Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p116-117We sometimes use the expression “The Eight Outer Forms of Realizing the Path” to mean the appearances or forms through which every Tathagata passes: entering the womb, being born, getting in touch with suffering, becoming a practitioner, following the path, attaining enlightenment, teaching the Dharma, and entering nirvana. We practice in order to see that these outer forms of reality are really only magical appearances. In fact, the Buddha is not born and does not die; that is the true nature of the Buddha and of everything else. When we look deeply enough into any phenomenon – a pebble, a drop of dew, a leaf, a cloud – we recognize its ultimate nature in the Three Dharma Seals of impermanence, no-self, and interdependence. In this way we can discover its true nature of no birth, no death, which is exactly the same as the true nature of the Tathagata. A beautiful golden leaf in autumn is also just putting on a magical show for us. First the leaf plays at being born in the springtime, and later it pretends to fall down to earth and die. As far as the phenomenal world is concerned, we believe that the leaf comes into being and then passes away. But in terms of the ultimate dimension, birth and death, coming and going, existence and nonexistence are only a magic display, a mere appearance.
Category Archives: d22b
The Ultimate Skillful Means
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p115The appearance of the Buddha in the historical dimension, as a particular person born into a particular family, and having a normal human life span, is like a magic show designed to capture the attention of the living beings of that time and guide them to the path of transformation. In the chapters of the Lotus Sutra discussed in Part One, on the historical dimension, the Buddha used various skillful means in teaching the paths of the three vehicles, when in fact there is really only One Vehicle. We could say that of all the Buddha’s methods of teaching, his appearance in the form of various historical Buddhas throughout time and space is the ultimate skillful means. Through this method, the Tathagata has never stopped teaching and guiding beings to liberation.
Understanding Eternity
Buddhism for Today, p259-260People who believe in religion only in order to receive divine favors in this world easily retrogress from their stage of development in that faith. This is because they cannot truly understand the eternity of the Buddha’s life, and at the same time the eternity of man’s life. They think only of the present and begin to doubt the teaching or grow tired of it unless clear material merits are manifested. But there are some people who cannot receive such merits in this world because of deep and inextinguishable unfavorable karma from their former lives, even if they have faith in a true religion, purify their minds, and devote themselves to the bodhisattva practice for the benefit of others in society.
Nevertheless, people who can believe in the immortality of the Buddha’s life can also feel confident of their own eternal life. Therefore they can live with self-confidence, realizing, “If we only continue this way, we are sure to extinguish our former karma eventually and will approach the mental state of the Buddha step by step.” Even if they do not immediately recover from illness or become suddenly blessed with tangible wealth, their minds will be composed. Even if they seem to outsiders to be suffering, their minds are free of suffering. This is the attitude adopted by a real believer.
Approaching the Ideal Land of Eternal Tranquil Light
Buddhism for Today, p264A true believer should strive not only for the goal of his own ascent to the world of the buddhas but also for the aim of making as many other people as possible his companions there. The more true believers increase in number, the more the whole of mankind develops and the nearer this world approaches the ideal Land of Eternal Tranquil Light. Taken all together, the various merits preached in the sutras boil down to this.
Four Entrances to the Power of the Dharma
Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p 146There are four entrances to the [power of the] Dharma shown in the chapter “Bodhisattva Maitreya” [Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits]:
- The entrance of realization. Just as it says in the Lotus Sutra:
While I was explaining about the duration of this Tathāgata’s life span, living beings equal [in number] to the sands of sixty-eight hundred thousand myriads of koṭis of Ganges Rivers realized receptivity to the truth that all things have no origination.It should be known that “receptivity to the truth that all things have no origination” refers to the knowledge that is realized in the first stage [of the bodhisattva path]. That those of one to eight rebirths realized highest, complete enlightenment means they realized the enlightenment of the first stage. “Those of one to eight rebirths” refers to ordinary people who are established [in the path of the Great Vehicle] and are able to realize the first stage. According to their powers and capacities, they will all achieve the first stage in one to eight rebirths. That the [knowledge attained in the first stage] is called “highest, complete enlightenment” means [that those who attain it] are released from [the cycle of] birth and death in the divisions of the three realms, and that according to their capacities they are able to perceive the true buddha-nature. Although they are considered to have attained enlightenment, they are not considered to have totally completed the expedient nirvana of a tathāgata.
- The entrance of faith. Just as it says in the Lotus Sutra:
Moreover there were living beings, equal to the number of particles in the eight worlds, who all produced the thought of highest, complete enlightenment.
- The entrance of honor. Just as it says in the Lotus Sutra:
[When the Buddha explained that] all these bodhisattvas, great beings, had attained the great benefit of the Dharma, mandārava flowers rained down from the sky. …
- The entrance of hearing the Dharma. It should be known that this
[entrance] is explained in the chapter “Joyful Acceptance.”