Blog » Sweet Dews Of Dharma Talks » 2010 » Planting Buddha Seeds and Obtaining Buddhist Fruitions
Planting Buddha Seeds and Obtaining Buddhist Fruitions 2013-10-27
By Dharma Master Heng Yun
English Translation By Samantha Chen
It has been delightful for me to see everyone prepare his own dining utensils. During past Dharma assemblies, we had to collect large quantities of garbage, [which were mostly disposable dining wares.] Our repentance effort is flawed by the practice of wasting earthly resource. It is like leaking away our own efforts that we tried so hard to mend.
When we are able to apply Buddha Dharma in our daily live [by keeping up with the Buddhist principle of no wasting and bring our own dining utensils], we can spare the kitchen crew/volunteers from being consumed in the task of cleaning up and allow them to participate in the repentance ceremony like ourselves. This is just one way in which we can support one another in achieving the goal of creating better cultivation results.
Therefore, I would like to represent all Dharma masters in Gold Sage Monastery to give recognition and appreciation for everyone’s efforts in using self-prepared utensils.
This year we had many English and Vietnamese-speaking participants partake [in the Emperor Liang repentance ceremony.] [Since the ceremony is conducted in Chinese,] all of these English and Vietnamese-speaking participators really had little idea on which part of the repentance text we were at. [However, language barriers did not deter them from full participation.] Their spirit and sincerity are truly moving.
Some people asked, “Since we had no idea on what and whom we were bowing, can our repentance effort still produce results?” Their question reminded our Venerable Master, Hsuan Hua’s, answer and my own experience. During the time of my receiving the Bhikshuni (full-ordination) precepts, CTTB also conducted the transmission of the Lay-People’s Bodhisattva Precepts. Hence, our Venerable Master, Hsuan Hua, invited many Dharma masters from China.
These Dharma masters spoke with heavy regional accents and most people had a hard time understanding their talks. One layman said to our Venerable Master, Hsuan Hua, “Although I partook the entire ceremony, I had no idea on what were being said or what we were doing!” Our Venerable Master answered, “This is called, “Wonderful Beyond Speech!”
Our Venerable Master, Hsuan Hua, had a disciple in Hong Kong named, Liu Guo Juan, who was very old and deaf. She could not hear anything. While our Venerable Master was lecturing sutras in the Western Blissful Court/Garden Monastery, his audience had to climb more than three hundred uphill stone steps before they reached the monastery. Every evening, this elderly lady, Liu Guo Juan, climbed the steps one by one in order to be a part of our Venerable Master’s sutra lectures. [But in reality, her deafness prevented her from hearing any sound!] However, she persisted in her attendance day after day and never gave up! What she had was utmost sincerity. One day, while Venerable Master was opening the sutra and recited, “Namo Lotus Pool Assembly of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as vast as the sea,” this elderly lady, Liu Guo Juan suddenly could hear! Ever since that she was no longer deaf. What she possessed was extraordinary sincerity and it has inconceivable power.
All of what we saw, heard, smelled, ate, and touched has a memorable and storable image that falls within our minds. All of this image data is being saved into our Eighth Consciousness. We all possess the same makeup---we have memory storages in us. Just like a computer, whatever you enter the computer it can be saved definitely. We enter data through computer keyboards, or recording voices and images; hence we create word files, voice and imagery storages within a computer. We human beings are the same, no matter how we receive our sensory experiences, they may come from our eyes, ears, noses, or tongues, they would all be stored in our memory bank----these are all [karmic] seeds!
Our Eighth Consciousness, named Alaya, is capable of storing unlimited memories. It has a collecting and saving function. All of the experiential or sensory data enters through our First to Seventh consciousness can be stored in the Eighth Consciousness, life after life. Its storage function and capacity do not expire after our current life. It is capable of storing all of our past and future memories. If you have more future lives memories to be entered into the Eighth Consciousness, it is capable of providing continuous accommodation for storage. Each content of the storage is like a tiny seed being planted within the soil of our minds. These seeds can grow and exhibit their unique manifestations in the future. The process of transformation can be understood as the analogy of planting a tree. In planting a tree, we first have to sow tree seeds. Under the nourishment of Sun, Air, Water, and Irrigation, the seeds would gradually grow up. After the seeds have grown up to become trees, do they still look like how they were as seeds? The answer is no. The seeds do not look like its latter stage manifestation, which are the trees. In Buddha Dharma we understand this as “ Vipaka-Vijinana [Transmutable Fruition].” Transmutation describes the phenomenon of metamorphosis between the seeds, which exist in the causal ground, and their later manifestation, which are the fruits. The seeds and fruits manifest in different shape and forms.
Nonetheless, the seeds still originated the fruits. This describes the connection between trees [or fruits] and their seeds. The same principle applies to how we derive our current consequences [of karmic retributions or rewards] from planting causes [of conducts and intentions from a different life time.]
The text of Dharma Flower Sutra teaches us, “ even if you have bowed slightly (to Buddhas)…. or even you have said, ‘Namo Buddha’ one time only, you would have created a karmic seed/affinity to become a Buddha yourself.” However, this does not mean that you would become a Buddha immediately. This is saying that you have begun planting the first seed toward becoming a Buddha.
Look at all of our Dharma friends here, I believe most of the non-Chinese literate people may only know the word, “Buddha,” and know nothing more about what we are bowing about.
[Nevertheless, just being involved in the repentance ceremony,] you would have already planted tremendous good karmic seeds for yourself. I mentioned the Eighth Consciousness earlier, there are countless karmic seeds within that consciousness; there are both positive and negative ones. It does not matter whether the seeds are positive or negative; they all came from our own creations. If we persistently plant good karmic seeds into our Eighth Consciousness, we would have created a foundation for a karmic causal ground that fosters the fruition of becoming a Buddha in the future.
An example of “Transmutable Fruition” can be applied to us here and now. We came here with sincerity in bowing to the Buddhas and repentanting our offenses. This very time and space would be the causal ground for our karmic affinity to become a Buddha. After we become a Buddha, we can still appear in physical forms, they can look like the human body we have now. Nevertheless, the physical forms we manifest as a Buddha would be of different quality than the lay-human bodies we exist in. Just like the seed and the tree, they have different shapes and forms but the tree still came from the seed.
It is my best wish to see every one becoming a big tree, just like the Buddha. The very big tree we shall become is capable of providing shade for many people and all other beings. I would like to encourage everybody’s persistent efforts [in cultivating good karmic seeds through Buddhist practices.] Finally, I would like to share with you a Chinese phrase called, “Gong Bu Toung Juan!” “Gong Bu Toung Juan” means all of your effort will not be wasted; they would for sure produce good consequences.
P.S. All of the writing in the parenthesis is supplemental explanations provided by the translator in order to reconcile linguistic disparity.
