 |
||
|
||
|
||
| Contents Door 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 previous next * Preface | ||
Prologue:
Because all Bodhisattvas cannot conceive of it.
Now, first the ten bodies will be explained, and afterwards their non-obstruction will be described.
In speaking of the ten bodies, there are two versions. The first is that, based upon combinations with the three worlds, there are ten bodies: one, the Living Beings body; two, the Country Bodies; three, the Body of Karmic Retribution; four, the Sound Hearer Body; Five, the Body of those Enlightened to Conditions; six, the Bodhisattva Body; Seven, the Thus Come One body; eight, the Wisdom Body; nine, the Dharma Body; ten, the Empty Space Body.Commentary:
Because all Bodhisattvas cannot conceive of it. Not to speak of most of the people here now listening not understanding the states of the Flower Adornment Sutra, which were previously described, not even the Bodhisattvas are able to conceive of or understand those principles. If Bodhisattvas can’t, how much the less are average living beings able to. So this Dharma is inconceivable, wonderful Dharma.
Now, first the ten bodies will be explained, and afterwards their non-obstruction will be described. Now we’re going to start by talking about the names of the ten kinds of bodies and after that explain the state of non-obstruction.
In speaking of the ten bodies and listening their names, there are two versions, two sets of ten bodies. The first is that, based upon combinations with the three worlds, that is, with the World of Things, the World of Wisdom and Proper Enlightenment, and the Living Beings as their basis, there are Ten Bodies: One, the Living Beings Body. That’s the Living Beings World.Two, the Country Body. Three, the Body of Karmic Retribution. Two and three are the World of Things. Four, the Sound Hearer Body. Five, the Body of those Enlightened to Conditions. Sound Hearers are Arhats. Those Enlightened to Conditions are Pratyekabuddhas. Six, the Bodhisattva Body. You all recognize Bodhisattvas, don’t you? Seven, the Thus Come One Body. The body of a Thus Come One is a Buddha Body. Eight, the Wisdom Body. Nine, the Dharma Body. Ten, the Empty Space Body. Those are the World of Proper Enlightenment. So that set of bodies corresponds to the three kinds of worlds.
Prologue:
The second is the ten bodies which the Buddha himself has: One, the body of bodhi; two, the body of vow; three, the transformation body; four, the body of power and maintaining; five, the body adorned with the marks and characteristics; six, the body of awesome might; seven, the body produced by mind; eight, the body of blessings and virtue; nine, the Dharma body; ten, the wisdom body. Their characteristics are vastly made manifest as is described in the eighth ground and in the chapter on leaving the world.Commentary:
The second is the ten bodies which the Buddha himself has: The second set of ten bodies is those which are the Buddha’s own body. One, the body of Bodhi. Bodhi is Enlightenment. How can Enlightenment have a body? It doesn’t mean Enlightenment’s body; it means the body which becomes enlightened, that the Buddha is enlightened. That’s what makes it the body of Bodhi. What does he become enlightened to? To the fact that all in the world is like illusions and like transformations, with no true actuality. When you awaken to the falseness of the world, you will understand the true, and so it is called the Body of Bodhi.
Two, the body of vows. The Buddha in the past, life after life, made great vows for Bodhi. He made vows to cultivate the Bodhisattva Way and to rescue living beings. He vowed to benefit living beings and forget about himself, to come teach and transform living beings. The Buddha has a body of vows, and we can have bodies of vows, too, if we make great vows to save and rescue living beings, to cause all living beings to escape from suffering and attain bliss. This is as when you request Dharma each day. Requesting Dharma is also a body of vows. You say, “We hope the Dharma Master will speak the Dharma and cause all living beings to separate from suffering and attain to bliss, end birth, and cast off death.” All of that is cultivating the body of vows. When you make vows, you create the body of vows.
