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 18, 17 July 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued)   

Chapter One—Buddhaverse 

They understood [the true reality beyond] all phenomena including the [spiritual] roots of sentient beings. They gained fearlessness and shielded beings from their fears. They trained their minds through the spiritual cultivation of merit, virtue, and wisdom.[1]

Let us now talk about the Vimalakirti Sutra: They gained fearlessness and shielded beings from their fears. The fearlessness that we will talk about is the fearlessness of the bodhisattvas, which differs from that of the buddhas. Inversely, the great bhikkus are not fearless. 

The members of the Buddha’s sangha, including the great arhats and the great bhikkus, still had fear back then. Because the Buddha specified two key precepts: one cannot touch women, and one cannot touch money. Grandmaster knows that some of you were already together with Grandmaster in Sakyamuni Buddha’s time.

You could not touch women! Look at the strictness of the precepts of Sakyamuni Buddha! When a monk talked to a woman, he had to maintain a certain distance from her and could not say more than four sentences; chitchat was prohibited. It was akin to the social distancing required during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, he could not look into her eyes afraid that there would be chemistry. He could only look at the ground while talking to a woman. After saying at most four sentences, he had to leave immediately. Hence, fears toward women had been instilled in the great bhikkhus.

I heard an interesting story that when sariras left by an arhat were touched by a woman, the sariras flew away and vanished. Have you heard of such a story? I have. The arhats left many sariras behind. At the time, Sakyamuni Buddha did not allow women to be ordained. It was Ananda who insisted and brought Sakyamuni Buddha’s aunt, who had raised him, to be ordained. Eventually, the Buddha let his aunt and 500 palace maids become nuns. Before that, the sangha consisted of monks only and no nuns. 

The great bhikkus are not allowed to touch money either. Why not? Because money is likened to a viper. You cannot touch gold, silver, riches, and the treasures as these are all “poisonous snakes.”

Therefore, the great bhikkus still have fears. It is the great bodhisattvas who attain fearlessness.
What is fearlessness? There are four kinds of fearlessness. The first kind is the fearlessness of complete upholding. The great bodhisattvas have the fearlessness of doing good and refraining from all evils. The mind of the great bodhisattvas continues to increase good thoughts and stop all bad thoughts. This is a kindof bodhicitta. One has the fearlessness of complete upholding because one has bodhicitta and a compassionate mind.

Next is the fearlessness in resolving doubts. You gain this fearlessness upon knowing the root of sentient beings and upon understanding that all phenomena are empty without self-nature, as well as that all phenomena are different. You have no doubts, no skepticism, no questions, and whatever you do will work. This is fearlessness. You can also answer any questions, like the question by Lianhua Yier from Hong Kong today. You have the fearlessness in resolving doubts because you understand the phenomena of differences.

Then there is the fearlessness due to wisdom. What is wisdom fearlessness? You have this fearlessness because you embody all kinds of wisdom—including knowing everyone’s spiritual roots. Let’s take the Seattle temple as an example. Reverend Lian Xu knows how to mow the lawn. We often see him mowing all the lawns in this cul-de-sac. I see him mowing when I come to the temple, and I see him mowing when I leave as well. In the future, he can also take care of the lawns of all nine dormitories as he knows everything about cutting the grass, fertilizing, getting rid of the weeds, trimming the trees, etc. Those are his specialty.

Master Bizhen is very enthusiastic and conscientious in her work. She’s eager, hardworking, and very organized in keeping files. I observed her heart—she is very kind and never lazy. So I asked her to oversee the finances of the temple. She was the deputy abbot, was very responsible, and did many things. She is very busy. Her specialty is dharma work. Now she has learned how to use the computer, photography, and accounting. It is very suitable for her to manage the temple’s finances.

Next is the current abbot, Master Piano. His specialty is in building construction. He used to develop housing in New York. He can estimate the cost of developing a building from a blueprint. He was responsible for building the Twin Lotus Columbarium. The estimates we got from other developers were 4 million, 3 million, and 2.5 million dollars. And we only spent 1.5 million dollars. That’s his specialty. It is very appropriate for him to be the abbot as he can take care of the nine dormitories. If something breaks or leaks, he knows whether to repair or replace—walls, electricity, aircon, and even how to wash the carpets. He knows the structure of a house and which parts to repair. Because he does construction, he is knowledgeable in this area. This is knowing the roots of sentient beings.

Now let’s look at the manager Reverend Lian Yin. Please be seated. He is a person of few words but with power and might. He is very suitable for a manager and has done many things. The responsibility of a manager is to kindly encourage behavior change and not to blame harshly for minor mistakes, but appropriately punish major breaches. Rewards and punishments should both be done. He can use gentle reminders regarding minor issues, and no need to be so particular about trifles. Only if it is a major problem should he start using punishment. He should be able to implement such a discipline.

And the secretary Master Lian Qi. Where is he? Oh, outside. He is law-abiding and always in a straight line. He can’t swerve slightly off the line even if you ask him to. In Taiwan, on several occasions, he drove down a [curving] driveway to the garage, and he always hit the side wall and scratched the car because he followed the dividing line exactly. He wouldn’t have scratched against the wall if he had driven slightly off the line. Who knows, perhaps the dividing line wasn’t drawn appropriately. But because he goes by the book, he hits the side wall every time.

