false thinking. If you didn’t have any false thinking, then you could get away with not reciting Sutras and holding mantras. But, if you do have false thinking, then you have to recite Sutras and hold mantras, which counteracts your false thinking and helps your mind to become pure. When we constantly strike up false thoughts in ourminds, always having unclean, defiled false thinking, so that as soon as you think, if you’re not thinking about how nice yoru girlfriend is, then you’re thinking aobut how handsome your boyfriend is – all of that is false thinking. If all you are doing is thinking, it’s still not serious.

However, if you keep on thinking like that, you’ll start to cry and will feel it’s very painful. Dur to that, when we recite Sutras and hold mantras, it’s so we can expel the false and retain the true. The mind is like a monkey. The monkey is always looking for something to do. If you haven’t any work to give it, it runs off east and west. If you do give the mind some work to do, such as reciting Sutras and holding mantras, then ti will strike up less false thinking, and the money won’t run off. “Their minds are never weary or fatigue.” In reicting Sutras and holding mantras – cultivating --- they never could become tired or weary.

Well can they understand their drift and meaning, in their recitaiton of the Sutras and their holding of mantras, they understand the doctrines and purport of the Sutras and the principles of the mantras, adapting them to practices of worlds. Once you have understood the principles, then you can apply them in the world to benefit all living beings. Repentance and reform their own adornment, one should be very repentant and reform the places where one made mistakes in past behavior, and one should, oneself, use the merit and virtue of repentance and reform to adorn one’s own resolve for Bodhi. Their cultivation is progressively more solid. If you yourself are able greatly to repent and reform, bring forth the thought for Bodhi, and cultivate the unsurpassed Way of Bodhi, then day by day you will increase in firmness and solidity.

Sutra:  

They make offerings to Buddhas limitless,
Revere, do reverence, honor, and respect them.
In that way always do they practice;
Day and night, not lazy or fatigued.

Good roots brighten and become more pure,
Like gold which has been smelted in the fire.
The Bodhsiattva dwelling in this place,
Purely cultivates all of the Ten Grounds.

In what he does there is no obstruction,
His endowments cannot be cut off.  
Just as when a great business leader,
To beneift the hosts of business people,
Asks and knows routes’ dangers and their ease,
Then arrives in safety at the town,
The Bodhisattva who dwells on the First Ground,
You should know just also in that way,
With courageous vigor unobstructed,
Reaches and arrives at the Tenth Ground,
While he dwells on this, the initial Ground,
He acts as king of merit and great virtue.  

Commentary:  

The mind of the Bodhisattva daily increases in solidity as he vastly cultivates him giving of offerings. They make offerings to Buddhas limitless, revere, do reverence, honor, and respect them. Inasmuch as he makes limitless offerings to limitless Buddhas, naturally he reveres and reverences, honors and respects them. In that way always do they practice; in practicing, one should have an enduring mind. One cannot achieve success after a single day of practice. Life after life and time after time one must practice in this way, cultivating the Bodhisattva Path, day and night, not lazy or fatigued. Whether it’s daytime or nighttime, they are constantly practicing the Bodhisattva Way, never weary or fatigued. Their good roots brighten and become more pure.

As the Bodhisattvas cultivate, they day by day accumulate more good roots, their intelligence is daily greater, and they attain to their original purity, like gold which has been smelted in the fire. It is just the same as when a goldsmith uses fire to smelt true gold. Having put it through the fire once, he again puts it through the fire. When it has been through the fire a great many times, the gold becomes pure gold, without the least admixture.

The Bodhsiattva dwelling in this place, purely cultivates all of the Ten Grounds. The Bodhsiattva cultivaing the Dharma-doors of the Ten Grounds is also that way, being smelted in the same manner as gold. He purely cultivates the states of the Ten Grounds. In what he does there is no obstruction, when the Bodhisattva is cultivating the Bodhisattva Way, he cultivates all good and eradicates all evil, and so he has no onstructions. His endowments cannot be cut off. He is endowed with the light of all wisdoms, which cannot be cut off.

Just as when a great business leader, to beneift the hosts of business people, asks and knows routes’ dangers and their ease, then arrives in safety at the town. It is also like, in this day and age, a great entrepreneur, perhaps a prominent corporate executive, in those days, a caravan leader, who, in order to do business and make large profits, joins together a large number of business people. He finds out clearly in advance if the route to be traversed is dangerous or easy. Then they arrive with no incident at the place to which they wanted to go. In the same way, the Bodhisattva who is cultivating on the First Ground, should ask about the states of every single Ground, along with the fruit positions to be obtained, all the way to Buddhahood.

The Bodhisattva who dwells on the First Ground, you should know just also in that way, with courageous vigor unobstructed, reaches and arrives at the Tenth Ground. He is just the same as the great business leader. He is courageously vigorous, has not obstructions whatsoever, and from the First Ground, the Ground of Happiness, he arrives at the Tenth Ground, the Ground of the Dharma Cloud.

While he dwells on this, the initial Ground, he acts as king of merit and great virtue. While dwelling on the Ground of Happiness, he is a king of great merit and virtue and influences all the Bodhisattvas to go forward and cultivate.