Three, the transformation body. This means the body that comes into being through change and transformation. Transformed bodies are false and illusory, and yet if you have the skill, you can transform, whereas if you lack the skill, you can’t transform. If you can transform, your single body can transform into hundreds of thousands of millions of bodies, and those hundreds of thousands of millions of bodies are a single body. They are divided and yet not divided, united and yet not united. When you are in that kind of inconceivable state, you can understand the states of transformed bodies.If you don’t understand the transformation body, I’ll use a worldly dharma to tell you about it. Transforming a body is like taking a picture. You take a snapshot, and you have a transformation body. Take ten pictures, and there are ten transformation bodies. Take a hundred and there are a hundred transformation bodies. Transformation bodies are like that. Pictures, however, still have form and appearance. If you obtain the five eyes and the six penetrations, you can tell when someone has sent out a transformation body somewhere. You see, “Oh, he’s gone.
He was sitting here, and now he’s gone to New York, or to Vietnam.” You can see where he’s gone. It depends upon your skill whether you will be able to see his transformation body and know what he’s gone to do, what false thoughts he has, where he has gone, what kinds of states he is having, whether he has gone to China, Japan, Germany, or England. If it’s someone who has more skill than you have, you won’t know, or even be able to see. Even if you have the five eyes, they won’t be of any use. You’ll have eyes but not see Nishyanda Buddha, have ears yet not hear the perfect, sudden teaching. It’s just that wonderful.
Don’t figure, “I’ve opened the five eyes, so I can know anything.” You won’t know about people who have more skill than you do. Why not? The First Ground doesn’t know the Second Ground. The Bodhisattva of the First Ground don’t know the states of the Bodhisattvas on the Second Ground. The Bodhisattvas of the First Ground don’t know the states of the Bodhisattva’s on the Second Ground. Bodhisattvas of the Tenth Ground don’t know about the states of Equal Enlightenment Bodhisattvas.
Four, the body of power and maintaining. Power means the Buddha’s Ten Powers. Maintaining is maintaining and continuing those powers, that body. Five, the body adorned with the Marks and characteristics. The fifth is the body adorned with the thirty-two marks and eighty minor characteristics. Six, the body of awesome might. This refers to the Buddha having great awesome virtue and great spiritual penetrations. He uses compassion to subdue everyone.Seven, the body produced by mind. The body produced by mind means one concentrates one’s mind and goes somewhere else. The Buddha knows mind and goes somewhere else. The Buddha knows that a certain place has living beings who need to be saved, so he concentrates his mind on going there and saving them. He doesn’t get up from where he is sitting or leave the first place, but living beings in that other place see him. That’s the body produced by mind.
Eight, the body of blessing and virtue. He cultivates blessings and virtue for three asamkhyeyas, and for a hundred kalpas he perfects the marks and characteristics. Nine, the Dharma body. This body pervades empty space and the Dharma Realm. This body neither resides, nor does not reside, as it pervades all places. Ten, the Wisdom Body. This is the embodiment of the Four Kinds of Wisdom. The Buddha’s wisdom is as high as the peak of Mount Sumeru, as deep as the ocean floor, so high it can’t be measured, so deep it can’t be fathomed. Their characteristics are vastly made manifest, clarified in detail, as is described in the Eighth Ground in the Sutra text, and in the chapter on leaving the world. Those passages of Sutra elaborate upon the characteristics of the ten bodies.Prologue:
In discussing their non-obstruction, in general, there are ten meanings: one, functionings are universal and non-obstructive. That is, in all the above places -- thoughts, kalpas, kshetras, dust-motes, and so forth -- Vairochana Buddha manifests the Dharma Realm’s clouds of bodies, with boundless deeds and functionings, because of their completely universal pervasion. The Sutra says, “Just as one sees the Buddha sitting in this place, in each and every mote of dust it is also that way, “ and so forth. There is not just one such passage.
Commentary:
In discussing their non-obstruction, we talked before about the two sets of ten bodies, and now we’ll talk about their non-obstruction. In discussing their principles, in general, there are ten meanings.
- Functionings are universal and non-obstructive.
- Characteristics are pervasive and non-obstructive.
- Stillness and functionings are non-obstructive.
- Reliance and arisal are non-obstructive.
- True and response are non-obstructive.
