Practices and Vows of
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva

Chapter Forty, New Edition

 

SUTRA: 

This is like the lotus flower that is not sullied by the water,
Or like the sun and moon that do not stay fixed in the sky.

Completely eradicating all the suffering of the evil paths,
And equally bringing happiness to all living beings,
In this way passing through kalpas as numerous as particles in a kshetra-land
Always benefiting those in the ten directions without end. 

I always conform with all living beings,
Exhausting all kalpas of the future.
Always cultivating the vast practices of Samantabhadra
Bringing to perfection the unsurpassed great Bodhi. 

May all who practice the same way as myself,
In every place where we gather together,
Our karma of body, mouth, and mind the same,
Together we learn and cultivate all the same practices and vows. 

All of the Good Teachers who benefit me,
Who elucidate for me the practices of Samantabhadra,
I wish that we will always gather together,
And that they will always be happy with me. 

COMMENTARY: 

This is like the lotus flower that is not sullied by the water. What does it mean not to be attached or sullied? It means, “Although a person is in the mundane world, his mind is beyond the mundane. If a flower is planted in a well, it will not be sullied by the dust.” Although this person is in the world, yet his mind transcends the mundane world. This is like a flower planted in a well that is not defiled by the dust. No dust particles can reach the flower. So the verse says, “Just as the lotus flower is not sullied by the water.” This is like a lotus that comes forth from the mud, but is not defiled by the mud. Its roots are in the mud and its stem is in the water, but the flower is above the water. This is called, “coming from the mud, yet being undefiled.” We people should not be attached to any of the dharmas of the world. This is like the lotus flower that is not defiled by the dust.

Or like the sun and moon that do not stay fixed in the sky. It’s like the sun and moon in the sky. They do not remain in the same spot in the sky. Although the sun and moon are in the sky, they don’t stand still there nor are they attached to the sky. They are without any attachments.

Completely eradicating all the suffering of the evil paths. To “completely eradicate” means to totally wipe out the suffering of all the evil paths. The three evil paths are the paths of the hells, the hungry ghosts, and the animals. And equally bringing happiness to all living beings. One equally bestows this kind of happiness upon all living beings. In this way passing through kalpas as numerous as particles in a kshetra-land. I will act in this way throughout kalpas that are so many that they are as numerous as the smallest atomic particles in a kshetra-land. Always benefiting those in the ten directions without end. I benefit all living beings throughout the ten directions, constantly without end.

I always conform with all living beings. I want to at all times comply with living beings, comply with all living beings in cultivating and studying ten great King of Vows of Samantabhadra. Exhausting all kalpas of the future. Throughout all kalpas, exhausting the limits of future time, I never reach the end of the power or force of these vows. Always cultivating the vast practices of Samantabhadra. I constantly cultivate and study the vast and great doors of practice of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Bringing to perfection the unsurpassed great Bodhi. The roots of goodness from my unsurpassed great Bodhi are brought to perfection without anything lacking whatsoever.

May all who practice the same way as myself—all those people who with me cultivate the Ten Great Practices of Samantabhadra—in every place where we gather together, that is at any time we are able to gather together in one place. Our karma of body, mouth, and mind the same. Our three karmas of body, mouth, and mind are identical. Together we learn and cultivate all the same practices and vows. The practices and vows that we cultivate and learn together are also the same.

All of the Good Teachers who benefit me. All those Good Teachers who are beneficial to me, who elucidate for me the practices of Samantabhadra, and who teach me how to cultivate the doors of practice of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, I wish that we will always gather together. Those who have affinities with each other can congregate together. However, it would be impossible to be together with those who do not have affinities with you even if you wanted to. Those who always gather together have made vows to work diligently at cultivating the path together in life after life. “In the same assembly” means being in the same Dharma Assembly. And that they will always be happy with me. Those people will always be happy with me.

