Issue 294

“I have often thought, ‘There is no reason for me to toil at cultivation’ expecting that the Tathagata would bestow samadhi upon me.” He thought to himself, “I have the Buddha for a cousin, I don’t have to cultivate. I don’t have to go through the bitterness and suffering of cultivation. Why not? Because my cousin has become a Buddha, why should I have to cultivate? You see, he’s now thinking again!

He had thoughts again. The Buddha can give me samadhi-power.” Ananda thought it wasn’t necessary for one to cultivate samadhi-power oneself. The Buddha could just give it to him. Think it over. Isn’t that naive? I believe that none of us would think like that.

“I never realized that he could not stand in for me in body and mind.”I really don’t know. Don’t know what? Ananda says. But Ananda says that he really didn’t know that the Buddha’s body is the Buddha’s and his body was his body, and that the Buddha’s mind is the Buddha’s mind and his mind was his mind. We cannot substitute for one another. The Buddha cannot represent Ananda in body and mind and he cannot represent the Buddha in body and mind. He didn’t know that he himself had to cultivate samadhi-power. We all know that one could not stand in for another. But Ananda thought that the Buddha could give him a lot of samadhi, at least a bit more than others. Little did he knew that the mind and body cannot substitute for one another, what a disappointment for him!

“Thus, I lost my original mind.” Ananda admits: “I only know how to use my false thinking mind, hence I have lost my original true mind”.“And although my body has left the home life” – that is, he has become a monk – “my mind has not entered the Way.” – that is, he has not obtained samadhi-power.“I am like the poor son who renounced his father and roamed around.” Ananda is referring, by way of analogy, to the case of an extremely wealthy elder who enjoyed many blessings. He had a son who didn’t make use of his father’s assets and went out into the world to suffer poverty.

What Ananda means is, “I followed the Buddha to leave home but I didn’t cultivate the Way. Because I lack samadhi-power, I’m a poor son. I could have taken on the Buddha’s family business, but without any samadhi-power, I still don’t have the authority to receive the Dharma riches that were amassed from Buddha’s merit and virtue. Why do I not qualify? It’s because I have no samadhi-power. So, Ananda sobbed grievously, just like a child.

Therefore, today I realize that although I am greatly learned, if I do not cultivate, it is the same as if I had not learned anything; just as someone who only speaks of food will never get full.

Therefore, today I realize: I just now realized this. I did not know before. What do I know? Although I am greatly learned, if I do not cultivate, it is the same as if I had not learned anything. If I simply know a lot of things but don’t put them into practice, I will be like a stone man who can talk but not act. In other words, Ananda could remember things, he was widely learned and had a good memory, but he had no skill, no gong fu when it came to actual practice. He had never actually done it. If he does not put his learning into practice, it is the same as if he didn’t know anything at all.

Just as someone who only speaks of food will never get full. It’s like someone who continually talks about things to eat. For instance, people who like vegetarian food say, “Let’s make vegetable dumplings, they’re really good.” Or “Let’s make oil cakes as they do in Manchuria, they’re even better.”Those who eat meat say, “Such and such a Chinese restaurant is the best in town, the food there is really good. Let’s go have Chinese food.” Americans like to eat Chinese food. So, they discuss the various dishes by name, but just speaking about them and never getting around to eating them is no way to get full.
There’s another saying:

Every day you count others money
but not half a cent of it is yours.
Not cultivating in accord with Dharma
amounts to the same thing.

That is to say: You count money for others every day, you count their wealth and treasures, yet you don’t even have a penny yourself. It doesn’t matter what dharmas you know, if you don’t cultivate the Way, that’s being the same as someone who counts other people’s money. You have no share in it. If you don’t actually go and cultivate, there will be no result from your efforts. Hence the saying: ‘You can keep talking about food, yet you never get full.’ You can talk about how this dish and other dish are like, you can keep count, but never have a bite of it. Do you think you can get full? In the end you will never get full.

World Honored One, now we all are bound by two obstructions and as a consequence do not perceive the still, eternal nature of the mind. I only hope the Tathagata will take pity on us poor and destitute ones and disclose the wonderful bright mind, and open my Way-eye.

Ananda again called, “World Honored One, now we all are bound by two obstructions.” Everyone of us in the great assembly is tied up by two obstructions. What are the two obstructions? One is the obstruction of self, and one is the obstruction of what is known. It’s just the obstruction of what’s mine, and the obstruction of what I know. The obstruction of self is the obstacle of affliction. The second is the obstacle of what is known. The obstacle of affliction arises with the attachment to self. With the attachment to self comes the obstruction of afflictions. No matter what comes up you cannot see through it, you cannot let it go, and so you become attached to it. And once the attachment arises, the affliction follows right along. That’s the obstruction of affliction. The obstacle of what is known arises with the attachment to dharmas.

