Issue 288

The pure nature and bright substance of the permanently dwelling true mind can bring forth all conditions. Because of conditions, you consider it to be lost. As these causal conditions arise, you keep getting farther and farther away from where you want to be, like someone running farther and farther down the road. Didn’t I say before that the more Ananda answered the Buddha’s questions the further off the track he got? All conditions are transformed and appear from within the primal bright essential consciousness, but after a long time of clutching at these conditions, it seems that something has been lost. What is lost? Nothing, really. The primal bright essential consciousness seems to be lost, but it isn’t. Hence, it is said that because of conditions, you consider it to be lost. This signifies the primal bright essential consciousness, the primal pure substance of Bodhi Nirvana.

This is the true jewel in your household. Basically, it is right there with you but you don’t know how to use it to your advantage. Since you can’t use it, it seems to be lost. It is as if you had a valuable gem which you have hidden away so well that after a long time you can no longer remember where you put it. Once you forget where it is, you can no longer make use of it. Although you may be destitute, you don’t know how to get at it and derive benefit from it. It’s the same as if it weren’t there. It seems lost but is not. You seem to have lost track of it but you haven’t. What do you use instead? You use your false thinking, your mind that exploits upon conditions. By way of process you forget the true mind, and once it is forgotten, it is as good as lost. And this is why you have not become Buddhas and are bound up by birth and death instead: you have not found your true mind. If you have found your true mind, then you will not be constrained by birth and death.

Living beings lose sight of the original brightness: therefore, though they use it to the end of their days, they are unaware of it, and without intending to they enter the various destinies.

Living beings lose sight of the original brightness. Living beings seem to lose their pure basic nature, the bright substance of the permanently dwelling true mind. In actual fact it is not lost. Therefore, though they use it to the end of their days, they are unaware of it. Living beings use the pure nature and bright substance of the permanently dwelling true mind every day, but they themselves do not know and fail to realize it. Because they cling to the mind that exploits upon conditions, living beings mistakenly fall into the turning wheel of the six paths and yet are unaware of what they are doing.

Although the text says ‘lost’, our true mind is not lost. Living beings basically do not know and think they have lost it. Since it is primarily from the true mind that the false-thinking mind which exploits upon conditions springs forth in the first place. Absolutely everything is a manifestation of the true mind, and it helps you from morning till night, but you don’t realize it. All you know how to use is your false-thinking mind. However, this very false-thinking mind exploits upon conditions are basically created from the true mind.

What is the true mind? The true mind is a manifestation in seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, awareness, and knowing. This cognition and nature are just an expression from your true mind. “What is the Buddha-nature?” someone once asked. Shakyamuni Buddha replied,
In the eyes it is called seeing, the seeing nature;
In the ears it is called hearing, the hearing nature;
In the nose it smells scents, the cognition of smelling the odors;
In the tongue it tastes, the cognition of tasting flavors;
In the hands it is dexterity, how can we hold things with our hand? How can our hands naturally pick up things?
In the feet it is agility, the feet can take it’s step and walk at your will.

All of these are imperceptible manifestations of the true mind; and people are unaware of it. Now Ananda is still confused and so the Buddha uses all manner of analogies to explain to him.

And without intending to they enter the various destinies. The various destinies; that is, on the turning wheel of the six paths. There are the three good destinies, and the four evil destinies. Your destiny is the place you tend toward. You walk right into it. Where do you end up? You may ascend to the heavens, or you may enter the realms of the asuras, the hells, the hungry ghosts, or the human realm. Whatever karma you create, you undergo a retribution for it. This ‘without intending to‘ means mistakenly, wrongfully! Without realizing it, you end up by entering one of the six paths. It is not that you particularly want to, but fall you do, just the same.

The four evil destinies of the animals, the hungry ghosts, the hell-beings, and the destiny of the asuras is sometimes listed as an evil destiny. Today we’ll talk about Asura. Asuras are said to be “strong in fighting,” since fighting is what they like to do best. They are always ready to pick a quarrel with people. Asura is a Sanskrit word which is interpreted to mean “without wine” and also as “deformed.” Asuras who live in the heavens like to drink wine, but when they are in the heavens, they don’t get any wine to drink. “Deformed” refers to the male asuras, whose bodies and faces are misshapen and ugly. Oh, with a pig’s mouth and fangs, they do have the ugliest look!

