Sutra:
When Avalokiteshvara
Bodhisattva
Verse:
Reversing the light to
shine within,
Avalokiteshvara enlightens all the sentient
beings; thus he is a Bodhisattva.
His mind is thus, thus,
unmoving, a superior one at peace;
With total understanding of
the ever-shining, he is host and master.
Six types of psychic
powers are an ordinary matter,
And even less can the winds and
rains of the eight directions cause alarm.
He rolls it up and
secretly hides it away;
And lets it go to fill the entire
world.
Commentary:
The name Avalokiteshvara
is Sanskrit; in Chinese it is rendered guan zi zai 觀 自在,
"Contemplating Ease". To be at ease is to be happy
about everything and to be without worries or obstacles. To be
unimpeded is to contemplate ease. If you are impeded, then you
are not contemplating ease. Reversing the light to shine
within is contemplating ease. If you don't reverse the
light to shine within, you're not contemplating ease.
What is meant by "reversing
the light to shine within"? Regardless of what the
situation is, examine yourself. If someone has wronged you, you
should think to yourself, "Basically, I was wrong."
If you say, "When
people don't act properly toward me, I don't look to see
whether I'm right myself; I just smash them right away, smash
their heads in so that blood flows" – then you haven't
won a victory, but have only shown your complete lack of
principles and wisdom. To reverse the light to shine within is
to have principles and wisdom. Reverse the light and contemplate
whether or not you are at ease.
I will explain the two
characters zi zai 自在, which together mean "ease".
The zi is oneself, and the zai is where one is.
I'll
say it word for word. Are you right here (zai), or aren't
you? In other words, do you have false thoughts, or not? If one
has false thoughts, then one (zi) is not right here. It's
very simple. To reverse the light to shine within is simply to
see whether you have false thoughts. If you have false thoughts,
then you aren't at ease. If you don't have false thoughts,
then you are at ease. That's how wonderful it is.
Avalokiteshvara
enlightens all the sentient beings; thus he is a Bodhisattva.
What is a Bodhisattva? A Bodhisattva is somebody who wants to
enlighten sentient beings. The Chinese word for "enlighten"
is jiao 覺, to make people understand. It isn't the
jiao 攪, which means to stir up trouble. Add the element "hand"
***手 to the character jiao 覺, meaning to enlighten, and it becomes
another jiao 攪: it turns into a lot of trouble. The
stirring-up-trouble
jiao is not to enlighten sentient beings, but to make them
stupid and to try to turn what is good in their lives into what
is evil. But here in the verse, jiao means to bring
understanding to all sentient beings.
What is meant by "sentient?"
Be careful not to misunderstand the text here by hastily
assuming that the word "sentient" ( you qing 有情 ) means emotional love (
情愛 qing ai ) as the Chinese
characters can be interpreted in another context. No, to
enlighten sentient beings is to empty yourself of love. You must
see love as empty. That is to be a Bodhisattva.
Therefore, the verse
says, His mind is thus, thus unmoving, a superior one at
peace. "Thus, thus, unmoving" means there is no dharma
that is not thus. All dharmas are thusness-Dharma and all
afflictions and troubles have disappeared. To be unmoved is to
have the power of samadhi. Doesn't the Lotus Sutra say, "His mind is at
peace?" To be "at peace" this way is to
be very happy and to possess great tranquility.
With total
understanding of the ever-shining, he is host and master.
You should have the total understanding of the ever-shining
prajna wisdom. If you don't understand, then you do not shine;
if you are not shining, then you don't understand. Therefore,
you should understand and then understand even more, shine and
shine even more. You should shine brightly in your total
comprehension and totally comprehend in your shining brightness
– that is understanding. You should be very clear.
What is being very
clear? Being very clear is not being muddled and stupid. If you
understand that to do a certain thing is wrong and you still go
ahead and do it, that is piling stupidity on top of stupidity.
You are doubly stupid. That is because you are not equal to
being host. Being "host and master" is being able to be in
control.
"I am master and I am
host," someone says. "I tell everyone else to do anything I
think they should be doing. I am not controlled by other people,
but I myself control others. I won't do anything, so I just
tell people to help me do my work, but I won't help them do
theirs." No, being host and master is not like that. To be
host and master is to be free of confusion and never to do
anything confused. To be in control at all times is to have
genuine wisdom. You are without prejudice, and you don't act
on the basis of deviant knowledge and views. You don't take
drugs or do anything improper or disruptive. If you act
improperly, then you get a chance to take a look at stupidity.
