Chapter 935: Why Study Buddhism (2)
The following greed, ignorance, and the four upside-downs are all seeds of learning Buddhism, and sentient beings have been stimulated by bad things in order to get out of these troubles and sufferings, so they have to learn Buddhism.
Manjushri's conclusion is that "the sixty-two views and all afflictions are all Buddha species" and other five aggregate teachings are the object, and that there are emptiness, existence, emptiness, non-emptiness, and non-existence, and that the five fours are twenty in total. Taking receiving, thinking, acting, knowing, etc. as the object, there are boundary, boundless, marginal and boundless, non-marginal and non-boundary, etc., if it is 20 views, even the above is a total of 40 views; Taking receiving, thinking, acting, knowing, etc., as the object, there is a coming-and-going, there is no coming, there is also coming and going, there is no coming, there is no coming, etc., if it is twenty sees, even the above is a total of sixty sees; These 60 views, together with the fundamental two views, make a total of 62 views, which are the 62 views, which are all the different views in the worldly law.
The Dharma has to be liberated from these insights in order to attain great wisdom attainment, so Manjushri says that they are the seeds of Buddhahood.
Said: What do you mean?
Answer: If one sees a person who has entered the right position without doing anything, one cannot repeat the three bodhichitta.
Vimala asked: How do you explain that? Without doing anything, he attained the Tao and entered the right position, and became a Buddha.
Nirvana is the path of non-action. Manjushri replied that if you are a person who has attained enlightenment, then there is nothing to talk about, you can't talk about the heart, you have to be enlightened.
Like all of us who are here to study Buddhism, if we are all enlightened, then what else is the Vimala Sutra to talk about? I don't need to discuss it!
"For example, on the plateau land, there is no lotus flower, and the mud is low, but this flower." The symbols of Buddhism are the lotus flower and the swastika, and the lotus flower does not bloom when it is born in clean soil, but must grow in wet and dirty mud to bloom.
It grows in the dirtiest places, but the flowers and fruits it produces are absolutely holy and do not carry a little dirt.
The spirit of learning Buddhism is to learn the lotus, not to learn that its flowers are clean and beautiful, but to learn that its roots are planted in the most bitter and dirty places.
Don't think that running into this Buddha hall and getting a cotton mat to meditate is learning Buddhism, you should go to the mud to wallow in the mud, and you must enter the world to blossom and bear fruit.
Here, Manjushri uses this analogy.
"If you see that those who have entered the right position without doing the Dharma will no longer be able to be born in the Dharma and be troubled in the mud, but there will be sentient beings who have the ears of the Dharma." In the same way, a person who has seen the Tao is already a Buddha, so what kind of Buddha will he become?
Sentient beings must benefit themselves and others in the midst of afflictions, and their merits and wisdom must be fulfilled in order to become Buddhas.
"Or as a plant is planted in the air, and it will never grow, but the land of dung soil can flourish." The above analogy uses a lotus flower, which must be planted in sludge to blossom and bear fruit.
Another characteristic of the lotus flower is that the flowers and fruits are at the same time, and the lotus seeds are in it when they bloom. Most of the other flowers bloom first before bearing fruit, only the lotus flower is a flower and fruit at the same time, representing the Mahayana Bodhisattva once enlightened, he will prove the fruit position.
Now Manjushri compares the Hinayana Arhat to the Hinayana Arhat, and he thinks that it would be good to attain emptiness.
Throw a seed in the void and it will never sprout.
The seed must be thrown into the dirtiest taxi before it grows.
That is to say, a person who has attained the status of an arhat will not progress further if he attains emptiness.
"If one enters into the right position without doing anything, he will not give birth to the Dharma. It starts when I see Mount Meru, and it can still be born from the three bodhichitta, and the Dharma is born. Therefore, those who have attained the Tao do not need to talk about becoming Buddhas anymore.
Generally speaking, the road to Buddhahood is blocked by self-seeing, first empty-self-seeing, and then empty-sighted, in order to become a Buddha.
Here Manjushri said, I'd rather have me, even if this is as big as Mount Meru, I am slow to pay tribute to the high: Ge Laozi, I have to become a Buddha! Manjushri, you would rather keep this self-view, so that you can become a Buddha with great enlightenment. Like the Hinayana Arhats, although they don't see me, they only get half of the space, thinking that this is the Dharma, but they can't become Buddhas.
Therefore, there is a saying in Zen Buddhism: "It is better to hold on to Mount Meru than to fall short like a mustard seed." "For example, there is a fellow practitioner who thinks that he is empty and does not need to repair anymore. Of course, he hasn't arrived home yet, but there will be serious deviations in this way, and even the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can't do anything about him.
Actually, if you think of emptiness, that is exactly what I see, and it is a deviation from my view. Therefore, persuading people to learn Buddhism often takes chanting Buddha as a steady and regular way to follow the "have" method. If you want to take the path of emptiness, you can't do it unless you really have great merit and great wisdom, you will only go crazy, and you can't even do it.
This principle in the Vimala Sutra will be of great help to the practice. If you fall into the void, then you have to turn around and come back again, and take the wrong road in vain.