English
A Detailed Exposition of the Vimalakirti Sutra
by Grandmaster Lu, Living Buddha Lian Sheng of the True Buddha School
Translated into English by the True Buddha School Vimalakirti Translation Team
Discourse 10, 19 June 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued)
Thus have I heard: At one time, the Buddha was in the Amra Garden near the city of Vaisali, accompanied by eight thousand great bhikkus, thirty-two thousand bodhisattvas, and the assembly of virtuous and knowledgeable spiritual practitioners.
Their attainments of the great wisdom and fundamental conduct were solely due to the divine might of the buddhas. Together they formed a dharma-protecting fortress to uphold the true dharma. Their lion’s roar resounded throughout all ten directions. They took the initiative to deliver sentient beings and felt at ease in any situation.
They relentlessly hoisted the Three Jewels with grandeur, and subdued maras[2] and all the heretics on deviant paths. They had been completely purified and freed from all obscurations and entanglements. Their minds were in a constant state of unhindered liberation, and with stable minds, they engaged in debates with eloquence.
Yesterday I explained the sentence: Their lion’s roar resounded throughout all ten directions. Today, we will talk about: They took the initiative to deliver sentient beings and felt at ease in any situation. Interestingly, this phrase often puzzles many people. What does it mean? It is something Grandmaster has experienced before.
[Grandmaster takes out a gift and asks what the sentence means, several people attempt to answer.] The answer is in two words, there’s no need to say too much. It is taking initiative, fearlessly! The great bodhisattvas took the initiative to deliver sentient beings fearlessly—on their own accord and without any apprehension.
The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa did this in his past reincarnations during the warring times of Tibet. He took the initiative and fearlessly mediated the warring parties, proposing a ceasefire. This is the fearless deliverance of sentient beings.
Most ordinary people would not want to go to war; who would? One wrong move and you might die. Yet, reincarnations of Karmapa mediated conflicts among leaders, villages, and religious sects, including the Mongolian-Tibetan war. The Karmapa arbitrated and created harmony among all sides. As such, he saved many lives and delivered sentient beings. This is taking initiative fearlessly.
You don’t wait for others to ask you; you just do it. You take the initiative to coordinate, mediate, and/or speak on the dharma. This means you spread the dharma and deliver sentient beings of your own accord. This is the key meaning of this phrase.
On delivering sentient beings, some people say, “Above, there are no buddhalands to go to, and below, there are no sentient beings to deliver.” Now, let me ask you a question: why are there no sentient beings to be delivered? When you spread buddhadharma, you say you are delivering sentient beings. Interestingly, there is a school of thought that says there is no buddhaverse to achieve and no sentient being to be delivered. Why?
[Someone answers, “Everyone has buddhanature.”] Grandmaster is giving a dharma teaching here today. On the surface, it is to deliver sentient beings, but in fact, there are no sentient beings to be delivered. Why am I saying this? It’s just like the answer earlier: because everyone has buddhanature!
Nobody delivers you except yourself. The bodhisattvas only teach the ways to uncover your own buddhanature by removing everything that enshrouds it. Once all coverings are removed, your buddhanature will naturally manifest. Let me emphasize that it is not the bodhisattvas who deliver sentient beings, for sentient beings deliver themselves by following the teachings of the bodhisattvas. This is called self-deliverance. You follow the method to deliver yourself by removing the cover so you can reveal your buddhanature and become a buddha.
There are no sentient beings to be delivered because all sentient beings are [inherently] buddhas—only that sentient beings are still obscured, and their buddhanature is still concealed. Bodhisattvas only teach you how to remove such covering so you can see your own buddhanature. If you cultivate according to the path, you will unveil your cover, and your buddhanature will naturally appear. The bodhisattvas teach the methods, and you apply them yourselves since buddhanature has always been your own.
In one sentence, the deluded ones are sentient beings, and the awakened ones are the buddhas.
The ambassador talked about the no phenomena of self, others, sentient beings, and lifespan, which of course is true, but... And he also mentioned that bodhisattvas do not keep count of the number of sentient beings they deliver… [The gift was given to the person who answered that all sentient beings have buddhanature.]
Bodhisattvas only teach sentient beings the way to deliver themselves—the buddhadharma. And sentient beings use it to deliver themselves. Thus, it is not called deliverance of sentient beings! You are not delivering sentient beings; you are delivering yourself. When you cultivate the buddhadharma, you will manifest your own buddhanature. Do you understand?
The next phrase—They relentlessly hoisted the Three Jewels with grandeur—is quite simple. We know that the Three Jewels are the buddhas, the dharmas, and the sangha. The buddhas are the perfectly and fully enlightened ones, dharmas are the paths taught by the buddhas, and sangha refers to all who uphold and continue the transmission of the buddhadharma, thus not allowing it to be disrupted. It is easy to understand. They relentlessly hoisted the Three Jewels means to continue the buddhadharma’s lineage.