But the asuras women are gorgeous. The Jade Emperor encountered one such particularly beautiful female asura who was the daughter of the Asura king and chose her for his wife. Now the Jade Emperor, Shakra, that is, liked to go hear sutras. He would transform himself into a man and come to this world to listen to sutras. But his asura wife “drank vinegar,” that is, she got jealous. “You go off to the world every single day. I wonder what weird essence or fox spirit has got you in her clutches. You’re chasing after a fox spirit, aren’t you?” She was accusing him of playing around with another woman. Worldly women are not the only ones who get jealous about their husbands. Even the wife of the Jade Emperor in the heaven is like this!

She got jealous. Eventually Shakra’s wife decided to follow along to find out what he was up to. (In this day and age there are private detectives to handle such matters, but probably they didn’t exist then so she had to run her own investigation and spy on him for herself.) So, when the Jade Emperor arrived at the Dharma assembly, he bowed to the Dharma Master, paid his respects, and then took a seat in the assembly. It just so happened that on that particular day there were women sitting on either side of him. When the asura woman saw that, she was beside herself, and she made herself visible right there in the assembly to confront the emperor. “It’s no wonder you come here every day with so many women to keep you company,” she began. The Jade Emperor was outraged. “I come here to listen to sutras and you’ve barged in and disturbed the Bodhimanda. You’re really creating heavy offenses.” He boxed her ears and she burst into tears and ran off to find her father. She demanded a divorce and refused to go back to her husband.

Her father came to her defense and promised to wage war on the Jade Emperor. “I’ll defeat him and take the throne,” he consoled her. “Don’t fret.” The fight was on. Every day the asura king did battle with the Jade Emperor. The Emperor called out his full regalia, but the asura king’s ferocious battalions were in their element, and little by little the Jade Emperor was beaten back. He was losing ground fast.

As a faithful follower of the Buddha, he went to the Buddha and asked him to devise some strategy. The Buddha gave him kashaya – his robe – saying, “Take this back with you, tear it into strips and have each of your soldiers carry a piece of it. Then tell them all to recite “Mahaprajnaparamita” (Great Wisdom which has Reached the Other Shore). The Jade Emperor did as he was instructed. The entire army began reciting “Mahaprajnaparamita” and when the next attack came, the asuras fell. They were totally unprepared for the unprecedented force of the heavenly troops’ blows and admitted defeat once and for all.

Asuras are said to be “deformed.” They have the blessings of the gods, but not the virtue. There are asuras not only in the heavens but also among people. Soldiers and thieves are examples of human asuras.

But a distinction has to be made here. In this country, military service is mandatory and people are drafted. Some of them are not asuras. Some of those that go into battle are just kids. At eighteen they’re drafted and at that age they haven’t the least bit of samadhi-power. They get jittery at the mere mention of war. Front line troops should be trained for five years. For instance, they’ll be twenty-three if they enter the service at eighteen and train for five years, and by that time they have a little samadhi-power and some experience, so that if they are sent into battle, they have sufficient courage to cope with it. If they’re too young, their samadhi isn’t strong, they lack experience, and they haven’t got any guts. Nowadays, there are people who get drafted into military service against their will. I believe that in the present circumstances, not every soldier is an asura. In former times, people who actually wanted to be soldiers or robbers could be classified as asuras.

There are other asuras besides soldiers. For instance, someone who has a big temper and is always picking fights with others has the nature of an asura. In general, asuras have violent tempers. In the human realm, there are asuras. In the animal realm, there are also asuras. Wild stallions are an example of asuras. There are also asuras among the hungry ghosts. Sometimes asuras are also counted in the three good paths of the heavens, human, and asuras. Other times, they can also be counted in the four evil destinies of the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, and asuras. And without intending to they enter the various destinies. For the most part, living beings enter the four evil destinies. Some living beings don’t lose their way and are born in the path of people or in the heavens. In this case, we don’t call them without intending to enter the evil destinies. In other words, people without intending to enter into the evil destinies is because they fail to clearly recognize this route and take the wrong path instead!