Issue 301

“Reflect on how I have toiled for repeated eons and endured acute suffering to take across and liberate stubborn beings who resist being taught and who continue to suffer for their offenses. Those not yet subdued undergo retributions according to their karma. If they fall into the evil destinies and are enduring tremendous suffering, then you should remember the gravity of this entrustment I am now making to you here in the palace of the Trayastrimsha Heaven. Find ways to liberate all beings in the Saha world from now until the time when Maitreya comes into the world. Help them escape suffering forever. Help them to encounter Buddhas and receive predictions.”

Reflect on how I have toiled for repeated eons, an unknowable long period of time, and endured acute suffering. Toiling means not being lazy; suffering means not having happiness. Why does Shakyamuni Buddha toil endlessly and does not seek for happiness?  To take across and liberate stubborn beings who resist being taught and who continue to suffer for their offenses. Do not think, “Maybe I am not included among those stubborn beings aforementioned.” Reality is that you and I are among those stubborn beings. Do you realize how much painstaking effort Shakyamuni Buddha has spent teaching and transforming us in order for us to gain liberation? Yet we do not know shame and proudly think it is no big deal, “Me! It’s OK! It’s fine for Shakyamuni Buddha to work a little bit harder. I don’t want to learn Buddhism now. I don’t want to cultivate. I want to be a little lazy, sleep a little bit more.” We reason out and argue for ourselves, playing our own defense lawyers.

Those not yet subdued, not yet liberated, undergo retributions according to their karma. When they fall into the evil destinies, which are the hells, the realm of hungry ghosts and the realm of animals, and are enduring tremendous suffering, then you should remember and think about the gravity of this entrustment I am now earnestly making to you here in the palace of the Trayastrimsha Heaven. Find ways to liberate all beings in the Saha world from now until the time when Maitreya comes into the world. Help them escape all suffering forever. Help them to encounter Buddhas and receive predictions of themselves becoming Buddhas.

Now let’s talk about Elder Master Ying Guang. He is a native of Shanxi Province in China. After he received the precepts, he went to Potola Mountain for a secluded retreat. His retreat consisted of reading sutras all day. He read the sutras with utmost respect, sitting perfectly upright. Before going to the restroom, he would change into a different set of clothing and a different pair of shoes designated for use in the restroom. After he is done in the restroom and finishes cleansing himself, he puts on his clothes designated for use when reading the sutras. Even if the restroom is very clean, he nevertheless keeps this practice. He never went to the restroom wearing his clothes used when reading sutras, and he never stepped in to the sutra room wearing his restroom clothes. From morning to night, he read the sutras respectfully every day. For eighteen years, he dwelled at Potola Mountain – Guanyin Bodhisattva’s wayplace, reading the sutras every day, never a day was he idle. After reading the sutras for eighteen years, he went to Nanjing to lecture on the Amitabha Sutra.

Imagine this scenario — a greatly virtuous and preeminent monk giving the Amitabha Sutra lectures, and no one showed up except one person, who sat on the bench every day. Thinking that this sole attendee was listening attentively to his sutra lecture and rejoiced in doing so, the Elder Master asked in his Shanxi accent, “Do you understand what I explain?” This person said, “Oh! Dharma Master, I don’t understand.” The Elder Master said, “You don’t? Then, what are you doing here?” This person said, “I am waiting for you to finish speaking so I can put the benches away. I am here to put away the benches, not to listen to the sutra lectures.” Ah! The Elder Dharma Master was crestfallen to hear this, and he swore to never lecture on the sutras in Nanjing again. See! No one attended his sutra lectures except for one person, who turned out to be the bench-keeper waiting to put away the benches.

Later, he was invited by the laity group in Shanghai to speak on the Amitabha Sutra. This time many people came to listen to his lecture. There was a large audience. Why such a disparity? In Nanjing, Buddhism was not flourishing. Without public announcements and advertisements, even if a greatly virtuous and preeminent monk was giving sutra lectures, no one would know about it and no one will attend. However, in Shanghai, the Elder Master has some disciples who took refuge with him. They advertised their master’s sutra lectures. They urged people to attend, “Come and listen! Come and listen!” They got all the Buddhists to attend the lecture and listen to the Dharma.

Among the attendees was an 18-, 19- or 20-year-old student. She was not a Buddhist. One night, she had a dream. In her dream, someone told her, “You should go to the Laity Grove to listen to sutra lectures! Great Strength Bodhisattva is there propagating the Buddhadharma, expounding on the Amitabha Sutra!” When she read the newspapers the next morning, there was indeed an Elder Master Ying Guang lecturing on the Amitabha Sutra at the Laity Grove.