Sutra:  

He uses Dharma to transform all beings,
Compassion-hearted, with no trace of harming.
Ruling and directing Jambuvipa,
In transforming customs, none does he not reach,
Making all established in great giving,
Accomplished by the wisdom of a Buddha.  

In his wish to seek the Way supreme,
Renouncing then his own royal position,
He can, within the midst of the Buddha’s teaching,
Courageous and with diligence, cultivate.  

He then attains to one hundred Samadhis,
And he comes to see all hundred Buddhas:
He makes one hundred worlds tremble and quake:
His illumination’s reach is also thus,  

He transforms and saves a hundred beings,
To enter in one hundred Dharma-doors;
He can know one hundred kalpas’ matters,
And appear within one hundred bodies.
There then appear one hundred Bodhisattvas,
Acting as a retinue for him.  

Commentary:  

When the Bodhisattva acts as a king of great merit and virtue, in Southern Jambudvipa he constantly becomes a wheel-turning king, in order to teacha nd transform living beings. He uses Dharma to transform all beings. He uses all the Buddhadharmas to save all living biengs, by being compassion-hearted, with no trace of harming. In transforming living beings, he constantly has a mind of kindness and compassion, with no thought of harming living beings. He firmly maintains the practice of giving, ruling and directing Jambuvipa. He acts as king of the region known as Southern Jambudvipa and transforms and beautifies its customs, causing the customs of each nation to become wholesome ones. All countries hold the Five Precepts:

• no killing,
• no stealing,
• no sexaul misconduct,
• no false speech,
• No intoxicants.

The citizens of all countries hold the five precepts and practice the ten goods, and so in transforming customs, none does he not reach,making all established in great giving. He causes all living beings also to practice the Dharma-door of great renunciation, to cultivate the Dharma-door of giving, and

Accomplished by the wisdom of a Buddha. All living beings attain the true and actual wisdom of a Buddha.

In his wish to seek the Way supreme, he himself seeks the most supreme Way, and he causes all living beings to seek it, too. Renouncing then his own royal position. To start with, he is king of a country, but he also gives away that kingly position to other people. He can, within the midst of the Buddha’s teaching,courageous and with diligence, cultivate. What does he do after he has renouced his royal position? He cultivates. He leaves home and cultivates the Way, with courageous vigor. In diligently cultivating precepts, samadhi, and wisdom and putting to rest, greed, hatred, and stupidity, at no time is he lazy.

He then attains to one hundred Samadhis. At that time, the Bodhisattva in the interval of a single instant of thought, attains to a hundred kinds of samadhis,

And he comes to see all hundred Buddhas. Again, within the space of a single thought, he can see all the Buddhas of a hundred lands. He makes one hundred worlds tremble and quake. The countries of one hundred worlds all experience the six types of quakes. His illumination’s reach is also thus. The pervasive illumination of his light also shines upon the living beings of a hundred worlds.

He transforms and saves a hundred beings. As he shines upon the living beings of a hundred worlds, he transforms and saves all those hundred worlds’ beings. To enter in one hundred Dharma-doors; the living beings of the hundred worlds all attain a hundred Dharma-doors. He can know one hundred kalpas’ matters. He is able to know all of the events of a hundred previous kalpas, of a hundred kalpas afterwards, and of a hundred present kalpas, knowing the entirety of the past, the present, and the future.

And appear within one hundred bodies, he is also able to appear and trnasform, haivng as many as a hundred Bodhisattva bodies. There then appear one hundred Bodhisattvas. Every single body further manifests as many as a hundred Bodhisattvas, acting as a retinue for him. They act as that Bodhisatva’s retinue, helping him propagate the Buddhadharma and teach and transform living beings.

Sutra:  

If he uses comfort from his power of vows,
Their number, limitless, surpasses these.
I, among the meanings of this Ground,
Have in general spoken a small portion.

If one wants to analyze most broadly,
One cannot finish in a million kalpas.
The Bodhisattva’s path, the most supreme,
Of benefitting all the flocks of beings –
Dharmas such as those, of the First Ground,
I have now already finished speaking.  

Commentary:  

If he uses comfort from his power of vows, their number, limitless, surpasses these. Should it be that the Bodhisattva has made vows of sovereign, as-you-please comfort, the merit, virtue, and wisdom far surpassthat by an unkonwn amount, surpassing it by ahundred kalpas, a thousand kalpas, a hundred thousand kalpas, kalpas so many that words cannot express these principles. I, among the meanings of this Ground, Vajra Treasury Bodhisattva says, “I, within the meanings and principles of this First Ground,”

Have in general spoken a small portion, I have not completely discussed them. Were I to speak them competely if one wants to analyze most broadly. If they were discussed extensively and in full detail, one cannot finish in a million kalpas. These principles could not be discussed completely in a quadrillion aeons.

The Bodhisattva’s path, the most supreme, which is cultivated by Bodhisattvas, of benefitting all the flocks of beings. What matters most to them, their creed, is to benefit all living beings, benefitting themselves by benefitting others, crossing themselves over by crossing over others, enlightening themselves by enlightening others. Dharmas such as those, of the First Ground, the kinds of dharmas I previously discussed, those dharma-doors of the First Ground, I have now already finished speaking. Now I have already finished my very general explanation of them. All of you should thoroughly investigate them, and then you will be able to understand them.

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