If you do not have affinities with a person, then even if you treat him well when meeting up with him, he will not feel like he is being treated well. However, if you have affinities with someone, even if you scold him or hit him, he will be happy. Why? Because you have these affinities with each other. So the relationships that people have with one another are subtle and wonderful.

SUTRA: 

I vow to always see in person all the Tathagatas
And the assembly of disciples of the Buddhas that encircle them.
I’ll give vast and great offerings to all of them
To the end of future kalpas without ever becoming weary. 

COMMENTARY: 

I vow to always see in person all the Tathagatas. I make a vow to always personally see all Buddhas and to go to all of their worlds throughout the ten directions to draw near to them. And the assembly of disciples of the Buddhas that encircle them. I will be together with all the great assemblies of all the Buddhas’ disciples that have gathered together who circumambulate, praise, and make offerings to the Buddhas. I’ll give vast and great offerings to all of them. I will bring forth a resolve to make vast and great offerings to all the Buddhas and all the disciples of the Buddha. To the end of future kalpas without ever becoming weary. Because of my resolve to make vast and great offerings, even after the kalpas of the future have come to an end, I will not become weary. I will never become weary or tired of doing this.

SUTRA: 

I vow to uphold the subtle and wonderful Dharma of all Buddhas
And illuminate and make known all the practices of Bodhi,
And attain the ultimately pure path of Samantabhadra,
Always practicing to the end of future kalpas. 

Within all states of existence,
I cultivate blessings and wisdom, constantly and without end.
By concentration, wisdom, skill-in-means, and liberation,
I will gain an endless treasury of merit and virtue. 

COMMENTARY: 

I vow to uphold the subtle and wonderful Dharma of all Buddhas, and illuminate and make known all the practices of Bodhi. I further vow to receive and uphold the subtle and wonderful, extremely profound Dharma of all the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three periods of time. So it is said,

The unsurpassed, profound, subtle and wonderful Dharma
Is difficult to meet in billions of kalpas.
I now see and hear it, and receive and uphold it.
I vow to understand the Tathagata’s true and actual meaning.

Do not think that it is easy to understand the Buddha-dharma. Not only is it not easy to understand, it is extremely difficult to even encounter the Buddha-dharma. Therefore it is said,

A human body is difficult to obtain,
The Buddha-dharma is difficult to hear,
And it’s hard to meet a Good Teacher.

It is difficult to be able to hear the Buddha-dharma, but now we have heard it. A human body is difficult to obtain, but now we have already attained a human body. It is difficult to meet a Good Teacher. We should look for a Good Teacher.

I vow to uphold the subtle and wonderful Dharma of all Buddhas. I wish to cultivate according to the subtle and wonderful Dharma doors of all Buddhas. And illuminate and make known all the practices of

Bodhi. I wish to promote and extol Buddhas’ teaching and cause the Way of Bodhi to emit a light that appears throughout the universe. This is called illuminating and making known all the practices of Bodhi, which includes all the practices of the path to enlightenment.

And attain the ultimately pure path of Samantabhadra. I will obtain ultimate purity, attain the state of Nirvana, and perfect Samantabhadra’s great Way of Bodhi. Always practicing to the end of future kalpas. At all times I wish to cultivate all the practices of Samantabhadra to the end of future kalpas.

Within all states of existence. Within all states of existence in the Three Realms, I cultivate blessings and wisdom, constantly and without end. The blessings and virtue, as well as wisdom, that I cultivate at all times are inexhaustible.

If you wish to cultivate blessings, you should do good deeds.
If you wish to cultivate wisdom, you should extensively study the Buddha-dharma.

If you do many good acts of merit and virtue, you will have blessings. If you propagate the Buddha-dharma widely, turn the wheel of the great Dharma, and teach and transform living beings, your wisdom will be revealed. Then your blessings and wisdom will be inexhaustible.

