Proficient in all profundities of the supreme dharma, they were the guiding teachers of an ocean of dharma treasures. They knew full well the coming and going of sentient beings—their motives, minds, and actions. They nearly equaled the self-mastery^[1] of wisdom, the ten powers,^[2][the four] fearlessnesses, and the eighteen uncommon characteristics^[3]of the unequalled^[4] buddhas.

Today, we will continue on the Vimalakirti Sutra:

They knew full well the coming and going of sentient beings—their motives, minds, and actions.

The great bodhisattvas fully understand the behavior and mind of sentient beings, their motives, intents, interests, likes, desires, thoughts, etc. A great bodhisattva will instantly know about every living being, including their actions and what they have in mind. A great bodhisattva should be able to do that. This phrase is easy to understand.

We all have past, present, and future lives. You can tell the past from the present, and you can also tell the future from the present, so the present represents the past and the future. With one look, a great bodhisattva can know a sentient being’s past and future. Indeed, they know the future as well. Knowing the cause and effect of the past, present, and future, a great bodhisattva teaches them accordingly. A great bodhisattva is here to help sentient beings, and this ability helps them guide, transform, and deliver them. It would be very difficult without it. This explains this phrase.

Let me give an example. Is dharma sister Jui-Chin Lin here? I talked about her husband, dharma brother Wang last time. The couple were very close. While in Taiwan, dharma brother Wang fell gravely sick and passed away soon after. Due to his deep attachment to his wife, he roamed around in samsara. When I tried to bardo deliver him with the thousand dharma vessels, I called for him, and he came. But he didn’t want to get on the boat—he did not want to board the dharma vessel as he still wanted to remain in the saha world to accompany his wife. I asked him many times to get on the boat, but he was very reluctant because he was bound by the love in his heart. After much effort, I finally got him on board, and he left.

Dharma sister Lin received a sign from her husband that he would not be around to accompany her anymore because he would be going to the heavens. He also said that he could only come back if Grandmaster Lu approved. After that, she had no more dreams about him or signs of his presence. I knew what was on his mind. He was not thinking about Sukhavati or heaven. Instead, he only had his wife on his mind as he still loved her deeply and could not bear to leave her alone in the saha world. He somberly told her that for him to visit her in the saha world, he would need Grandmaster Lu’s permission.

As a great bodhisattva, you need to understand the hearts and minds of sentient beings and know what they think and want. This is the meaning of the phrase:

They knew full well the coming and going of sentient beings—their motives, minds, and actions.

By understanding the behaviors and thoughts of sentient beings, the great bodhisattvas can guide them onto the path of spiritual cultivation to the heavenly realms or the purelands. Without it, it would be extremely difficult to do so.

A young lady came to Seattle and told Grandmaster that she had arrived. I asked her where she came from, and she replied, “Hong Kong.” She added that her visa was given by Grandmaster. She is Lotus Yongshi and has had many spiritual responses.

Earlier at the Seattle Leizang Temple, I told you that I saw someone present a piece of paper for me to sign as I was [sitting on the dharma throne] half awake and half asleep. I asked what it was, and she replied that it was a travel pass she needed. Didn’t I say that it was a travel pass or a visa? That was her visa, so she got her visa to the USA, and here she is now! That was a spiritual response. Additionally, she also saw Grandmaster Lu as the immigration officer who saw the visa signed by Sheng-Yen Lu and, of course, let her through without any problems at all. So when I asked her how she made it to the USA, she said, “By holding the Sheng-Yen Lu visa.”

Grandmaster may seem to be merely sitting on the dharma throne, but in fact, I never stop working and handling affairs. Last night during the Thousand Dharma Vessels Bardo Deliverance, I also took care of many things—signing papers, granting requests, and more. It is easier for the great bodhisattvas to help and deliver sentient beings if they understand their behavior and thoughts, and their hearts and minds.

Tantrayana is a very good spiritual cultivation method for sentient beings. Say, Tantrayana provides wealth deity practices, which is unheard of in Mahayana Buddhism; instead, they view money and wealth as poisonous snakes. Even touching it will increase your greed!

Vimalakirti says that a great bodhisattva will give you what you want—a method to entice sentient beings by initially satisfying their desires before guiding them onto the Buddhist path. Knowing they have desires, you provide practices first to satisfy their desires. Even though they do the practice to gain wealth, they also familiarize themselves with a tantric sadhana in their practice. Once they receive a spiritual response, they progress and are gradually led onto the Buddhist path.

