Following yesterday’s Rahula and Yaśodharā and Cause and Effect from volume 8 of Master Hsuan Hua’s commentary on the Lotus Sutra, I offer Master Hsuan Hua’s explanation of why Śākyamuni and Devadatta were linked together in lifetime after lifetime.

What’s the meaning of the name Devadatta? It means “heat of the heavens.” During his lifetime, Devadatta specialized in helping people by opposing them; his generosity would incite heated emotions in its recipients. That, in turn, would cause the “heat of the heavens.” This is an example of naming someone according to causes and conditions. With this cause and condition, his name was Heat of the Heavens. Why did Devadatta, in a backhanded way, come to aid Śākyamuni Buddha to accomplish Buddhahood? Another factor was also at play. I’ll talk about that first.

Long ago there was a wealthy elder named Sudatta who had an immense fortune, including specimens of the rare and precious seven treasures. His eldest son was called Sumati. When his wife died, Sudatta, though advanced in years, remarried and had another son named Suvyā. The elder became older and older, and he passed away when his younger son was only about eighteen or twenty. The two sons proceeded to divide their father’s riches. But Sumati, the elder brother, decided he didn’t want to give half the riches to his younger brother. So he came up with a scheme. What kind of scheme?

Sumati said to Suvyā, “Vulture Peak has many sources of entertainment. Let’s plan to go there someday.” Suvyā replied, “Yes, I’ve long been hoping to have a trip there. Let’s go there for a vacation, do some outdoor activities, or have a barbecue!” So the two brothers decided to go there together. When they got near the top of the mountain, Sumati pushed his younger brother off a cliff, so his younger brother fell into the creek at the base of the mountain, breaking his skull and other bones. Then Sumati smashed Suvyā body into pieces with rocks, murdering him. Sumati then returned home and took possession of all his father’s wealth.

Who was Sumati? Don’t think that Śākyamuni Buddha never did anything wrong. He, too, took someone’s life. Sumati was Śākyamuni Buddha in a former life. Who was Suvyā? He was Devadatta in a former life. Who was the father, Sudatta? He was King Ajātaśatru, son of Vaidehi. Ajātaśatru locked his father up in jail with seven sets of gates. In life after life, Śākyamuni Buddha was involved with these people in different relationships, so even after he became a Buddha, they continued to give him trouble.

[Chapter 12] doesn’t discuss these events, but does tell how Devadatta helped the Buddha attain Buddhahood. You could see this as a case of the suffering of being around those whom one hates. However, it would be more correct to call it the joy of being around those whom one hates. Why so? The more Devadatta opposed the Buddha, the more the Buddha liked it. So it’s not really a case of hatred. If they had truly hated one another, then they wouldn’t have been together life after life. Since there was no hatred between them, they met and helped each other life after life. Two people who hate one another would draw further and further apart; they wouldn’t be together. This indicates that the relationship between Devadatta and the Buddha was not a case of dislike.

Following yesterday’s Using Śāriputra’s Failure to Explain the Meaning of Bodhisattva Mahāsattva, I offer another example of how Master Hsuan Hua’s retelling of stories in his commentary on the Lotus Sutra produces new information.

Rahula was the Buddha’s son. In Sanskrit, his name means “to cover” or “to obstruct.” Why was he given this name? He was given this name because of his karmic obstacles. In the past, he’d been a cultivator. One time, while he was meditating, he was disturbed by the noise of a mouse gnawing at some wood. Cultivators like quiet. He thought, “You’re making too much noise!” So he plugged up the mouse hole. He left it that way for six days.

During those six days, each time he meditated, he thought about the mouse inside the hole and wondered whether or not it had died. On the sixth day, he started to feel uneasy. Why did he feel uneasy? Driven by his conscience, he thought, “If the mouse were to die inside the hole that I blocked, wouldn’t I have violated the precept against killing?” He felt compassion for the mouse and uncovered the hole. As retribution for those six days, in his present life, he had to stay in his mother’s womb for six years.

How did Rahula come into this world? Yaśodharā didn’t conceive her child in the normal way. When Prince Siddhartha decided to leave the household life, she said to him, “You may leave the household life, but first you must give me a son.” The prince pointed at her belly and said, “You shall have a baby.” That was how she became pregnant. It was very unusual! After being conceived, this child had to wait six years before coming into the world. For the six years that Yasodhara carried the baby in her womb, Śākyamuni Buddha meditated in the snowy mountains.

