Issue 279

How can it be called ‘giving without attachment to outer marks’? It requires the Threefold Circle of Empty Substance, i.e. there is no giver, no gift, no receiver.

What is called a giver? A giver has the notion of a self and cannot forget one’s self. For example, I now give a monetary donation to build a temple, to make Buddha images or to print sutras. This gives rise to a mind of attachment. What mind of attachment? It brings forth the notion that I am a giver. I donated $50,000. What is called a gift? The gift – my donation of $50,000, whether for building a temple, building Buddha images or printing sutras, has earned me merit. I am a giver and I have given a gift.

In the midst of the donor and the gift, there is a receiver. There is a recipient and an object received. What is called a recipient? Someone gave me a $50,000 donation; I am a recipient. The object received is the gift the other party gave to me, making the other party the giver of the gift received. When there is no giver and no gift, there is no receiver and nothing received. This is called the Threefold Circle of Empty Substance. Although there is an act of giving, there is no attachment to the mark of giving. This is called giving with the Threefold Circle of Empty Substance.

Paramita is a Sanskrit word. Translated to Chinese, it means arriving at the other shore. This is the Chinese literary expression. The Sanskrit and English literary expression is: the other shore, arrived. What is the other shore? Arriving at the other shore means we have succeeded in what we are doing, we have fulfilled our wishes, we have achieved our goals. Let’s say, we want to be liberated from the cycle of birth-and-death. Hence, birth-and-death is this shore; nirvana is the other shore. From this shore of birth-and-death, crossing currents of afflictions that span in between, and reaching the other shore of nirvana, is called arriving at the other shore. If we want to reach the Buddha’s World of Constant Stillness and Light from the present world we are in, start walking now. In the future, when we reach our destination, then we have arrived at the other shore. From this shore of ordinary beings to the other shore of sages, certifying to the fruition of sages, is also called arriving at the other shore. We did not understand the Buddhadharma before but now we do. This is also called arriving at the other shore. However, the other shore can be ultimate or non-ultimate.

What is the ultimate other shore? What is the non-ultimate other shore? Ordinary people who certify to the first level of arhatship reach the other shore of first level arhatship, but not the other shore of second level arhatship. When we certify to the second level arhatship, we reach the other shore of second level arhatship but not the other shore of third level arhatship. When we certify to the third level arhatship, we reach the other shore of third level arhatship but not the other shore of fourth level arhatship. When we certify to the fourth level arhatship, we reach the other shore of fourth level arhatship but not the other shore of Bodhisattvas. When we certify to the knowledge, views and wisdom of Bodhisattvas, we reach the other shore of Bodhisattvas but not the other shore of Buddhas. When we certify to the fruition of Buddhas, then it is the ultimate other shore, the final other shore. Hence, ‘arriving at the other shore’ can be expounded profoundly and endlessly. I just explained a few principles here. Once you understand the meaning of the other shore, expand and elaborate on it so that you reach the ultimate other shore. Although I explain only a few principles, you can base on these principles and elaborate on them further. You can understand ten or a hundred principles from my explanation of one principle. This is called spreading and popularizing, expounding and expanding.

Another example is our current sutra lecture. When we complete our two-hour lecture, we have arrived at the other shore, meaning this specific lecture session has reached the other shore. This is paramita. Here’s another example. From the beginning sutra text “Thus I have heard,” (this shore) to the ensuing sutra text “All greatly rejoiced, and took leave with full faith.”, when we complete this part, we have reached the other shore. In short, when we reach our goal in whatever we are doing, we arrive at the other shore. Once you understand the meaning of reaching the other shore, then you have reached the other shore. Our greatest goal is to realize Buddhahood, arrive at anuttarasamyaksambodhi, attain the unsurpassed, equal, level and right enlightenment. This is our ‘other shore’.

The sound of shila paramita. Shilais Sanskrit. It means clean and cool. Clean refers to purity; cool refers to refreshing coolness. Together, it means without heated afflictions. Without afflictions, there is refreshing coolness. This is one way of interpretation.