By concentration, wisdom, skill-in-means, and liberation. One’s powers of concentration and wisdom will be perfected so that concentration and wisdom are perfectly bright. Further one will be able to use clever expedient skill-in-means and also the Dharma doors of liberation. I will gain an endless treasury of merit and virtue. I will obtain an inexhaustible and endless treasury of merit and virtue. A treasury of merit and virtue means that one’s merit and virtue is inexhaustible. It’s as great as space and as immeasurable as the Dharma Realm. This treasury of merit and virtue is infinite, so that to the ends of future time it will not be exhausted.

SUTRA: 

In one particle are kshetra-lands as numerous as particles.
In each kshetra-land are inconceivable numbers of Buddhas.
Every Buddha dwells in the midst of their assemblies,
I see them always performing the practices of Bodhi. 

Everywhere throughout the ocean of kshetra-lands in the ten directions,
On the tip of every hair in the ocean of the three periods of time,
Throughout the ocean of Buddhas and ocean of lands,
I cultivate in all of them passing through an ocean of kalpas. 

The speech of all Tathagatas is pure;
Each word contains an ocean of all sounds,
That conforms to what living beings like to hear.
Each sound flows forth from the Buddha’s ocean of eloquence. 

COMMENTARY: 

In one particle are kshetra-lands as numerous as particles. In the Buddha-dharma, the small manifests within the great, and the great also appears in the small. One minute particle is the smallest, but in one minute particle all the measureless and boundless Buddha-lands can appear. Furthermore, each minute particle in a world system is a Buddha- land. And within each of these Buddha kshetra-lands are Buddha-lands as numerous as measureless and boundless numbers of minute particles. In each kshetra-land are inconceivable numbers of Buddhas. And within each of these Buddha-lands are inconceivable numbers of Buddhas. They are so numerous there is no way you can know how many Buddhas there are.

Every Buddha dwells in the midst of their assemblies. Each one of those Buddhas has a Dharma assembly where all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Shravakas, and Arhats venerate, surround, and praise them. I see them always performing the practices of Bodhi. I see the oceanic assembly of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas cultivating the practices of the Path and the practices of Bodhi, that is, the practices of Bodhi cultivated by Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.

Everywhere throughout the ocean of kshetra-lands in the ten directions. “Throughout the ten directions everywhere,” means that one goes to the ocean of Buddha kshetra-lands of the ten directions. Why is it called an “ocean” of lands? This is because “ocean” means multitudinous. That is to say it is measureless and boundless. There is no way you can know the number of Buddha kshetra-lands. So they are called “the ocean of kshetra-lands,” that is, the ocean of all Buddha kshetra-lands.

On the tip of every hair in the ocean of the three periods of time...On the tip of each hair appears the ocean of all Buddha kshetra-lands of the ten directions and three periods of time. The ocean of the three periods of time means that on the tip of each hair there appears all the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three periods of time. Throughout the ocean of Buddhas and ocean of lands...The number of all these Buddhas is so numerous they are like a vast ocean. “And ocean of lands” means all of their lands are so numerous that they are infinite. I cultivate in all of them passing through an ocean of kalpas. The amount of time I pass through while cultivating is also measureless and boundless. It is as deep and unfathomable, limitless, and boundless as the ocean. I have cultivated for that long a time.

The speech of all Tathagatas is pure. I hear all the Buddhas, the Tathagatas speaking the Dharma with a pure sound. Each word contains an ocean of all sounds. Every sentence of Dharma spoken by all Buddhas is replete with an ocean of all sounds, which is boundless, and measureless. This is like what is described about the Buddha in the Earth Store Sutra : He has “the Thunder Sound and the Great Thunder Sound, the Lion’s Roar Sound and the Great Lion’s Roar Sound.” These belong to the ocean of all sounds. That conforms to what living beings like to hear. The ocean of sounds of all Buddhas complies with the wishes and delights of all living beings. Each sound flows forth from the Buddha’s ocean of eloquence. Each sound flows forth with measureless samadhi and eloquence. So it is called “oceanic eloquence.” There is a short verse about this:

The Buddhas proclaim the Dharma with one sound,
And each living being obtains understanding according to its kind.

