The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 3

  Because those of small views studying the temporary teaching crave wonders, the enlightening being uses crude means according to their faculties to induce them to learn, and only then gives them the true teaching. One should not cling to phantoms as real and thus perpetually delude the eye of knowledge. Recognizing the temporary and taking to the true, one moves into the gate of the realm of reality.

  That which is contrived can hardly accomplish adaptation to conditions, whereas the uncontrived has nothing to do. Those who strive labor without accomplishment, while nonstriving, according with conditions, naturally succeeds. In effortless accomplishment, effort is not wasted; in accomplishment by effort, all effort is impermanent, and many eons of accumulated cultivation eventually decays. It is better to instantly realize the birthlessness of interdependent origination, transcending the views of the temporary studies of the three vehicles.

  Fourth is the difference in the teachings set up in relation to people of particular faculties. The Vimalakirti Scripture is directed toward those of faculties corresponding to the two lesser vehicles, to induce them to aim for enlightenment and enter the great vehicle. It is also directed at enlightening beings who linger in purity, whose compassion and knowledge is not yet fully developed, to cause them to progress further. Therefore, in the scripture when a group of enlightening beings from a pure land who have come here are about to return to their own land and so ask Buddha for a little teaching, the Buddha, seeing that those enlightening beings are lingering in a pure land and their compassion and knowledge are not yet fully developed, preaches to them to get them to study finite and infinite gates of liberation, telling them not to abandon benevolence and compassion and to set the mind on omniscience without ever forgetting it, to teach sentient beings tirelessly, to always remember and practice giving, kind speech, beneficial action, and cooperation, to think of being in mediative concentration as like being in hell, to think of being in birth and death as like being in a garden pavilion, and to think of seekers who come to them as like good teachers. This is expounded at length in the Vimalakirti Scripture.

  This Vimalakirti Scripture addresses those of the two and three vehicles whose compassion and knowledge are not fully developed, to cause them to gradually cultivate and increase compassion and knowledge—it doesn’t immediately point out the door of buddhahood, and doesn’t yet say that beginners in the ten abodes realize true enlightenment, and doesn’t show great wonders, because its wonders all have bounds.

  Fifth is the difference in the assemblies who gather to hear the teaching. In the Vimalakirti Scripture, except for the great enlightening beings such as Manjushri and Maitreya and the representative disciples such as Shariputra, all the rest of the audience are students of the temporary teachings of the three vehicles. Even if there are enlightening beings therein who are born in various states of existence and bring those of their kind along, they all want to develop the temporary studies of the three vehicles, and gradually foster progress; the scripture does not yet explain the complete fundamental vehicle of the Buddhas. In the case of The Flower Ornament Scripture, all those who come are riding the vehicle of the Buddhas—enlightened knowledge, the virtues of realization, the inherent body of reality. They are imbued with Universally Good practice, appear reflected in all scenes of enlightenment in all oceans of lands, and attain the fundamental truth, which conveys enlightenment. There is not a single one with the faculties and temperament of the three vehicles; even if there are any with the faculties and potential of the three vehicles, they are as though blind and death, unknowing, unaware, like blind people facing the sun, like death people listening to celestial music.

