Issue 295

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,” The Buddha said to Ananda – referring to himself as “I” – I will hoist a great Dharma banner, not only for your sake but for the sake of all living beings in the ten directions “to obtain the wondrous subtle secret, the pure nature, the bright mind.” Some books label this sentence as: “to obtain the wondrous subtle secret nature. Pure bright mind.” In fact, the “pure bright mind” should be added with the word “wondrous”, as “wondrous pure bright mind.” The meaning is the same as the previous. However, the sutra text does not have the word ‘wondrous’. This sentence can also be said as ‘to obtain the wondrous subtle secret, the pure nature, the bright mind.’ If this text is read like this, it would seem more fluent and voluble going forward. Hence the punctuation ‘.’ after the character ‘nature’ is now moved up before this character.

So that they may obtain the most extremely wonderful and infinitely subtle cause, that is, the secret cause mentioned in the title of the sutra. It is secret because it is not known to most people before the Buddha pointed it out to them, just like if a vein of gold which has not yet been discovered by geologists: most people don’t know it is there. Once the gold is discovered, once the geologists arrive at the spot, investigate it and realize there is a deposit of gold there, then it can be mined. The secret cause is the same way.

I will help you to obtain the pure nature, the bright mind, and to attain the pure eye. The nature is pure and clear, the mind is luminous. Because your nature is pure and your mind bright, you attain the pure eye, which is the Way-eye that Ananda has just asked the Buddha to open for him. It is also called the wisdom-eye. “Pure” means to be free of even the slightest defilement; it indicates that the vision of the wisdom-eye sees principles very clearly and truly. If you have the pure eye, you will be unobstructed and able to understand any principle.

“Ananda, you have told me that you saw my fist of bright light. How did it take the form of a fist? How did the fist become bright? By what means could you see it?”
Ananda replied, “The body of the Buddha is born of purity and cleanness, and, therefore, it assumes the color of Jambu River gold with deep red hues. Hence, it shone as brilliant and dazzling as a precious mountain. It was actually my eyes that saw the Buddha bend his five-wheeled fingers to form a fist which was shown to all of us.”

The Buddha called again to Ananda: “Ananda, you have told me that you saw my fist of bright light. How did it take the form of a fist? How did the fist become bright? Tell me why my fist had light. How did I make this fist? By what means could you see it? What did you use to see it? You have to answer me!

Ananda replied, “The body of the Buddha is born of purity and cleanness, and, therefore, it assumes the color of Jambu River gold with deep red hues. Hence, it shone as brilliant and dazzling as a precious mountain.” The Buddha’s entire body is the color of Jambu River gold. The Jambu river is located in Southern Jambudvipa. The gold found in this river has a slightly reddish cast to it. In Southern Jambudvipa there is a species of tree called the Jambu, when the leaves of the tree, or the sap, fall into the water, they will turn into gold. This kind of gold is much heavier than ordinary gold, and the Buddha’s body is likened to it; like the color of Jambu river gold, the color of the Buddha’s body is a combination of gold and red. The body of the Buddha is born of purity and cleanness: A body with that kind of appearance is produced from purity and therefore has light. The light exists because of that purity.

“It was actually my eyes that saw the Buddha bend his five-wheeled fingers to form a fist which was shown to all of us.” Ananda says. “I really used my eyes to see it. The five-wheeled fingers were clenched as they were shown to people, and that is what made the appearance of a fist.

The Buddha told Ananda, “Today the Tathagata will tell you truly. That all those with wisdom are able to achieve enlightenment through the use of examples. Ananda, take, for example, my fist: if I didn’t have a hand, I couldn’t make a fist. If you didn’t have eyes, you couldn’t see. If you apply the example of my fist to the case of your eyes, is the idea the same?”
Ananda said, “Yes, World Honored One. Since I can’t see without my eyes, if one applies the example of the Buddha’s fist to the case of your eyes, the idea is the same.”

Editor Note: The above sutra text: “The Buddha told Ananda, “Today the Tathagata will tell you truly… they put their palm together, purified their minds, and stood waiting for the Tathagata’s compassionate instruction…” was first lectured and explained by the Venerable Master in English. Later, on April 21, 1989, the Venerable Master again lectured the same text in Chinese. In order to combine the original meaning and facilitate Chinese readers, the Chinese translation of the original text and the subsequent supplementary lectures have been integrated.

This part of the text is the beginning of the ‘Ten Manifestations of Seeing’ to reveal the seeing nature. Now is the question and answer dialog between the Buddha and Ananda. The Buddha told Ananda, “Today the Tathagata will tell you truly.” Now I, the Tathagata, will honestly tell you, I am going to tell you the absolute truth! When the Venerable Master explained the above in English, a lot of disciples start laughing. The Venerable Master said: “I’m not joking with you! If I did not laugh, all of you are not allowed to laugh. Wait till I’m done laughing, then you can laugh. Now I have not laughed and you just laughed, this is not being a good disciple!”

“All those with wisdom are able to achieve enlightenment through the use of examples. People who are wise like to use examples in order to attain enlightenment. Here “those with wisdom” does not mean people with genuine wisdom though, but people with ordinary wisdom which is neither superior nor inferior. Because if you really have wisdom, you will understand ten things when you are told one thing. I say something one way and you deduce perhaps ten or a hundred things from it. Even if I don’t talk about it, you’ll be enlightened. That is to have genuine wisdom.

Why use examples? It’s just because people have not yet attained genuine wisdom. Since they don’t have great wisdom, they don’t understand. Such people can become enlightened through the use of analogies. But if stupid people who lack wisdom are given an analogy, they still wouldn’t understand. The Buddha sees that all living beings can become buddhas, so analogies are used as an example to facilitate all to obtain wisdom.

Do you understand the English that I speak? Do you need further translation? If I speak English perhaps we can save some time. If I know how to say this word, I’ll start with it. If there are words I don’t know how to express, you can tell me and then tell others, this way we can save more time. Since most Americans have difficulty understand my lecture in Chinese, I’ll speak English instead. If there are English words that I don’t know, you can use your correct English to record it on tape, okay?

Ananda! At this time, the Buddha said:”Ananda, take, for example, my fist: if I didn’t have a hand, I couldn’t make a fist. By the same token, if you didn’t have eyes, you couldn’t see. If you don’t have eyes, you will not realize your seeing nature, and you won’t be able to see. Is that so? If you apply the example of my fist to the case of your eyes, is the idea the same? Are we talking about the same thing or not?” The Buddha asks Ananda.

Ananda said, “Yes, World Honored One. Since I can’t see without my eyes, if one applies the example of the Buddha’s fist to the case of your eyes, the idea is the same. Yes, Buddha, if you compare these two cases, the idea is the same.”If I don’t have eyes, then I will not realize my seeing nature, and I will not have the ability to see. Using my eye faculty as an analogy to the Buddha’s fist, the idea of these two cases is the same. The Buddha uses the eye vision and the hand fist as examples to see if Ananda would understand this principle. Sure enough, Ananda said it is the same. Ananda didn’t take time to cogitate over it. He isn’t thinking now.