Practices and Vows of
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva

Chapter Forty, New Edition

 

The Merit of these Practices and Vows

SUTRA: 

Good Man, these are the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva’s ten great vows in their entirety. If Bodhisattvas can conform to and enter these great vows, then they will be able to bring all living beings to maturity. They will be able to comply with Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi. And they will be able to perfect Samantabhadra’s ocean of practices and vows. Therefore, Good Man, this is the way you should understand the meaning of these vows.

Suppose a good man or good woman were to fill up worlds as many as the smallest atomic particles in measureless, boundless, ineffably ineffable numbers of Buddha-lands throughout the ten directions with the seven extremely wonderful jewels as well as the most supreme peace and happiness known to gods and humans; and gave these to all the living beings in all those worlds; and made offerings of them to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in all of those worlds; and they did this continuously without cease for kalpas as numerous as the smallest atomic particles in all of those Buddha kshetra-lands. The merit and virtue acquired from this, when compared to the merit and virtue of a person who hears this king of vows pass by his ear but once, does not even equal one one-hundredth, one one-thousandth, or even one part in an upanishad.

COMMENTARY: 

After Samantabhadra Bodhisattva had explained the ten great king of vows, he said, “Good Man, these are the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva’s ten great vows. These ten are practiced by the Bodhisattva who cultivates the Bodhisattva path. Mahasattva is a Sanskrit term that means “a great Bodhisattva among Bodhisattvas.”

All Bodhisattvas should cultivate these ten great vows as well. Therefore, I said that these ten great king of vows are not exclusively the personal cultivation of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. All Bodhisattvas cultivate them, and all living beings can cultivate them too. The achievement of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas comes from the practice of these ten great king of vows. And living beings who wish to become Buddhas should cultivate in accordance with them.

When you cultivate these ten vows, you must cultivate them “in their entirety.” They must be perfected and completed. You must act in accord with the vows that Samantabhadra Bodhisattva has made and not give up half way in your cultivation of them. You should not practice them a while and then decide that they are very difficult and change your mind. If you change your mind, then you are not cultivating the vows to perfection or completely. You should never change your resolve. Even if the reaches of space came to an end, or there are no more living beings, or the karma of living beings has been completely eradicated, or the afflictions of living beings are totally gone, still your cultivation of these vows should never end.

Moreover, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva says, “If Bodhisattvas can conform to and enter these great vows:” to conform to means to rely on these ten great king of vows to cultivate these ten great practices. To enter means to get inside these great king of vows. At this point the ten great vows are the same as the Bodhisattva who practices the Bodhisattva path, and the Bodhisattva who practices the Bodhisattva path is the same as these ten great king of vows. The Dharma and the person become one without distinction. This is the meaning of “to conform to and enter.”

They will then be able to bring all living beings to maturity. If you can cultivate in accordance with these ten great king of vows, you will be able to bring all living beings to maturity. What does “to bring all living beings to maturity” mean? In your cultivation of the ten great king of vows, you cause living beings without the roots of goodness to plant the roots of goodness. For example, many living beings don’t understand that having filial piety for one’s parents is a good thing. When you are able to teach and influence them to have filial piety for their parents, it causes them to plant the roots of goodness. There is a saying,

Of the ten thousand evils, lust is the worst;
Of the hundred types of good, filial piety is foremost.

What makes people different from animals is that people understand how to have filial piety for their parents and to revere their teachers and elders. People are different from animals. Animals do not understand filial piety. However, it is said:

The lamb kneels to get its mother’s milk;
The crow returns to feed its parents.

The young lamb kneels when it takes milk from its mother. And when the young crow grows up, it returns to care for its elder parents. From these examples we can see that filial piety is a fundamental quality of human beings. Those who do not have filial piety for their parents do not have the roots of goodness. One must have filial piety for one’s parents, and then one certainly has the roots of goodness. For those who do not have the roots of goodness, you should cause them to plant the roots of goodness. And for those who already have the roots of goodness, you help them to increase their roots of goodness.

For example, when the Great Master, the Sixth Patriarch, was still living at home, he went to the mountains every day to gather firewood and then sold it at the marketplace. With the money he earned, he bought rice to support his mother. In this way he planted the roots of goodness.

Basically, the Great Master, the Sixth Patriarch, already had the roots of goodness. This is the state of a Bodhisattva.