  Vessels of the three vehicles who have not yet consummated the power of the Way and haven’t turned their minds to the vehicle of complete buddhahood are always in the sphere of Buddhas in the ocean of the realm of reality, with the same qualities and same body as Buddha, but they never are able to believe it, are unaware of it, do not know it, so they seek vision of Buddha elsewhere. As The Flower Ornament Scripture says, “Even if there are enlightening beings who practice the six ways of transcendence and cultivate the various elements of enlightenment for countless billions of eons, if they have not heard this teaching of the inconceivable quality of Buddha, or if they have heard it and don’t believe or understand it, don’t follow it or penetrate it, they cannot be called real enlightening beings, because they cannot be born in the house of the Buddhas.” You should know the audiences are totally different—in the Vimalakirti Scripture the earthlings are not yet rid of discrimination, while the group from a pure land retain a notion of defilement and purity. Such people’s views and understanding are not yet true—sticking to a pure land in one realm, though they be called enlightening beings, they are not well rounded in the path of truth and they don’t completely understand the Buddha’s meaning. Though they aspire to enlightenment, they want to remain in a pure land, and because they set their minds on that, they are alienated from the body of reality and the body of knowledge. For this reason the Saddharmapundarika Scripture says, “Even countless nonregressing enlightening beings cannot know.” As for the audience of The Flower Ornament, their own bodies are the same as the Buddha’s body, their own knowledge is the same as the Buddha’s knowledge; there is no difference. Their essence and characteristics contain unity and multiplicity, and sameness and distinction. Dwelling in the water of knowledge of the realm of reality, they appear as dragons; living in the mansion of nirvana, they manifest negativity and positivity, to develop people. Principal and companions freely interreflect and integrate, teacher and student merge with one another, cause and effect interpenetrate. All of The Flower Ornament audience are such people.

  Sixth, regarding the difference in doctrines set up, the Vimalakirti Scripture uses the layman Vimalakirti manifesting a few inconceivable occult displays to cause those of the two lesser vehicles to change their minds. Also Vimalakirti, in the midst of birth and death, appears to be physically ill to have people know defilement and purity are nondual. Also the scripture represents the great compassion of the enlightening being, the “enlightening being with sickness” accepting the pains of the world, and extensively sets forth aspects of nonduality. It sets up concentration and wisdom, contemplation and knowledge, which it uses to illustrate that the principle of nonseeking is most essential. Thus it says, “Those who seek truth should not seek anything.” Nevertheless, it is not yet comparable to The Flower Ornament’s full exposition of the teachings of sameness and distinction and cause and effect of the forms of practice of five and six levels—ten abodes, ten practices, ten concentrations, ten dedications, ten stages, and equalling enlightenment.

  Seventh, regarding the difference of the activity manifested by the enlightening being Vimalakirti, in order to represent great compassion Vimalakirti appears to enter birth and death and shows the actions of its ailments. In The Flower Ornament Scripture Vairocana, by great compassion, appears to enter birth and death and accomplish the practice of true enlightenment, illustrating great knowledge able to appear in the world.

  Eighth, regarding the difference in the locations of the teachings, the expounding of the Vimalakirti Scripture takes place in a garden in the Indian city of Vaishali and in Vimalakirti’s room; the expounding of The Flower Ornament Scripture takes place at the site of enlightenment in the Indian nation of Magadha, and in all worlds, and in all atoms.

  Ninth, regarding the difference in the company of the Buddha, at the time of the preaching of the Vimalakirti Scripture, the Buddha’s constant company consisted of only five hundred disciples; at the time of the preaching of The Flower Ornament, all the Buddha’s company were great enlightening beings of the one vehicle, and there were as many of them as atoms in ten buddha-fields, all imbued with the essence and action of Universally Good and Manjushri.