Six types of psychic
powers are an ordinary matter. If you can be in control, you
will naturally have the six psychic powers. They are:
1) the psychic power of
the heavenly eye;
2) the psychic power of the heavenly ear;
3)
psychic power with regard to past lives;
4) psychic power with
regard to the minds of others;
5) the spiritually based psychic
powers;
6) the psychic power of the extinction of outflows.
If you do not have the six types of psychic power, it is
because you are not in control, because you are influenced by
all the external circumstances you find yourself in. You are
influenced by people and have no influence yourself to affect
the situations that confront you. When you are able to turn
situations around, then no matter what comes you will be
unmoved. Don't be bold and say that you already know how,
because to be unmoved means that even in a dream you are not
affected by states of consciousness. That is to be host and
master. If you are not affected by internal or external states,
and if you have real wisdom and the six psychic powers, then you
have a very ordinary talent working for you – nothing
spectacular, just something very ordinary.
And even less can the winds and rains of the eight directions
cause alarm. "The winds and rains of the eight directions"
refers to the last two lines of a famous poem by Su Dong Po
(1037-1101):
I bow to the god among gods;
His hair-light illuminates the
world.
Unmoved when the eight winds blow,
Upright I sit in a
purple-gold lotus.
Su Dong
Po sent the poem to the Great Master Fo-yin (1011- 1086),
and the master's reply was two words: "Fart, fart." As soon as
Su Dong Po saw Great Master Fo-yin's criticism, he couldn't get
it out of his mind, and he rushed across the Yangtze – he
lived on the south side of the river and Great Master Fo-yin
lived on the north side – to find the master and scold him. He
wanted to tell the master that he had written an enlightened
poem, so how could the master possibly have replied, "Fart,
fart?"
In fact,
when Great Master Fo-yin criticized him, not only did Su Dong Po
fart, he blazed forth and wanted to scorch Fo-yin to death. So
he rushed across the river and burst into the master's quarters
without ceremony and shouted, "How could you possibly scold
someone and slander him that way by writing ‘fart, fart'?"
Fo-yin
replied, "Who was I slandering? You said that you were unmoved
by the winds of the eight directions, but just by letting two
small farts I've blown you all the way across the Yangtze. And
you still say that the winds of the eight directions don't move
you? You don't have to talk about eight winds; just my two farts
bounced you all the way up here."
Then Su
Dong Po thought, "That's right, I said that I'm unmoved by the
eight winds, but two words have been enough to make me burn with
anger." Realizing that he still didn't have what it takes, he
bowed to the master and sought repentance.
What are the winds of the eight directions?
1)
Praise. For example: "Upasaka8,
you are really a good person, you really understand the
Buddhadharma, and your wisdom really shines. Furthermore, your
genius is unlimited and your eloquence unobstructed."
2)
Ridicule. For instance: "It's the scientific age now, and you
are studying Buddhism. Why do you study that old superstitious
rubbish?" Really ridiculous ridicule, and yet you think, "They're
right. How can I study Buddhism now in the scientific age? Cause
and effect, no me and no you – how can such metaphysical
theories be worth anything in the age of science? I am I, and
people are people." You become confused and are moved by the
blowing of the wind.
3) Suffering. The wind of suffering makes you suffer. To be
unmoved while ceaselessly performing ascetic practices is an
example of being unmoved by the wind of suffering.
4)
Happiness. To eat well, to wear good clothes, to have a good
place to live, and to be especially happy all day long,
thinking, "This certainly is good," is to be moved by this wind.
5)
Benefit. You think, "All I do is go to a lot of trouble
cultivating. I don't even have any false thoughts. Consequently,
people come to me and make an offering of a million dollars to
build a temple, and they are very, very happy." That is to be
moved by the wind of benefit.
6)
Destruction. Perhaps the wind of benefit blew yesterday, but
tomorrow people may come and ruin everything. They'll tell
people, "That monk is no good. Don't believe in him; he will do
anything. Believe in me instead."
7) Gain.
8) Loss.
Those
are the eight winds. The verse says, "And even less can the
winds and rains of the eight directions cause alarm." It means
that the eight winds blow, but I don't move.
He rolls it up and secretly hides it away. When you close
this sutra, you should store it in a good place, not a place
that indicates your lack of respect. You should respect it.
And lets it go to fill the entire world. When you open
it, the wisdom of prajna fills the sixfold union – that is,
north, south, east, west, above, and below, which together
represent the world. This prajna dharma-door is very wonderful.
8. Sanskrit term for a
Buddhist layman. <return>
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