Rahula brought about many troubles after his birth. What kind of troubles? During this time, the culture in India was very conservative. Śākyamuni Buddha had renounced his household life and was away meditating in the snowy mountains for six years before his son was born. People from the Śākya clan said, “Humph! She’s a bad woman! Her husband hasn’t been around, so how could she have a child? She must’ve had an affair.” The people wanted to burn Yaśodharā and Rahula to death. Yaśodharā challenged them, saying, “If this child is really Prince Siddhartha’s, then the fire won’t burn us. If he isn’t, we’ll both die.” When they entered the fire, it turned into a lotus that held mother and son aloft, so they were spared. Seeing this, the people realized that they’d misjudged her.

In Buddhism, all phenomena are subject to cause and effect. Even the Buddha’s son, the Venerable Rahula, couldn’t escape the laws of cause and effect. Because in a past life he plugged up a mouse hole for six days, he had to stay in his mother’s womb for six years. For this reason, he was named Cover and Obstruct. Because of the circumstances of his birth, he almost caused his mother to be burned to death. Fortunately, the Bodhisattvas intervened and protected her, so she was spared.

Back on June 18 I published Master Hsuan Hua’s explanation of why Śāriputra failed to become a bodhisattva. This came from volume 4 of Master Hsuan Hua’s 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra. In volume 8, while discussing the appearance of the jeweled stupa, Master Hsuan Hua retells Śāriputra story and adds details not included in the earlier telling.

I have explained Bodhisattva Mahāsattva many times. People who’ve come often to listen to the sūtra lectures all know what it means. I believe those who’ve never listened to the sūtra lectures won’t understand it if I don’t explain it in detail. So I’ll explain it again.

What is a Bodhisattva? Bodhi means “enlightenment.” Sattva means “sentient being.” A Bodhisattva enlightens all sentient beings; he is also an enlightened being among sentient beings. Mahāsattva means “great sentient being,” referring to a great Bodhisattva who is not only an enlightened one among living beings but also benefits himself and others while practicing the Bodhisattva Path.

Practicing the Bodhisattva Path is to benefit others and pay no attention to oneself. Bodhisattvas teach, transform, and rescue all living beings, enabling them to leave suffering and attain bliss. So they are called great Bodhisattvas. They’d be willing to give up their very lives for the sake of living beings. When practicing the Bodhisattva Path in past lives, Śākyamuni Buddha gave up his life over one thousand times. Even if living beings failed to respond to his teaching, he’d still give up his life to save them if necessary. This is practicing the Bodhisattva Path.

The Bodhisattva Path isn’t easy to practice. Do you all remember the story about Šariputra? Śāriputra resolved to practice the Bodhisattva Path because he heard the Buddha praising the Bodhisattva Path as the highest and most wonderful Path leading to Buddhahood. Because he wanted to realize Buddhahood quickly, Śāriputra made the resolve and practiced the Bodhisattva Path. He was the most intelligent of all the Buddha’s Śrāvaka disciples and had a very good memory. Having heard just how fine it is to practice the Bodhisattva Path, Śāriputra vowed to practice it.

Having vowed to practice the Bodhisattva Path, Śāriputra was walking down the road when he thought, “I’ll do what I need to do, no matter how difficult it is. I’ll definitely practice the Bodhisattva Path. Just as Śākyamuni Buddha gave his life, I’ll give whatever it is that someone asks of me, even my life.” Just then, while Śāriputra was walking down the road, he saw someone walking along and crying.

“Why is this man sobbing while he’s walking? How strange! This man must be experiencing some difficulty. I’ll ask him how I can help him resolve his problem, since I’m practicing the Bodhisattva Path.”

So Śāriputra asked him, “Why are you crying, sir?”

“Oh, I have a problem so difficult that no one can help me.”

“Don’t be so sure! I can help you! Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Can you really help me? I believe you’ll refuse to help me. It would be useless to tell you about it.”

“I’m willing to help you regardless of how difficult the situation may be.”

So the man told Śāriputra, “My mother has an incurable disease. The physician said that my mother needs a human eye to treat her illness. I went to the herbal medicine shop for a human eye, but they didn’t have any. Since I couldn’t purchase an eye, my mother’s condition won’t improve.”

Śāriputra said, “Don’t worry! You just need one eye? I’ll give you my eye!” He took a knife and gouged out one of his eyes for the man. Then he handed the man his right eye and said, “Now take it back for your mother to eat.”