  Tenth, regarding the difference in the bequest of the teaching, in the Vimalakirti Scripture’s book on handing over the bequest it says that Buddha said to th
e enlightenment being Maitreya, “Maitreya, I now entrust to you this teaching of unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment, which I accumulated over countless billions of ages.” Thus the teaching of this scripture is bequeathed to those who have already become enlightening beings and have been born in the family of Buddhas. In The Flower Ornament Scripture’s book on manifestation of Buddha, the bequest of the teaching of the scripture is made to ordinary people who as beginners can see the Way and be born in the family of Buddhas. Why? This scripture is difficult to penetrate—it can only be explained to those who can realize it by their own experience. This represents the three vehicles as temporary, because the sage exhorts cultivation and realization in the three vehicles, and anything attained is not yet real, and because the doctrines preached are not yet real either. Therefore The Flower Ornament Scripture says, “The treasure of this scripture does not come into the hands of anybody except true offspring of Buddha, who are born in the family of Buddhas and plant the roots of goodness, which are seeds of enlightenment. If there are no such true offspring of Buddha, this teaching will scatter and perish before long.” It may be asked, “True offspring of Buddha are numberless—why worry that this scripture will perish in the absence of such people?” The answer to this is that the intent of the scripture is to bequeath it to ordinary people to awaken them and lead them into this avenue to truth, and therefore cause them to be born in the family of Buddhas and have them prevent the seed of buddhahood from dying out. Thus ordinary people are caused to gain entry into reality. If it were bequeathed to great enlightening beings, the ordinary people would have no part in it. The sages made it clear that if there were no ordinary people who study and practice, the seed of buddhahood would die out among ordinary people, and this scripture would scatter and perish. This is why the scripture is bequeathed to ordinary people, to get them to practice it; it is not bequeathed to already established great enlightening beings who have long seen the Way.

  As for the similarity of means of entering the Way, the Vimalakirti Scripture says, “Those who seek the truth shouldn’t seek anything,” and “Seeing Buddha is like seeing the true character of one’s own body; I see the Buddha does not come from the past, go to the future, or remain in the present,” and so on. These doors of knowledge of elementary contemplations are about the same as The Flower Ornament Scripture, but the forms of practice, means of access, order, and guidelines are different.

  Next, to compare the Saddharmapundarika Scripture to The Flower Ornament Scripture, the Saddharmapundarika is based on merging the temporary in the true, because it leads people of lesser, middling, and greater faculties into the true teaching of the one vehicle, draws myriad streams back into the ocean, returns the ramifications of the three vehicles to the source. Scholars of the past have called this the common teaching one vehicle, because those of the three vehicles all hear it, whereas they called The Flower Ornament the separate teaching one vehicle, because it is not also heard by those of the three vehicles. The Saddharmapundarika induces vessels of the temporary teaching to return to the real; The Flower Ornament teaches those of great faculties all at once so they may directly receive it. Though the name “one vehicle” is the same, and the task of the teaching is generally the same, there are many differences in the patterns. It would be impractical to try to deal with them exhaustively, but in brief there are ten points of difference: the teachers; the emanation of lights; the lands; the interlocutors who request the teaching; the arrays of the assemblies, reality, and emanations; the congregations in the introduction; the physical transformation and attainment of buddhahood by a girl; the land where the girl who attains buddhahood lives; the inspirations of the audiences; and the predictions of enlightenment of the hearers.

  First, regarding the difference in the teachers, the exposition of the Saddharmapundarika is done by an emanation or phantom-body Buddha; a Buddha who passed away long ago comes to bear witness to the scripture, and the Buddhas of past, present, and future alike expound it. The Flower Ornament is otherwise; the main teacher is Vairocana, who is the real body of principle and knowledge, truth and its reward, arrayed with embodiments of virtues of infinite characteristics. The Buddhas of past, present, and future are all in one and the same time; the characteristics realized in one time, one cosmos, reflect each other ad infinitum without hindrance. Because past and present are one time, not past, present, or future, therefore the Buddhas of old are not in the past and the Buddhas of now have not newly emerged. This is because in fundamental knowledge essence and characteristics are equal, noumenon and phenomena are not different. Thus the fundamental Buddha expounds the fundamental truth. Because it is given to those of great faculties all at once, and because it is not an emanation body, it is not like the Saddharmapundarika, in which there is an ancient Buddha who has passed away and a present Buddha who comes into the world and expounds the Saddharmapundarika.

  Second, regarding the difference in emanation of lights, when expounding the Saddharmapundarika the Buddha emanates light of realization from between his eyebrows; the range of illumination is only said to be eighteen thousand lands, which all turn golden—there is still limitation, and it doesn’t talk of boundless infinity. Therefore it only illustrates the state of result, and not that of cause. The Flower Ornament has in all ten kinds of emanation of light symbolizing the teaching, with doctrine and practice, cause and effect; this is made clear in the scripture.