There is another interpretation. It means guarding against and stopping. A nation has national defense, with armies prepared for combat in case of invasion from other unlawful nations that want to seize our land. In the same token, a family has its own measures of defense and each person has his own measures of defense. At this point, we are talking about personal defense. It is guarding against and stopping. Every person needs to be on guard against himself/herself. Everyone needs to guard against doing all evil deeds and to stop all evil deeds. By not doing any evil deed, we are following the principle of ‘Do no evil; do all good.’

In the olden days, there was a great layman who pleaded with his senior monk to instruct him on what is the Buddhadharma. This monk replied, “Refrain from doing all that is evil; practice in accord all that is good.” The layman said, “Elder monk, I am requesting the Buddhadharma from you! What you told me is something even a three-year-old kid knows. How can you tell me this is Buddhadharma?” The old monk said, “Although three-year-old kids know it, eighty-year-old seniors cannot do it.”

‘All evils’ includes each and every possible kind of evil. Basically, all alludes to many, but here I am denoting it to one…so, one evil deed. Why do you want to do one evil deed? After doing one evil deed, you will do a second evil deed. After doing a second evil deed, you will do a third evil deed, followed by a fourth, up to even millions and millions of evil deeds. All of these starts accumulating from one.

A mountain, for instance, became a huge mountain from the accumulation of a lot of dust particles, starting from one – the first dust particle. So how many is “a lot”? It is incalculable, might as well explain it as one to make it easier to understand. Therefore, not doing even one evil deed is called ‘refraining from doing all that is evil’. Since ‘refraining from doing all that is evil’ includes a lot of evil deeds, someone may think, ‘What I am about to do is probably not included in the list of all that is evil, so it is okay to do.’ My explanation now prohibits the doing of even one evil deed, not to mention many, which is all the more prohibited. This is the most critical, most wonderful — Do not do even one evil deed.

Practice in accord all that is good. All is a lot. This means doing every single good deed, whether big or small. Even if the good deed is as tiny as a hair strand, as long as it is good, you have to do it. Otherwise, you are missing that tiny bit and cannot call it “all”. “All” refers to the great function of the entire substance, without any flaw or deficiency. It is not the case in which you do only this kind of good deed but not that, and vice-versa. No, it’s not that way. It has to be the great functionality of the entire substance.

“Refrain from doing all that is evil; practice in accord all that is good.” This means you ought to do all that is good, whether a lot or a few, big or small. However, when it comes to evil deeds, you should not do any at all. If you do evil deeds, regardless of big or small, you are topsy-turvy. For this reason, the old monk said, “Although three-year-old kids know it, 80-year-old seniors cannot do it.” It is because you cannot perfect this practice.

Shila also means precepts. At the time when the Buddha was entering nirvana, Ananda asked the Buddha four questions. One of the questions was: When the Buddha was in the world, we regard the Buddha as our teacher; after the Buddha enters nirvana, who do we take to be our teacher? The Buddha answered Ananda’s question, saying: monastic disciples should take the precepts as their master. The precepts teach on refraining from doing all that is evil and practicing in accord all that is good. It is also about stopping all evil and guarding against wrong-doing. Hence, Shakyamuni Buddha spoke the shila paramita.

Speaking of precepts, they are most crucial and number one. Earlier, when we discussed the paramita of giving, we also said that it is the most important aspect in cultivation. Now, we are saying that upholding the precepts is number one and likewise the most important aspect in cultivation. Some people are wondering, how come there are so many number one’s? There are no number two’s in the Buddhadharma; all are number one. Whichever dharma it is, it is the number one. Someone once asked me, out of the 84,000 dharma doors of the Buddhadharma, which is number one? Which is the most wonderful? Guess how I responded. I said the Buddhadharma has 84,000 dharma doors, thereby there are 84,000 number one’s, none of which is number two. How come? The 84,000 dharma doors are antidotes for living beings’ 84,000 sicknesses. Each being has his/her sickness/problem. The dharma door that cures his/her sickness is number one.