The man picked it up and looked at it, saying, “Ugh! I don’t want the right eye but the left. This eye is useless. It stinks!” He threw it on the ground and squashed it with his foot.

Śāriputra said, “Gosh, it sure is difficult to practice the Bodhisattva Path! Okay, I’m not going to practice the Bodhisattva Path anymore.” And he went to cultivate the Lesser Vehicle Dharma.

Look! Even a person as intelligent as Śāriputra couldn’t cultivate the Bodhisattva Path. When Śāriputra said that he couldn’t practice the Bodhisattva Path anymore, the man soared into the air immediately. He was actually a god who had come to test Śāriputra. The eye that he’d just gouged out was back in his head as if nothing had happened. He felt as if he’d been dreaming. “How is my eye back? Didn’t I gouge it out?” This was actually a state that Śāriputra had not recognized; therefore, he couldn’t practice the Bodhisattva Path. It proved to be too much for him. When you practice the Bodhisattva Path, take care not to be like Śāriputra.

In Nichiren Buddhism, we are told that practice and learning are required to keep Buddhism alive. (See this post.) But Chinese Master Hsuan Hua offers a different perspective: Help others instead of yourself.

We are all gathered here to investigate the Buddhadharma, and we should put into practice all that we know, no matter how little it may be. If you fail to apply what you know, then it would be better if you didn’t know it at all. Before learning any Buddhadharma, you cannot put it into practice, as you are unaware of it. However, once you have learned the Buddhadharma, you should cultivate the teachings in a serious, down-to-earth manner. You should walk solidly on the ground, leaving a footprint with every step you take. This is how pragmatic you should be as you advance in your cultivation.

Benefiting others is of utmost importance in cultivation. Help others instead of yourself. Forget about yourself. Cultivation is about helping others selflessly in all that you do. What are the most crucial aspects of cultivation? Do not be jealous, obstructive, or afflicted. You must end afflictions. If you do not end afflictions, you will not be able to end birth and death. You can end afflictions by transforming them into bodhi. Having transformed them into bodhi, you will always be wise, leaving ignorance behind. If you are afflicted, you will always be ignorant, never gaining wisdom. Do not get afflicted over trivial matters. Do not be jealous or obstructive. This is very important. So, just as we study the Buddhadharma every day, we must put it into practice every day. As the saying goes,

Words spoken wonderfully, words spoken well,
If not put into practice, are not the Path.

No matter how eloquent and wonderful your words are, if you do not cultivate honestly and diligently, you will never attain the Path. There are a few people here who are about to become awakened. All they have to do is to cultivate their resolve to benefit others and forget about themselves.

Below is an entry from the Glossary which is repeated in each of Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra. Again, another example of the value of these books.

Eight consciousnesses, Ch. 八識, ba shi.

The eightfold division of the mind taught by the Consciousness-Only School (Ch.唯識 weishi; Skt. Yogācāra).

This school describes the mind as a system of seven active consciousnesses (Skt. Vijñāna) that develop out of the eighth consciousness (Skt. Ālayavijñāna; Ch. Translit. 阿赖耶識 alaiye shi). The first five are the physical sense consciousnesses; the sixth is cognitive consciousness; and the seventh mediates between the first six and the eighth.

This eighth consciousness accounts for karmic continuity from life to life and during states of concentration in which the first seven cease. The eighth takes as its primary object the karmic impressions brought about by activity in the first six; because of this, it is often called the “storehouse consciousness” – that is, the metaphorical storehouse of karma. The seventh (Skt. Manas-vijñāna; Ch. Translit. 末那識 mona shi) takes the eighth as its primary object and mistakes it for a persistent self. The seventh is thus the origin of self-identity in the mind.

The seventh also transmits karmic impressions from the first six to the eighth; in doing so, it imbues them with a sense of self that is said to “defile” the eighth consciousness. When conditions arise for the ripening of karma “stored” in the eighth, karmic impressions pass once again through the seventh on their way to the six, where they give rise to various objects and circumstances of experience. On their way through the seventh, the karmic impressions again receive the imprint of self. This circular process – from sense impression to karmic impression and back, always mediated by the sense of self – is described as the “consciousness-only” nature of deluded experience. While the first seven consciousnesses are acquired at conception, relinquished at death, and may be inactive during states of deep concentration, the eighth continues indefinitely and without interruption until its transformation (along with the other seven) into wisdom by means of spiritual cultivation. The transformation of deluded consciousness into the omniscient wisdom of a Buddha is the project of Bodhisattva practice according to the Consciousness-Only School.