One day after he had finished selling his firewood at an inn, he heard someone reciting the Vajra Sutra. When the person reached the line, “One should bring forth the mind which does not dwell anywhere,” the Great Master had an awakening. This guest who recited the Sutra, gave him ten taels of gold. Some of it he used for his mother’s welfare and what was left he used to go to Huang Mei to seek the Dharma. This helped him plant the roots of goodness and also helped him perfect the karma of the path that leads to enlightenment.

One helps living beings who already have the roots of goodness to make them become even greater. And one helps those who have already increased their roots of goodness to reach maturity. “To mature” means “to perfect the karma of the path that leads to enlightenment.” For a living being to come to maturity means that he or she becomes a Buddha. This means the fruition of Buddhahood reaches maturity. Therefore, the text says, they will then be able to bring all living beings to maturity.

They will be able to comply with Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi. “To comply with” means that they rely on this path or road to cultivate. What do they cultivate? They cultivate Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi, the “Unsurpassed, Right and Equal, Proper Enlightenment.” Unsurpassed Enlightenment surpasses the state of the Bodhisattvas. Right and Equal Enlightenment surpasses the state of those of the Two Vehicles and Proper Enlightenment surpasses the state of common worldly people. So this is to transcend the state of an unenlightened common person and enter the state of an enlightened sage. The achievement of Anuttara-Samyak- Sambodhi refers to the fruition of a Buddha. And they will be able to perfect Samantabhadra’s ocean of practices and vows. If you cultivate these ten great king of vows, you can achieve and perfect the ocean of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s practices and vows. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva specializes in granting the wishes of all living beings, giving them whatever they seek.

Samantabhadra Bodhisattva once was a food server in the dining hall of a monastery. Those monastics that have renounced the householder’s life assemble in the refectory for their meal and the tables are arranged in two long rows separated by about 3 to 4 feet facing one another. In front of each person are two bowls, one for rice, and the other for vegetables.

When Samantabhadra Bodhisattva served as a food server, he carried small bottles of soy sauce, hot sauce, pepper, and other condiments around his waist. He would walk before each person, and if the person wanted salt, he would give him salt; or if he wanted soy sauce or oil, he would give him that. He gave them whatever they wanted. This is how he fulfilled the wishes of living beings.

But satisfying the wishes of living beings is not all that easy to do. For example, someone might want salt, but as soon as he gave him salt, the monk would say, “Hey! I don’t want that much. You gave me too much.”

When he came to the next person who wanted salt, he would give him a little less, and the monk would say, “Give me more! You act like I’m eating your salt. This salt belongs to the assembly. You’re too stingy.” Still, he always tried to comply with everyone’s demands. This is how difficult it was for Samantabhadra Bodhisattva to satisfy the wishes of living beings.

Living beings are strange. If you give them a lot, they say it is too much, and if you give them a little, they say it is not enough. If they don’t say anything and you give them some, then they say they don’t want any. And if you do not give them anything, they will say that you are looking down on them, that you are being unkind to them. You can see, then, that it was not easy for Samantabhadra Bodhisattva to fulfill the wishes of living beings.

Since that is how living beings are, should you decide not to try to fulfill their wishes and just ignore them? On the contrary, the more difficult they are, the more you should do this hard work. If people scold you, hit you, or look down on you when you cultivate these difficult practices, they are testing you to see if you are sincere. Therefore, those who cultivate the path should not fear difficulty. The more difficult things are, the more you should resolve to do them. For example, if you sweep the grounds and someone scolds you by saying, “From morning to night you do nothing but sweep the ground. What do you think you’re doing? What’s the use of sweeping the grounds?” You should just not pay attention to them.

“Well, then, if your sweeping irritates people, should you intentionally sweep the grounds every day to cause them to get mad?” you ask. Of course not! But, in general, when you cultivate the path, and if your cultivation is correct, then even if people scold you, you should ignore them. If you are practicing something that is incorrect, however, then you should quickly change. Everything is like that.

And they will be able to perfect Samantabhadra’s ocean of practices and vows. In the ocean of Samantabhadra’s practices and vows, there are many kinds of practices in addition to these ten great king of vows. The strength of his practices is as big as the great ocean, and so we should completely fill up or fulfill this ocean of vows. Therefore, Good Man, because of what I have just said, this is the way you should understand the meaning of these vows. You should understand the meaning of these vows in accordance with my explanation of them.