When the Buddha speaks the Dharma, he does so in one language, but all the various different kinds of living beings understand it without requiring a translation. All of the many different classes of living beings hear and understand, each according to its kind. The Buddhas speaking of the Dharma is inconceivable, and so it is called an “ocean of all sounds.”

SUTRA: 

All Tathagatas of the three periods of time
With their inexhaustible ocean of languages
Constantly turn the wonderful Dharma wheel of principles and their tendencies.
With the power of deep wisdom, I can enter them everywhere. 

I can deeply enter the future
And completely pass through all kalpas in a single thought.
Each and every kalpa of the three periods of time
In a single thought I enter them all. 

COMMENTARY: 

All Tathagatas of the three periods of time. The three periods of time are the past, present, and future. In terms of empirical experience there are three periods of time, but from the point of view of the underlying principle of things, there is only one period of time. There is no past, no present, and no future.

Why? If you say something is in the past, it has already gone by. You may say something is in the present, but that present is already in the past. You may say something is in the future, but it has not yet come, so why talk about it? So the Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra says,

Past thought cannot be obtained,
Present thought cannot be obtained,
And future thought cannot be obtained.

If you understand that these three thoughts ultimately cannot be obtained, then the Buddhas of the three periods of time are just the one underlying principle.

The Tathagatas of the three periods of time is speaking in all-inclusive terms. If you just talk about the past, then the present and future are not included. If you only mention the future, then the past and present are not included. If you speak of the three periods of time, however, then the past, present, and future are all included. This is a general way of speaking to represent the entirety of all the Tathagatas who are measureless and boundless. It can also be explained as meaning whichever Tathagata that you are able to personally encounter. With their inexhaustible ocean of languages...The words and languages of the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three periods of time have no end. They are so measureless and boundless that they are like a great ocean.

Constantly turn the wonderful Dharma wheel of principles and their tendencies...Buddhas constantly turn the Dharma Wheel of principle and its tendencies. “Principle” is in contrast to “phenomena.” Principles are the explanation of theories. Tendencies are the manifestation of the principles in specific situations. For example, we explain the Dharma and lecture the Sutras by explaining the principles and tendencies. The principles and tendencies may be shallow or profound, broad or narrow. “Broad” means far-reaching and great; “narrow” means not very many. “The Wheel of the wonderful Dharma” is referring to this kind of subtle, wondrous, and inconceivable Dharma-door.

With the power of deep wisdom, I can enter them everywhere. I have profound Prajna wisdom, which comes from practicing deep Prajna. Therefore, with the power of profound wisdom, I can enter the ocean of all sounds of all Tathagatas everywhere.

I can deeply enter the future. Not only am I able to deeply enter into the ocean of all sounds, but I can also deeply enter the ocean of all sounds of the future. And completely pass through all kalpas in a single thought. What does it mean to exhaust all kalpas in a single thought? One is able to contain ten thousand kalpas in a single thought, and expand one thought so it becomes ten thousand kalpas.

It can also be said that all kalpas are just one thought, and one thought is all kalpas. This principle is not easily understood, so I will now relate a case history to illustrate this point.

In Hangzhou, China, there is a mountain peak called Inverted Lotus Flower located in Western Heavenly Eye, a division of the Five Heavenly Eyes mountain range. These “Five Heavenly Eyes” are called Eastern Heavenly Eye, Western Heavenly Eye, Northern Heavenly Eye, Southern Heavenly Eye, and Middle Heavenly Eye. They are called Heavenly Eyes because on the mountain peaks are pairs of springs, which are like two eyes. Many people cultivate the path there.

Chan Master Gao Feng Miao went to the Western Heavenly Eye Mountain to cultivate the path. Why? Every time he sat down to meditate, he would fall asleep. During my lecture on the Heart Sutra when we covered the Four Noble Truths of Suffering, Origination, Cessation, and the Path we mentioned the affliction of torpor, which is one of the 26 afflictions. Why is torpor an affliction? If you have torpor when you cultivate the path, you cannot enter samadhi. If you cannot enter samadhi, your mind becomes scattered.