- Divided and complete are non-obstructive.
- Cause and fruit are non-obstructive.
- Dependent and proper are non-obstructive.
- Secret Entry is non-obstructive.
- Perfect interpenetration without obstruction.
One, functions are universal and non-obstructive. That is, in all the above places, thoughts, kalpas, kshetras, dust-motes, and so forth...Functionings being non-obstructive refers to one thought being ten thousand kalpas, and ten thousand kalpas being a single thought, as was discussed before; or perhaps passing through kalpas many as motes of dust in a kshetra in the interval of a single thought. What it is talking about here is how Vairochana Buddha manifests the Dharma Realm’s clouds of bodies. Vairochana Buddha sends out clouds of Dharma bodies which fill the Dharma Realm, which pervasively respond to all living beings, with boundless deeds and functionings. These kinds of actions and functions are limitless and boundless, because of their completely universal pervasion. There are no places which are not pervaded through all Dharma Realms.
The Sutra says, in the Sutra text itself, “Just as one sees the Buddha sitting in this place...” Suppose you see the Buddha in this place seated under the Bodhi tree in the Way Place, turning the Great Dharma Wheel, “... In each and every mote of dust it is also that way.” In every particle of dust, as well, there is a Buddha seated in the Bodhi Way Place, turning the Great Dharma Wheel, having that kind of wonderful functioning...and so forth. This means there’s more about this in the Sutra passage than the two lines quoted.The Sutra goes on to say, “The Buddha’s body does not go and it does not come, yet it appears in every single country.” It is talking about how the Buddha can be seated in the Way Place in one spot, yet in every particle of dust his body also appears seated in the Way Place. Has the Buddha then gone to those particles of dust? No. The Buddha’s body has not gone, and it has not come. Buddhas neither go nor come. Even so, in all countries, all dust-motes, and all lands as many as particles of dust, he clearly appears. Each shows the Buddha in it seated in the Way Place, turning the Great Dharma Wheel and speaking the wonderful Dharma. There is not just one such passage. In the text of the Great Means Expansive Buddha Flower Adornment Sutra there are a great many places which illustrate this principle, so this is not the only passage that does so.
Prologue:
Two, characteristics are pervasive non-obstructive. That is because, in the above differences of functioning, each includes all deeds and functionings.Commentary:
Two, characteristics are pervasive and non-obstructive. The second talks about how the characteristics are not mutually obstructive. That is because, in the above differences of functioning, each includes all deeds and functionings.
One characteristic is all characteristics.
All characteristics are a single characteristics.
If taken in general, there are the characteristics of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down: the Four Great Comportments. Within the Buddha’s walking, there is also standing, lying down, and sitting. Walking is inclusive of the other characteristics. Sitting, standing, and lying down are each inclusive of all the other characteristics, too. In that way, characteristics do not obstruct one another. They are mutually non-obstructive. The non-obstructive of characteristics is also talking about the Eight Characteristics of the Buddha’s Accomplishment of the Way not interfering with each other.The Eight Characteristics of Accomplishing the Way:
- Descending from the Tushita Heaven.
- Dwelling in the womb.
- Emerging from the womb.
- Leaving home.
- Cultivating the Way.
- Accomplishing the Way.
- Turning the Great Dharma Wheel.
- Entering Nirvana.
Before he has even merged from his mother’s womb, he has already perfected these characteristics. Therefore, in the Sutra text it says that when the Bodhisattva is in his mother’s womb, using his power of free and easy spiritual penetrations, he makes appear the profoundly subtle characteristics of manifesting in all Dharma Realm’s Way Places and Dharma Assemblies. “The Bodhisattva” refers to Shakyamuni Buddha before he became a Buddha. It says that while in his mother’s womb, he made appear the profoundly subtle characteristics of manifesting all the spiritual powers of all Buddhas. This, too, was done very clearly. Therefore, in the Chapter on Leaving the World it says, “disciples of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva,” the great Bodhisattva, “has ten kinds of profoundly subtle characteristics. What are the ten?