Suppose a good man or good woman who cultivates the five moral precepts and the ten good karmas were to fill up worlds as many as the smallest atomic particles in measureless, boundless, ineffably ineffable numbers of Buddha-lands throughout the ten directions, with the seven extremely wonderful jewels…That is, he or she filled up all these world systems as numerous as smallest atomic particles. “Extremely wonderful” means the very best of the seven jewels: gold, silver, red pearls, carnelian, and so forth. In general, these seven jewels are the most valuable things that exist.

…As well as the most supreme peace and happiness known to gods and humans, together with the foremost happiness of gods and humans, the most wonderful bliss, and gave these to all the living being in all those worlds, if they gave this bliss as a gift to all the living beings in as many worlds as are discussed above.

There are three kinds of giving:

• the giving of wealth;
• the giving of Dharma;
• the giving of fearlessness.

Of the first kind, the giving of wealth, there are two kinds, internal and external. Internal wealth includes your body, mind, nature, and life. One vows, “I will give things of my own; I will give my eyes to people, or my ears, my nose, my tongue, or my head, my brains, or my marrow.” External wealth includes one’s country, cities, spouse, and children. One who truly practices giving gives away his whole country to others. He does not want to be a king. Nor does he want any cities that belong to him. Suppose everything in San Francisco, a large city, belongs to me. I wish to give everything away to other people.

Men find it most difficult to give up their wives or girlfriends. If you are able to give up what you basically cannot give up, then that is true giving. If you cannot give them up, then that is not giving.

There once was a woman who heard me say that giving a wife to others is a form of giving, so she asked if she could give away her husband. This is probably the first time anyone has given away her husband. I told her, “You must first find someone else for him; if you can’t find anyone to accept him, how can you give him away? You can’t throw him out in the street and call it giving.” Later I said, “You don’t really have a mind of giving. You still can’t give him up.” And in fact, she did not give him away after all. “Giving wealth” means that one can renounce one’s valuables and give them all away.

The second kind of giving is the giving of Dharma. “Of all the kinds of offerings, the offering of Dharma is supreme.” The giving of Dharma is also called offering the Dharma. To lecture Sutras, speak Dharma, teach living beings, and turn the wheel of Dharma are all forms of giving the Dharma. Giving Dharma is better than giving wealth, but the Dharma you give should accord with the conditions of living beings it is intended for, so that when they hear the Dharma, they will progressively understand the Buddha-dharma and then become enlightened.

The third is the giving of fearlessness. Some may have an unexpected accident or disaster, or see a ghost, a demon, or other weird entities or bandits, and forget everything and become scared out of their wits. At that time, you console them, “Don’t be afraid. Recite Homage to Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, and Guan Shih Yin Bodhisattva will protect you. Don’t be afraid.” If you explain this so that they can understand, they will then recite the name of Guan Yin Bodhisattva and as soon as they do, they will naturally lose their fear and regain their composure. Or they can recite the name of Amitabha Buddha, and they will very quickly be far from fear. This is called the giving of fearlessness.

I have briefly described these three kinds of giving. You should practice them in cultivating the Bodhisattva path.

If they gave these jewels and bliss as a gift to all the numerous living beings in as many worlds as are discussed above, and made offerings of them as has been described to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in all of those worlds—if they gave all kinds of offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in all of those worlds, and did this continuously without cease for kalpas as numerous as the smallest atomic particles in all of those Buddha kshetra-lands. If they gave these gifts constantly, passing through as many kalpas as there are smallest atomic particles in that many Buddha-lands, making gifts not for just one or two days, but continuously and without rest for as many great kalpas as there are smallest atomic particles in these numerous worlds, the merit and virtue acquired from this…The merit and virtue acquired by these people who practice giving would be very great indeed!

When compared to the merit and virtue of a person who hears this king of vows pass by his ear but once…A person who hears these ten great king of vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva recited, not explained, but simply recited so that they pass by his ear but once, will gain merit and virtue which surpasses the merit and virtue of the person described above who made all those gifts. As it is said, “You hear it one time and it plants an eternal seed for the path.” Once you hear it, you have a seed for Bodhi forever. If you compare this person’s merit and virtue with the merit and virtue derived from giving in the measureless and boundless numbers of worlds for such a long time as measureless and boundless numbers of kalpas, the merit of the latter, compared to the merit of a person who hears the great vows but once, does not even equal one one-hundredth. The merit and virtue derived from all this giving does not equal one one-hundredth of the merit and virtue derived from hearing these ten great king of vows, nor one one-thousandth. The giving does not equal one one-thousandth, or even one part in an upanishad. An upanishad refers to the essence of a particle, and it is even smaller than an atomic particle. The merit and virtue derived from giving all the unsurpassed gifts for many kalpas of time does not equal one upanishad’s amount when compared to the merit and virtue gained from hearing these ten great king of vows.