Tantrayana provides wealth deity practices for those who desire money. Those who love name and fame, or want to become a high official can cultivate the powerful Mahabala practice. They will become famous, and their power and authority will be greatly increased.

Wealth, sex, and fame are what most ordinary people desire; such desires are difficult to unbind from. But if one clings to money, sex, and fame, one will fall into the hell, hungry ghost, or animal realms. Knowing the desires of sentient beings, a great bodhisattva guides them by first fulfilling their desires and then transforming them onto the Buddhist path.

Consort practice of Tantrayana is appropriate for people with strong libido. One can also practice Buddhism while having sex. Most people—spiritual cultivators and otherwise—enjoy sex. Why is it that spiritual cultivators should abstain from it? Instead, Tantrayana has a unique way of using this aspect of human nature and transforming it into spiritual cultivation.

Sex is part of human nature, but many people criticize the consort practice of Tantric Buddhism: “How could they practice such a thing?!” People who are not monks also chime in, “How can there be such a thing as consort practice?!” Due to this, they condemn Tantric Buddhism. The fact is, most people do it, but they do it without the dharma.

What is a consort practice—also known as dual-body dharma practice? When a man and woman are in sexual union, they do it. All married couples do it, especially when they just got married, on their wedding night, or during their honeymoon. During such times, they stick close together and, of course, wouldn’t sleep in separate bedrooms. They only sleep separately later, perhaps. This is human nature. Some spiritual cultivators are married couples.

There is nothing wrong with sex. The difference between ordinary sex and consort practice is that the latter becomes a spiritual practice and is buddhadharma. So love for sex can be transformed into a dharma practice.

Why do we call consort practice a dharma practice? Because it is according to the teaching of the lineage gurus, and it involves boundary protection, visualization, mantras, mudras (postures), meditation, how to open and connect the channels, circulate the qi, and practice the ascent and descent of the lightdrops. It also includes breathing practice (intake of air) and the swallowing of saliva [of Taoist practice].

In it, there is also meditation. How can one possibly meditate while performing a consort practice? When you are totally focused, that is meditation. This practice includes the inner tantric practices of qi, channels, and lightdrops, wherein qi and qi [of the couple] circulate, channels open, and lightdrops above and below descend and ascend. This is part of the non-leakage practice, where the lightdrops melt, descend, and then retract. During such practice, you are circulating the qi, opening the channels, and moving the lightdrops. Hence, the consort practice embodies many cultivation methods.

I, myself, have attained fruition in my non-leakage practice of the body since long ago. One is required to attain non-leakage of the body before one is permitted to cultivate the consort practice. And the guru can also teach the non-leakage dharma practice if needed.

Greed, anger, and delusion are all part of human nature. As an antidote, Tantrayana provides wealth practices to alleviate greed, heruka practices to assuage anger and hatred, and practices to transform ignorance into wisdom. So, one is allowed to be greedy for money, sex, and fame so one can cultivate spiritually to eventually lessen their greed. Similarly, heruka practices utilize one’s anger to cultivate spiritually. Ignorance and delusion are also utilized and transformed into wisdom.

Only the great bodhisattvas can do this. The great bodhisattvas know sentient beings and understand their behavior, thoughts, desires, and their karma of the past, present, and future. With one look, they can tell someone’s past, present conditions, future reincarnation, and what their future holds. It is because they can see marks on their body. Great bodhisattvas have this ability, and only they can do this.

Other expositions typically go like this, “All the great bodhisattvas know what sentient beings are doing, what they are thinking, and what they want and like.” That’s it.

However, Grandmaster explains it differently: Sentient beings have greed, anger, and delusion in their hearts and minds. The great bodhisattvas know how to transform greed, anger, and delusion into precepts, meditative stability, and wisdom. So sentient beings can abide by the precepts, attain meditative stability, and develop wisdom. Even the consort practice contains precepts, meditation, and wisdom. A [qualified] guru can teach you how to cultivate consort and non-leakage practices; however, one must attain fruition in the non-leakage of the body before one can perform the consort practice.

Only Tantrayana provides wealth deity, heruka, and consort practices. This complies with what Vimalakirti says about all the great bodhisattvas knowing the hearts and minds of sentient beings, including what they do, like, and think. This is what this phrase means. Does it make sense now?

There is a saying, “There is an antidote to everything.” Since greed, anger, and delusion are on the minds of sentient beings, they use these to guide them onto the path of precepts, meditation, and wisdom of the Buddhist path. Hence, they first entice sentient beings by satisfying their desires before guiding them onto the Buddhist path.

Om mani padme hum.