- After descending from the Tushita Heaven, and while dwelling in the womb of his mother (Queen Maya), he makes appear the profoundly subtle characteristics of first bringing forth the resolve for Bodhi, up to and including the Position of Anointment of the Crown. (When someone is about to become a Buddha, the Buddhas of the ten directions anoint him on the crown with water from the four great seas, which is the Position of Anointment of the Crown.)
- While dwelling in his mother’s womb he makes appear his dwelling in the Tushita Heaven;
- While dwelling in his mother’s womb he makes appear his first being born;
- while in the womb, he makes appear the Position of Virgin Youth (one of the Ten Dwellings),
- while still in his mother’s womb, he makes appear the states of dwelling of the Royal Palace;
- while in his mother’s womb he makes appear his leaving home, which comes after his being born and living in the Royal Palace;
- in his mother’s womb he also makes appear his ascetic practices while cultivating the Way, the six years in the Snowy Mountains and all that happens then, going to the Bodhi tree, and accomplishing Proper Enlightenment;
- in his mother’s womb he also makes appear his turning of the Great Dharma Wheel, and while still in the womb he has already made appear the characteristic of his entry to Nirvana.
- While still in his mother’s womb, he also make appear all the doors of practices cultivated by all Bodhisattvas, and makes appear the Thus Come One’s comfortable spiritual powers -- all those limitless, different doors. Those are the ten kinds of profoundly subtle characteristics with the Bodhisattva Mahasattva makes appear while dwelling in his mother’s womb. That’s why it says, “characteristics are pervasive and non-obstructive.” In his mother’s womb he had already made appear his speaking the Dharma of the Three Vehicles and the One Vehicle. It had appeared already. So, Shakyamuni Buddha’s Eight Characteristics of Accomplishing the Way are mutually non-obstructive.
Prologue:
Three, stillness and functionings are non-obstructive, because there is no private realization.Commentary:
Previously in the second, it stated that characteristics were pervasive and non-obstructive, and so in the previously discussed differences of functioning, each includes all deeds and functionings. Every function includes all functions, and so characteristics do not obstruct one another. Three, the third, states that the stillness and functionings are non-obstructive, because there is no private realization. Stillness refers to quietude, and quietude is samadhi. Stillness is samadhi. Because he is constantly within stillness, he is constantly in samadhi, yet he still has boundlessly many functionings. It’s not the case that he does not have any functioning while in samadhi. He is still able to benefit creatures and save people while in samadhi, to teach and transform all living beings with no predetermined method, which is just to say that within samadhi:
If someone request the body of a Buddha to be crossed over, he manifests the body of a Buddha and speaks Dharma for them. If someone requires the body of a Pratyeka Buddha to be crossed over, he manifests the body of a Pratyeka Buddha and speak Dharma for that living being.
Whatever conditions of potentiality are required to save a living being, in samadhi he makes appear those kinds of bodies and goes to teach and transform living beings. When he benefits creatures, he doesn’t have a fixed method. This is also functioning, the functioning and stillness being non-obstructive. He is always in samadhi, and yet always teaching and transforming living beings. He is constantly within the states of teaching and transforming living beings, and yet constantly in samadhi. The Buddha’s state is an inconceivable one. Most ordinary common people see him as not doing anything. However, he is turning the Dharma Wheel, teaching and transforming living beings, and doing limitless and boundlessly many kinds of work. Therefore, there is a passage of Sutra text in the Inconceivability Chapter which says:
Every Buddha, in a single instant of thought, can completely make appear all Buddhas of the three periods of time teaching and transforming living beings.
Within a single thought, instant he makes appear all the Buddhas of the past, all the Buddhas of the present, and all the Buddhas of the future in their Way Places doing the work of teaching and transforming all living beings, that kind of functioning. However, although he can appear as going to all other worlds nonetheless, it is:...without leaving the samadhi of still extinction of all Buddhas.
He has never left samadhi. That is what is called the inconceivable state of all Buddhas. And so, samadhi and the inconceivably wonderful functionings are non-obstructive of each other.previous next Contents * Preface
Door 1 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16