Chan Master Gao Feng Miao wanted to find a method to cure himself of torpor. What method did he come up with? He knew that he could go to meditate at Inverted Lotus Flower Peak on Western Heavenly Eye Mountain. If he became slothful and fell asleep, he would fall off a cliff thousands of feet high and splatter on the ground below. He decided to put his life on the line and go to Inverted Lotus Flower Peak to cultivate the path. He sat on the edge of a cliff, a precipice, next to a valley that was thousands of feet deep. If he fell asleep there, he’d fall to his death. So he went there to meditate.

He meditated for one day and did not sleep. Then for a second day he did not sleep. Three days went by, and still no sleep. But on the fourth day he couldn’t take it and finally dozed off. As soon as he fell asleep, he fell off the cliff. As he was falling, he was startled awake. After he fell about half-way down, he stopped falling. For example if the valley was 10,000 feet deep, then 5,000 feet would be half-way. Then someone caught him and brought him back up.

After he was brought back up, he asked, “Who has saved me?” His rescuer answered, “It is the Dharma Protector Wei Tuo.

When he heard that the Dharma Protector Wei Tuo Bodhisattva had saved him, he was very happy, and he began having arrogant thoughts. He asked, “Elder Wei, how many people in the world can cultivate like me? How many?”

The Bodhisattva Wei Tuo replied, “Ugh! People who cultivate like you are as numerous as the hairs on an ox. You are really shameless. I will not protect your Dharma for eighty thousand great kalpas.” Bodhisattva Wei Tuo vowed not to protect his Dharma for eighty thousand great kalpas and then left.

When Gao Feng Miao heard that Wei Tuo Bodhisattva would not protect his Dharma for 80,000 great kalpas he thought, “This is terrible!” With shame and remorse, he cried bitter tears. Then he thought, “I am really not a cultivator of the path. When Bodhisattva Wei Tuo came to protect my Dharma, how could I have had such arrogant thoughts?”

With shame and remorse he cried for a long time. Then suddenly he thought, “Hey! Before, when I cultivated the path, I didn’t know that Bodhisattva Wei Tuo was protecting my Dharma, but I cultivated nonetheless. I didn’t think that I could only cultivate the path by depending on Wei Tuo Bodhisattva. Now that he has stopped protecting my Dharma, it doesn’t mean I should quit. I should still cultivate the path as before!”

So he resolved to go back to the same place to meditate. This time he was even more vigorous. He said, “Even if I die, I will cultivate the path. I will continue to investigate Dhyana and meditate. If I have to give up my life, I still want to accomplish my karma of the path.

So he continued to meditate. He was able to sit for several days, and then fell asleep. When he dozed off he fell down the precipice again. When he had fallen about halfway, again someone caught him and brought back up. After he was rescued, he asked, “Who is protecting my Dharma?”

His protector answered, “Wei Tuo.”

Chan Master Gao Feng Miao got angry, “Elder Wei, so you lie, huh? You said you would not protect my Dharma for eighty thousand great kalpas, but you have saved me again. Haven’t you told a lie?”

Bodhisattva Wei Tuo said, “No, I haven’t lied. The conditions that I had set for you were actually fulfilled. Because of your arrogance, I said I would not protect your Dharma. However, afterwards you had a mind of shame and remorse, which surpassed the offenses of eighty thousand great kalpas. Because of this, I came to protect your Dharma again.”

This case history explains that all kalpas are but one thought. The text said, “I exhaust all kalpas in a single thought.” With one thought of repentance and reform, Chan Master Gao Feng Miao was able to go beyond eighty thousand great kalpas. The principle in this story is the same as the one in the text.

Each and every kalpa of the three periods of time refers to all kalpas of the past, all kalpas of the present, and all kalpas of the future. In a single thought I enter them all. In one thought I can enter a time period as long as all the kalpas of the ten directions and the three periods of time.

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