Why is the merit and virtue derived from these ten great king of vows so great? If you give wealth, you can only save a person’s body and life. However, giving these ten great king of vows is the giving of Dharma. One may cultivate Samantabhadra’s Contemplation or Samantabhadra’s Repentance, which are the ten great king of vows. When one cultivates this kind of contemplation, then the one becomes infinite, and the infinite becomes one. The one becomes the dharma-realm, and the dharma- realm becomes one. Worshiping one Buddha is worshiping all Buddhas of the dharma-realm. And worshiping all Buddhas of the dharma-realm is worshiping one Buddha. The first vow is to worship and revere all Buddhas, and the merit and virtue derived from this practice is infinite and inexhaustible. The merit and virtue is especially great. If you cultivate this Dharma, then day-by-day your Bodhi seeds will grow, and before long you will accomplish the fruition of Bodhi. Therefore, the merit and virtue is especially great.

SUTRA: 

Moreover, if a person, with a mind of deep faith in these great vows, receives and upholds, reads and recites them from memory, or even writes out a single four-line verse, he or she can quickly eradicate the karma of the five Avīci offenses. All of the world’s illnesses that afflict the body and mind, as well as the various kinds of suffering and distress, up to and including all the bad karma equal in number to the smallest atomic particles in Buddha kshetra-lands will all be wiped away. 

COMMENTARY: 

Moreover, if a person—it is not certain, but there may be such a person who with a mind of deep faith...Deep faith is not shallow. One brings forth a mind of genuine and proper faith, which means a mind that really has no doubts. In these great vows...One has faith in Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s ten great king of vows. Whoever receives and upholds reads and recites them from memory, that is one who relies on this Dharma to cultivate. He recites this chapter on the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva every day. “To read” refers to using a book to read the text and “recite them from memory” means to recite the vows from memory without looking at the text. Or even writes out a single four-line verse. Or if you cannot read or recite the text, perhaps you can write it out with a pen. This is not talking about writing out the entire text, but just writing a single four-line verse. For example, you might write out,

To worship all Buddhas;
To praise the Tathagatas;
To extensively cultivate making offerings;
To repent of karmic obstacles and reform.

Someone only writes out four lines of verse or the names of the vows like this.

Can quickly eradicate the karma of the five Avīci offenses...Quickly does not refer to a fixed period of time. It may be that it is eradicated by writing it once a day, twice a day, or many times a day. Very quickly they are eradicated. The five Avīci offenses are five karmic offenses that lead to the Avīci hell. In this hell, one person sees that his body totally fills it up. If there are many people in this hell, each person sees his own body totally filling it up, yet they do not obstruct one another. Time spent in this hell is also uninterrupted. From the time someone first enters it until the time he leaves, there is no break in the suffering he undergoes as retribution for his offenses. His suffering is uninterrupted, his lifetime is uninterrupted, time is uninterrupted, and the retribution he undergoes is uninterrupted.

All of the world’s illnesses that afflict the body and mind. Some people become ill in body, and some people become ill in mind. Illness of the body refers to the sicknesses we may contract, and illnesses of the mind refers to the suffering in our minds when we are not happy.

As well as the various kinds of suffering and distress. If you are sick, you undergo suffering and distress, and if you suffer and are afflicted, then you are not happy. Up to and including all the bad karma equal in number to the smallest atomic particles in Buddha kshetra-lands will all be wiped away. Every kind of evil karma can be wiped away. But to do so, you must have a mind of deep faith. If you do not have a mind of deep faith, but only wish to try it out to see if it works, you will not invoke a response. Why? This is because the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas do not appreciate living beings coming to test them. They can test you, but you cannot say, “I don’t believe the Dharma spoken by the Buddha, so I think I’ll try them out to see if they work.” You should sincerely put it into practice and not just test it out to see if it works.

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