“How strange! In my dream, it was Great Strength Bodhisattva speaking the Amitabha Sutra there?” she thought. She went to listen to the sutra lectures, bringing with her many students as well. She told these students that in her dream, this Dharma Master was Great Strength Bodhisattva. She did not know who Great Strength Bodhisattva was, so she asked the Buddhists, “What is Great Strength Bodhisattva?” They asked her, “Why do you want to know?” She said that in her dream she’s told that Great Strength Bodhisattva is at Shanghai’s Laity Grove speaking on the Amitabha Sutra. When the laity heard this, they think, “Oh! This Elder Master is probably Great Strength Bodhisattva come again.” Hence, they went to Elder Master Yin Guang and said, “A female student was told in her dream that you are Great Strength Bodhisattva here speaking on the Amitabha Sutra!” The Elder Master said, “Nonsense.” He gave them a good scolding and no one dared to say anymore. Thereafter, this female student took refuge with Elder Master Ying Guang.

In her dream, this female student was also told that Great Strength Bodhisattva will stay for three more years. After then, he will disappear. Indeed, three years later, this Great Strength Bodhisattva — Elder Master Ying Guang, entered nirvana in 1944. Only then did people realized that he was Great Strength Bodhisattva come-again. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Elder Master Ying Guang most enjoyed handwriting the Shurangama Sutra’s “Chapter of Great Strength Bodhisattva’s Perfect Penetration through Mindfulness of the Buddha”. Many laypeople have a copy of the Master’s calligraphy on this chapter.

Elder Dharma Master Ying Guang is an enlightened high sanghan of great virtue of the contemporary times. Didn’t someone said that 500 years after the Buddha’s nirvana, there would be no arhats? Here we have someone who was not only an arhat but surpassed arhats! When Elder Master Ying Guang entered nirvana, many shariras appeared after his cremation. Someone who has not attained fruition or enlightenment will not have any sharira. People with shariras are not ordinary people.

At that time, all the division bodies of Earth Store Bodhisattva that came from all those worlds merged into a single form, sadly wept and said to the Buddha, “Throughout long eons I have been receiving the Buddha’s guidance and from that have developed inconceivable spiritual power and great wisdom.

At that time, all the division bodies of Earth Store Bodhisattva that came from all those worlds, merged into a single form. Earth Store Bodhisattva’s numerous division bodies originate from a single body. These multiple bodies merged back into one body, hence the phrase, “merged into a single form.” Multiple bodies are one body, and one body is multiple bodies. One body can become multiple bodies; therefore, one body is multiple bodies. Multiple bodies can merge into one body; therefore, multiple bodies are one body. In more depth, there are neither multiple bodies nor one body. Earth Store Bodhisattva fundamentally has no body.
How can you say there is not a body? He has no mark of self; if he has a body, then there is mark of self. Because he has no mark of self, many is not many. Although there are many bodies, many are not many. Although he has one body, one is not one. Therefore, one is many, and many are one. Earth Store Bodhisattva divides into immeasurable bodies, and the immeasurable combine into one. Thus, from one body comes immeasurable bodies, and immeasurable bodies can become one body. As such, would you say he has a body? If he has a body, which of his many bodies would you say is Earth Store Bodhisattva? Which body is not Earth Store Bodhisattva? Therefore, we could say every body is that of Earth Store Bodhisattva and every body is not Earth Store Bodhisattva.

How can you say that they all are Earth Store Bodhisattva? The bodies he manifest are that of Earth Store Bodhisattva. His markless body has no outer traits at all, so they can be said to be not Earth Store Bodhisattva. Furthermore, no matter who it is that wishes to emulate Earth Store Bodhisattva, that person is a division body of Earth Store Bodhisattva and is no different than Earth Store Bodhisattva. Why would you wish to emulate Earth Store Bodhisattva? You admire Earth Store Bodhisattva’ actions, his wisdom, and the power of his vows.

Why do you admire him? What is the reason? You know the reasons without my explanation, but you dare not admit it. Let me tell you now, let me prove that you are a division body of Earth Store Bodhisattva. You admire Earth Store Bodhisattva and you emulate his aspirations and vows, hence you are a division body of Earth Store Bodhisattva. Although just a division body, if you further cultivate according to the Buddhadharma, completely restore you self-nature to perfection, understand you mind and see your nature, by then you will enjoy spiritual powers and can return to become one with Earth Store Bodhisattva — merged into a single body, merged into a single form. That is what is meant by “returning to the source and origin.”