Issue 283

The six kinds of quaking pervaded the Buddha realms, and thus lands as many as fine motes of dust throughout the ten directions appeared simultaneously. The Buddha’s awesome spirit caused all the realms to unite into a single realm. And in these realms all the great Bodhisattvas, each remaining in his own country, put their palms together and listened.

The six kinds of quaking pervaded the Buddharealms. All the billions of worlds where there was a Buddha – not only our Saha world but all the others – experienced the six kinds of earthquakes.

What are the six kinds of quaking? Three kinds involve movement, and three kinds involve sound. The three that involves movement are: quaking, erupting, and upheaving. Quaking is the motion of the earth in an earthquake. Erupting refers to intermittent agitations which cause the earth to little by little gush forth and back like water from a fountain. Upheaving refers to continual, violent upward movements of the earth. Sometimes the earth can be heaped up to form high places and sometimes it can sink to form depressions. At present our planet earth is in the midst of changes brought about by the six kinds of earthquakes.

The other kinds of earthquakes – cracking, roaring, and striking – involve sound. Cracking is not the same as quaking, which is a simple movement of the earth. When there is cracking, whole sections of the earth are torn asunder. The earth splits apart and often rend whole buildings in the process, like the explosion of a bomb. Roaring occurs when the earth emits sound unheard in the world. Striking occurs when the earth splits apart and the two faces of the crevasse strike against one another. Hence, cracking, roaring, striking, quaking, erupting and upheaving are the six kinds of earthquakes.

Speaking of earthquakes, in the past, during a seven-day Chan session, I have briefly talked about the principles of an earthquake. The six kinds of earthquakes occur for various reasons: when someone in the world becomes a Buddha; when someone becomes enlightened, but has not yet realized Buddhahood, that is, when he accomplished the result of Arhatship; and when a demon king wishes to disturb the minds of people in the world. So, there are good earthquakes and bad earthquakes. When they are good, that is when a Buddha accomplishes the Way or someone achieves enlightenment, no matter how great a disturbance the six kinds of earthquakes cause, no one will be injured.

When a demon king comes to display his demonic power and disturb the minds of people in the world, he can kill people and wreak destruction. When there is an earthquake in one country and many people perish, and then the same thing happens in another country, that is a demon king who has decided to flex his muscles, awe the people of the world, and extend the scope of his power. It is just like a political demonstration: the demon kings stage demonstrations for us people, in order to say: “Take a look at how great my demonic powers are. I can overturn heaven and upset earth.” Hence, demon kings also have this power.

Therefore we should be careful to determine whether each experience we encounter is a good or bad situation, since there are many variations and distinctions.

Speaking of earthquakes, I remember experiencing an earthquake one night after my mother died, when I was practicing filial piety beside her grave. I was sitting in dhyana, and everything was empty – there was no self and no others – when suddenly I felt a movement, an agitation. I thought to myself, “Ah, what is this demon that can shake my body this way? Its strength is certainly formidable.” I didn’t realize it was an earthquake. The next day someone came to tell me there had been an earthquake – a very strange earthquake. During it, the well near where I sat had spouted fire. This was a water-well, not a volcano, and yet fire had come forth from it. There are many strange things in this world. I believe someone is thinking, “I’m sure that beneath the well there was a vein of sulfur which fed a volcano, and that is why the well spouted fire.” Maybe that’s the way it was.

And thus: Once the six kinds of earthquakes occurred, lands as many as fine motes of dust throughout the ten directions appeared simultaneously. How many fine motes of dust are there? They are countless. Yet the lands which appeared were as incalculably numerous as dust-motes. The great Arhats, great Bodhisattvas, great bhikshus, elders, laypeople, and the king and his ministers all saw these lands appear simultaneously. What kind of experience would you say that was?

The Buddha’s awesome spirit: Shakyamuni Buddha used his awesome spiritual strength, the power of his spiritual penetrations, to cause all the realms, all the lands as many as the fine motes of dust, to unite into a single realm. Although the lands were innumerable, they all came together as one. For example, nowadays we can enlarge a very small photograph into a very large one and reduce a very large photograph into a very small one; wouldn’t you say that is a spiritual penetration? We do have this skill to enlarge or reduce a portrait.

In the same way, Shakyamuni Buddha, by means of his spiritual power, made distant places close, by reducing all the myriad lands throughout the great trichiliocosm into a single one, as if he were reducing a photograph. And yet, though the lands were united into one, each remained perfectly intact in their original order, each still located in its respective position without being mixed up. I think this is probably like a camera which can shrink the distance closer. It is through the spiritual power of Shakyamuni Buddha that this state can be achieved.

Shakyamuni Buddha brought all the lands and realms together into one because he wanted everyone to be able to listen to the explanation of the Great Shurangama Samadhi, so that the Bodhisattvas in every land could come to understand this doctrine. So, he emitted a great light from his face, a blazing light as brilliant as hundreds of thousands of suns, until every land was illuminated.