Next, …subdued maras and all the heretics on deviant paths. What do maras mean? The mara is anything that impedes your wisdom life, or worse, breaks and kills your wisdom life. It is anything that makes you stop believing in or practicing buddhadharma, so you no longer walk on the path to manifest your buddhanature. All of those are considered maras.
What are heretics and deviant paths? It is deviant if there is a bias toward emptiness or existence, or if one goes to the extremes of mundane or worldly affairs, or even too much toward the enlightenment path. All of these are considered deviant—they are not conducive to manifesting buddhanature.
When Sakyamuni Buddha was alive, there were many heretics who specialized in astrology or divination, or psychic abilities. These are not buddhadharma; they are merely means to attract people toward the spiritual world and eventually onto the right path.
Astrology such as the Purple Star Astrology (Zi Wei Dou Shu) or the divination of the demi-god Shao Kangjie—also called Shao Yong—were extremely accurate to the most minute details. The latter divination is also called the Iron Board Divination (Tie Ban Shen Shu). Both divinations can predict all the events throughout your life based on your birth date and time, such as the date of your death, your encounter with your spouse and their name, your salary and assets, whether you will be cheated, how much, by whom, and when, et cetera. All these can be calculated during the divination.
There are also people who believe that everything is fate and destiny. Everything that happens in one’s life is predestined. But all these practices belong to the deviant path—the path which does not transcend life and death; the path that does not lead to the manifestation of buddhanature.
Sakyamuni Buddha was strongly against fortune-telling, divination, astrology, psychic or supernatural powers, and the like. For example, Grandmaster can add some energy to the vajra bell on the table, making it heavy and stick to the table, so it is difficult to lift. It is similar to the Ouija board. Or something like invoking a frog spirit to attach onto a child medium by chanting a certain mantra and waving incense sticks around. The child who is in a frog posture jumps all over just like a frog. Or making a table stand on one leg instead of four legs. Swallowing and spitting fire, which was popular in Tibet, and all of those above are considered deviant paths.
As appealing as they are, these deviant paths have nothing to do with buddhanature. Sakyamuni Buddha strictly opposed them because they can be very misleading. However, people still cannot help but be drawn to them.
…and subdued maras and all the heretics on deviant paths.
Only educating people that the world is empty, people are empty, houses are empty, cars are empty, everything is empty is also deviant! Your bias is not right. Upon their understanding of the concept of emptiness, someone asked me if they needed to continue their spiritual cultivation. The meditational deity that they practice is all empty, so what is there to practice? The yidams in Tantrayana are all empty, and the people too are empty. That is true, but if you go to the extreme…
Even love is empty. You can ask the 85-year-old lady, the mother of Master Lian Miao, what love is. She will tell you that there is no more romance. What romance? It is possible to fall in love when you are young, but now all that’s left are obligations. Or you can ask Lilia’s father, the 94-year-old man. Wow, what a long life! He does take care of himself, as I used to see him walking for hours when he was still living in Redmond. If you talk to him about romantic love, he’d say it’s empty.
A husband and wife stay together not because of romance but due to their duties and obligations. You may have true love when you are young, but in your 80s and 90s, what romance is there to talk about? Perhaps even seeing your partner is hard to do.
But hey, I am not talking about myself! [chuckles] Shimu has inner beauty and strong abilities. Her brain still works extremely well, and she is very meticulous and analytical. She is very capable in coordination and diplomacy. I highly admire her. At this age, respect and admiration are worth more than romance. We will stay together due to our duties and responsibilities until the end of our lives—whoever will go first. My obligation is to take care of her since we have been together for a long time. Love may fade over time, but duties and responsibilities stay.
After all, love is not forever. And neither is hatred! Love is empty, and so is hate. Both love and hate are created by the mind. Knowing this, we understand that there is nothing to gain, and there is nothing to lose. What have you gained? Nothing. What have you lost? Nothing.
Therefore, any bias toward emptiness or existence is not right. This is the principle to remember.
…and subdued maras and all the heretics on deviant paths.
Even amid maras’ obstructions, you need to have the wisdom to cultivate buddhadharma and maintain the continuation of the Three Jewels. You should never let it be disrupted or destroyed by maras because the Three Jewels and the buddhadharma are the only ways to manifest buddhanature. Only this is eternal, and most other things are not.
Next week we will continue with the following phrase:
They had been completely purified and freed from all entanglements.
Om mani padme hum.
Next discourse on the Vimalakirti Sutra: Discourse 11, 25 June 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued)
Previous discourse on the Vimalakirti Sutra: Discourse 9, 18 June 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued)
Index of links to all discourse on the Vimalakirti Sutra: https://en.tbsn.org/guidem/detail/2975/
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Full webcast of 2022.06.19 Padmakumara Homa Ceremony (Rainbow Temple, North Bend, USA) and dharma discourse with English interpretation: https://youtu.be/bmrAPyN7HRg