  Third, regarding the difference in the lands, when he preached the Saddharmapundarika, Buddha transformed the world three times, causing it to become a pure land; he moved the gods and humans to other lands, and then placed beings from other hands here, transforming this defiled realm into a pure field. When The Flower Ornament was expounded, this world itself was the Flower Treasury ocean of worlds, with each world containing one another. The scripture says that each world fills the ten directions, and the ten directions enter each world, while the worlds neither expand nor shrink. It also says the Buddhas attain the Way in the body of one small sentient being and edify countless beings, without this small sentient being knowing or being aware of it. This is just because the ordinary and the sage are the same substance—there is no shift. Within a fine particle self and other are the same substance. This is not the same as the Saddharmapundarika Scripture’s moving gods and humans before bringing the pure land to light, which is set up for those of the faculties of the temporary teaching, who distinguish self and other and linger in views.

  Fourth, regarding the difference in the main interlocutors who request the teaching, in the case of the Saddharmapundarika, the disciple Shariputra is the main petitioner. In The Flower Ornament, the Buddha has Manjushri, Universally Good, and enlightening beings of every rank each expound the teachings of their own status—these are the speakers. The Buddha represents the state of result: bringing up the result as the cause, initiating compassionate action, consummating fundamental knowledge, the being of the result forms naturally, so nothing is said, because the action of great compassion arises from uncreated fundamental knowledge. Manjushri and Universally Good represent the causal state, which can be explained; Buddha is the state of result, enlightening sentient beings. The vast numbers described in the book on the incalculable can only be plumbed by a Buddha—they are not within the scope of the causes and effects of the five ranks of stages; hence this is a teaching within the Buddha’s own state, and so Buddhist himself expounds it. The book on the qualities of Buddha’s embellishments and lights is Buddha’s own explanation of the principles of Buddhahood after having himself fulfilled cause and effect. The teachings in this book of the perpetual power of natural suchness and the lights of virtue and knowledge also do not fall within the causes and effects of the forms of practice in the five ranks of ten stages, and so the Buddha himself explains it, making it clear that buddhahood does not have ignorance of the subtle and most extremely subtle knowledge. The rest of the books besides these two are all teachings of the forms of practice of the five set
s or ranks of stages, so the Buddha does not explain them himself, but has the enlightening beings in the ranks of the ten developments of faith, ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications, and ten stages explain them: the Buddha just emanates lights to represent them. In the exposition of The Flower Ornament Scripture there is not a single disciple or lesser enlightening being who acts as an interlocutor—all are great enlightening beings within the ranks of fruition of buddhahood, carrying out dialogues with each other, setting up the forms of practice of the teaching of the realization of buddhahood to enlighten those of great faculties. Thus it takes the fruit of buddhahood all at once, directly taking it as the causal basis; the cause has the result as its cause, while the result has the cause as its result. It is like planting seeds: the seeds produce fruit, the fruit produce seeds. If you ponder this by means of the power of concentration and wisdom, you can see it.

  Fifth, regarding the differences in the arrays of the assemblies, reality and emanations, in the assembly of the Saddharmapundarika Scripture, the billion-world universe is purified and adorned, with emanation beings filling it, and the Buddhas therein also are said to be emanations. In the assemblies of The Flower Ornament Scripture, however, the congregations all fill the ten directions without moving from their original location, filling the cosmos with each physical characteristic and land reflecting each other. The enlightening beings and Buddhas interpenetrate, and also freely pervade the various kinds of sentient beings. The bodies and lands interpenetrate like reflections containing each other. Those who come to the assemblies accord with the body of embellishment without dissolving the body of reality—the body of reality and the body of embellishment are one, without distinction; thus the forms are identical to reality, none are emanations or phantoms. This is not the same as other doctrines which speak of emanations and reality and have them mix in congregations.