As to the obstacle what is known, if you think, “I know a lot,” that is an obstruction. It is not that the more people study things the more their knowledge increases; rather, the more they study the more they are obstructed by what they know. How is knowledge an obstruction? It makes people arrogant. “Take a look at me. I know things that none of you know. I am way beyond you. I can’t even be compared to you. All of you are ignorant. But as for me, why, my learning ability stands second to none in this world; it is rare even in the heavens, one can’t find it even on earth!” As soon that arrogance arises, it is the obstruction of what is known.

These are the two kinds of obstructions which Ananda says have bound up the members of the great assembly. “Bound” means that they have not obtained liberation. They cannot get free because they have these two kinds of obstructions. And as a consequence do not perceive the still, eternal nature of the mind. I don’t know the tranquil, unmoving, permanently abiding nature of my mind.

I only hope the Tathagata will take pity on us poor and destitute ones. Now, because I do not understand this doctrine, I hope the Tathagata will take pity on us ignorant people. The Chinese character「哀」means sorrow, the character「愍」means pity. This is to ask the Buddha to take pity on this great assembly. There is a Chinese saying: “Pity me, pity me”. This can cause people to give into a pitiful feeling. The Venerable Ananda is still relying on the Buddha. He is still not standing on his own. What is consider ‘poor’? Without the Shurangama Samadhi, this is called ‘poor’. What is consider ‘destitute’? Without getting the Dharma-robe of the Shurangama Samadhi, this is called ‘destitute’. Because one has not attained the Shurangama Samadhi, one is like a poor naked person. Hence “Poor and destitute” means they had not obtained the Dharma-wealth of the Shurangama Samadhi. They have not donned this Dharma-robe.

And disclose the wonderful bright mind, and open my Way-eye. Ananda wants the Buddha to take pity on him and show him the wonderful, bright true mind which will cause him to soon open his Way-eye, so that his wisdom can increase and he can accomplish sagehood. The essential thing is to accomplish sagehood.

Then from the character wan 卍 [signifying “myriad virtues”] on his chest, the Tathagata poured forth precious light. Radiant with hundreds of thousands of colors, the brilliant light simultaneously pervaded everywhere throughout the ten directions to Buddha-realms as many as fine motes of dust, anointing the crowns of every Tathagata in all the jeweled Buddhalands of the ten directions. Then it swept back to Ananda and all in the great assembly. And said to Ananda, “I will now erect the great Dharma banner for you, to cause all living beings in the ten directions to obtain the wondrous subtle secret, the pure nature, the bright mind, and to attain the pure eye.”

Earlier in the sutra the Buddha emitted light from his face – a blazing light as brilliant as a hundred thousand suns. What did it represent? It represented the breaking up of the false: the false thinking mind. Now he again emits light, this time from the insignia wan “myriad” on his chest. It represents the disclosing of the true: the true mind.

Then from the character wan 卍 [signifying “myriad virtues”] on his chest, the Tathagata poured forth precious light. You can see the swastika symbol on Buddha images. It represents the adornment of the myriad virtues since the Buddha’s virtuous practices have attained perfection. Radiant with hundreds of thousands of colors, the brilliant light simultaneously pervaded everywhere throughout the ten directions to Buddha-realms as many as fine motes of dust. The swastika symbol poured forth precious light which radiated back and forth. It was an iridescent, shimmering light, with hundreds of thousands of colors, and it shone back and forth, pervading not only the Saha world, but all the Buddhalands, emitting as many as fine motes of dust from the ten directions simultaneously.

Then it anointed the crowns of every Tathagata in all the jeweled Buddha Lands of the ten directions. The place where there is a Buddha is called ‘jeweled Buddhland’. It illuminated the crowns of Buddhas in as many Buddha countries as there are fine motes of dust; it was as if their crowns reflected one another’s light. Then it swept back to Ananda and all in the great assembly. After it illuminated the Tathagatas of the ten directions, the Buddha’s light returned and illuminated Ananda’s crown, and the crowns of all the great Bodhisattvas, great Arhats, great bhikshus, the king, the officials, and the elder in the dharma assembly. The Buddha emitted this kind of light as a sign to make everyone understand the pure nature and bright substance of the permanently dwelling true mind. Hence the Buddha emitted and magnified the light on the swastika on his chest.