Blog » Sweet Dews Of Dharma Talks » 2010 » Once entering the ear faculty, it becomes an everlasting seed of the Way
Once entering the ear faculty, it becomes an everlasting seed of the Way2013-01-10
A Dharma talk given by DM Heng Rung
English translation by Huali Yuan
The Chapter of Universal Worthy’s Vows and Conduct is the last volume of the Avatamsaka Sutra, in this chapter, the Universal Worthy Bodhisattva made ten great vows: first is to worship and respect all Buddhas, second is to make praises to the Thus Come Ones, third is to practice profoundly the giving of offerings, fourth to repent and reform all karmic hindrance, fifth rejoice and follow in merit and virtue, sixth is to request the Dharma wheel be turned, seventh request the Buddhas remain in the world, eighth is to follow the Buddha’s teaching always, ninth is to constantly accord with all living beings, tenth is to transfer all merit and virtue universally. Once we heard someone talking about these ten great vows, we attained a seed of the Way, and planted a good root.
There is a story related with “Once entering the ear faculty, it becomes an everlasting seed of the Way.” Some of you may already know this story, but some may not, so I will tell this story again.
When the Buddha was in the world, once there was a very old person who came to the Buddha’s sublime abode to request for leaving the home-life, some of the Buddha’s disciples are Arhats and have heavenly eyes, so they made a contemplation of the old person’s past lives, and they found that he had not done any good deeds or cultivated any wholesome dharma in eighty thousand great eons, therefore, they rejected his request .The old person was so upset, he thought to himself, “I have no home to return since my family already abandoned me, and I wanted to leave the home-life, but the monastic also rejected me, and I have no place to go, therefore I had better go to die.” So he cried as he walked to the riverside, just at the moment he was about to jump into the river, the Buddha showed up and stopped him. The Buddha asked him: “Why do you want to jump into the river?” The old person told him what happened and said, “If the monastic don’t accept me, I’d better die.” The Buddha told him, “They don’t let you leave the home-life, but I will.” The old person asked: “Who are you?” The Buddha replied: “I am the Buddha.” Then the Buddha took him back to the sublime abode and let him leave the home-life. The Arhats were surprised and they asked the Buddha, “How come he was able to leave the home-life without planting any good roots in eighty thousand great eons? ”The Buddha said, “This old person was a woodcutter limitless eons ago, once he went into mountains to cut wood, but encountered a tiger, who wanted to eat him, so this wood-cutter climbed up a tree, but the tiger did not give up, and it tried to shake the trees to force the wood-cutter to go down, at this critical moment, the wood-cutter recited: ‘Na Mo Buddha’. Because of reciting once ‘Na Mo Buddha’, the resulting cause and conditions matured now, and he is able to leave the home-life.”
Once you heard the Universal Worthy Bodhisattva’s ten great vows I just mentioned, you’ve attained a seed of the Way, accordingly you have planted a good root, and the merit and virtue from this are limitless and boundless. If you can recite and uphold this chapter, or you can write four lines of verse every day, by doing so, five kinds of offenses which cause you to fall into Avici hells will be eradicated, and all kinds of worldly illness of body and mind will be removed. Someone might wonder, “Why the merit and virtue of hearing the ten great vows are so vast?” It is because usually when we give, we use wealth which can only be used to save people’s life. For example, if you give money to a poor person, he won’t starve, and thus his life is saved. However, the ten great vows are the giving of Dharma. The type of giving is to cultivate the contemplating of the Bodhisattva Universal Worthy, in other words, the ten great king of vows. When you do this contemplation, one is limitless, limitless is one, one is the Dharma Realm, and Dharma Realm is One, bowing to one Buddha is to bowing to all Buddhas in the Dharma Realm, bowing to allBuddhas in the Dharma Realm is bowing to one Buddha. The principles in the Avatamsaka Sutra talk about the non-obstruction of phenomena, the non-obstruction of principle, the non-obstruction between phenomena and principle, the non-obstruction between phenomena and phenomena.
In terms of worldly things, there are three times of periods, the past, the present and the future, which cannot exist at the same time. However, in the state of Avatamsaka, the three times of period coexist at the same time, responding with each other without conflict. The past does not obstruct the present, the present does not obstruct the future, and the future does not obstruct the past, that is to say, it is the past, also the future, and the present, and the three are simultaneously complete. The great Dharma of Avatamsaka universally gathers in all dispositions, regardless of sentient beings or insentient beings, they have the same potential for all perfectwisdom, which is wonderful and esoteric beyond measure.