Our secretary is a decent person who conforms to the norms. Very capable, he does many things well. Recently, I discovered that he is top-notch at washing dishes—he washes inside and outside to be very clean, including the underside. It turned out that when he first came to the United States, his family opened a restaurant, and his duty was to wash all the dishes in the restaurant. He knows how to wash dishes and is very good at doing house chores. That’s his specialty.

With our wisdom fearlessness, we can tell everyone’s specialty. He is very punctual and strictly observes the time. He is always there whether I come back late or early. He is very reliable in opening the car door or carrying the umbrella. I have no complaints at all. People like him are few and far between.

Vimalakirti says that an upright mind is best for spiritual cultivation. He walks a straight line and does not know how to turn. If the government stipulates that he walks like this, he will do so and not break the law. There are very few people like this in this world. He never slacks nor misses a minute or even a second. Such people are rare, and being a secretary requires a talent like this.

They are the members of the new board of directors of the Seattle Lei Tsang Temple. There is also Sakura, who understands English and can help Master Piano. She is good as an assistant. She understands Western culture and knows how to handle Westerners as she used to work with them at Boeing. Whenever we cannot find people for house issues or maintenance, or if they don’t show up for the appointment, she knows how to get them to come immediately. This is her specialty. She is very fierce, and she knows what scares them. She knows how to intimidate, “If you don’t come here, I will report you to the Better Business Bureau.” So they got scared and came right away. She is the best and fastest in finding workers, dealing with them, and getting the best price. She also knows how to do a lot of things. She does things very swiftly, moves very fast, and has a very quick temperament. She is quite impatient and obstinate, but this can be accommodated over time. She is a talented person, very appropriate for an assistant. She does things very quickly and does a very good job.

This board and its structure are incredible. This temple will gradually come to a new age; however, everyone must work together. Everyone in charge should work together and get along well and happily. This is the most important! This is just an example of wisdom fearlessness or fearlessness due to wisdom: Placing the right people for the right job at the right time.

The fourth, or last fearlessness, is fearlessness in repaying generosity. There are four kinds of generosity that we must fearlessly repay as a human being living in this world. First, we must repay the generosity of the homeland we live in—the country that has raised, homed, and protected you. This is repaying the generosity of the homeland.

Second, we must fearlessly repay the generosity of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) because the great wisdom and all the buddhadharma you have ever obtained is from the three jewels. Therefore, we must repay the generosity of the three jewels—to the buddha, to the dharma, and to the sages and saints of the sangha. Here, “sangha” refers to the sages of the sagely realms.

Next is to repay the generosity of one’s parents. As I have often mentioned, I was not born into the best environment and had to suffer abuse. Regardless, my parents still cared for me—changing diapers, feeding, and clothing me. My nurturing still depended on my father’s salary, which put food on the table. A human being needs parents to raise them. Baby animals can survive on their own, but not human beings. They also gave birth to you in the first place, albeit one parent did not recognize me as his son, but at the very least, he still fed me. For these things, we must repay the generosity of our parents.

Even though he was abusive, he was an avid reader. And I read all the books he read. Whatever book he read, I read. After he finished reading a book and left it lying there, I picked it up and read it. During the Japanese era, he was qualified as a lawyer and passed the examination. He read lots of books. So, I read all his books too, including the encyclopedia and other genres. I picked up this habit from him and I am grateful for it. I am grateful to him for raising me. Without him and his salary, I wouldn’t have grown up since my mother did not earn any money. She did try to raise chickens and pigs; I did too, but they got chicken and swine flu. That’s why we need to repay the generosity of our parents.

Lastly, we must repay the generosity of sentient beings. Honestly, how dare you be lazy? Everything you have, food, clothes, housing, transportation—everything is provided by sentient beings. What right do you have to be lazy?! You must repay the generosity of sentient beings! That is fearlessness in offering gratitude and repaying generosity. You must understand this! You must be diligent in spiritual cultivation and do your best to spread the buddhadharma. Then you can repay the generosity of sentient beings.

You can never forget these four kinds of generosity! One must repay the generosity of the homeland, the Three Jewels, parents, and sentient beings. If you do not repay them, then it is as if you are stealing from them. Can you steal from others? No! This is a key point.

So today, we talked about the four fearlessnesses of the bodhisattvas from the phrase: They gained fearlessness and shielded beings from their fears. They are fearless because they comprehend these four kinds of fearlessness. We discussed only the bodhisattvas and not the great bhikkus. Because at that time, the great bhikkus were still afraid of two things: women and money.

Nevertheless, when you face women with a pure mind, you will become fearless. Likewise, if you put money to good use and handle it with a pure mind, you are fearless. Conversely, if you use money for bad things, then money is a poisonous snake. In sum, if you have a pure mind, there is nothing to fear, and you become fearless. Now, do you understand?

Om mani padme hum.

Next discourse on the Vimalakirti Sutra: Discourse 19, 23 July 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued)

Previous discourse on the Vimalakirti Sutra: Discourse 17, 16 July 2022 - Chapter One—Buddhaverse (Continued)

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Full webcast of 2022.07.17 Avalokitesvara Homa Ceremony (Rainbow Temple, North Bend, USA) and dharma discourse with English interpretation: https://youtu.be/6tSUjHhBcFQ