Spoken by the Venerable Master Hua.
Trans: Bhiksuni Heng Yin
Reviewed: Bhiksuni Heng Ch’ ih
Edited: Sramanerika Heng Chen
Introduction:
On October 12, 1975, the
Venerable Master Hua responded to an invitation from the Nyingma Institute in
Berkeley, California, and delivered this address to an audience of several
hundred students of Tibetan Buddhism. It is an urgent call for the unification
of world Buddhists. It is hoped the reader will take this message to heart, for
only if the notions of “sects” and “schools” are dropped will we be able
effectively to spread the Buddha’s teachings of wisdom and compassion on
throughout this greed and strife-torn world where it is so badly needed – and
then to worlds and universes beyond.
HOMAGE TO THE ETERNALLY DWELLING BUDDHAS OF THE TEN DIRECTIONS
HOMAGE TO THE ETERNALLY DWELLING DHARMA OF THE TEN DIRECTIONS
HOMAGE TO THE ETERNALLY DWELLING SANGHA OF THE TEN DIRECTIONS
HOMAGE TO OUR TEACHER, SAKYAMUNI BUDDHAS
HOMAGE TO THE FOREMOST SURANGAMA OF THE BUDDHA’S CROWN
HOMAGE TO THE BODHISATTVA WHO OBSERVES THE WORLD’S SOUNDS
HOMAGE TO THE VAJRA TREASURY BODHISATTVAS
Buddhism in this present
age must break through the barriers of sects and schools. We should not
continue as before to propagate the Buddhadharma with methods that are
old-fashioned and isolationist. This is now the space age, the scientific age,
and those who wish to spread the Buddadharma must have scientific minds, and
hearts capacious enough to contain space itself. In all respects, we must
progress and expand. Today, I have met with all of you Good Knowing Advisors,
you young people of great promise, Buddhist youth with futures; and so I shall
express my very ignorant views. This is an age of progress, and we Buddhists must
not fall back and retreat. We should go forward with heroic vigor. This heroic
vigor means that first of all, regardless of which sect or school we belong to,
we must all work together and divest ourselves of the view of self, unite
together in order to spread Buddhism throughout the entire world, even into
outer space, to other universes, to teach and transform living beings. In order
to do this, Buddhists disciples must unite and not discriminate between Dhyana
School, the Teaching School, the Vinaya School, the Secret School, or the Pure
Land School. Don’t make such distinctions. All are Buddhist disciples and all
must work together. Not only should Buddhists themselves unite, but Buddhism
should unite with other religious as well and not dwell upon differences. The
Buddha said very clearly, “All living beings have the Buddha nature, all can
become Buddha.” Since all become Buddhas, regardless of whether you are a
Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Moslem, Taoist or Confucian, you are a human beings
who believes in a certain religious and human beings are all one category of
living beings. Thus when the Buddha said, “ All living beings have the Buddha
nature and can become Buddhas”, it follows that whether they are Bodhisattvas
or not, they are living beings, and since they are living beings, they all have
the opportunity to become Buddha. You may say, “But those of other religions do
not believe in Buddha.” Even if they don’t believe, they certainly believe in
living beings. They cannot deny that they themselves are living beings. If they
deny this, I would ask them, what do they call themselves? They couldn’t come
up with another name, and even though names are false, the living beings are
real. So their name can’t be changed. Since you can’t change the appellation,
they must be considered “living beings” and are therefore included within the
Buddha’s teaching. Whether or not they believe in Buddhism, we accept them as
part of Buddhism. In this way, to the end of space and the Dharma Realm, no
living being falls beyond the scope of the Buddha dharma. We Buddhists should
not limit ourselves to one small territory, saying, “This is my Buddhism.” The
teaching of the Buddha is universal. Throughout space and the Dharma Realm,
there is not one place in which the Buddha does not teach and transform living
beings. Since that’s the way it is, whether or not they believe in Buddhism is
simply a matter of time. If they don’t believe today, they will believe
tomorrow. If they don’t believe tomorrow, they will next month. If they don’t
believe next month, they will the month after that. Eventually the day will
come when they will believe in the Buddhadharma. And that is speaking of it in
short-range terms. If you wish to expand upon the principle, if they don’t
believe in this live, I will wait until their next life. If they don’t believe
in their next life, I’ll wait until the life after that. If they don’t believe
in this great aeon, I’ll wait for them to believe in the next great aeon. If
they don’t believe in that great aeon, I will wait until the great aeon
following that. I will keep waiting and eventually the day will come when they
will believe. Thus, whether or not they believe is only a matter of time.
Therefore, the teaching
of the Buddha can also be called, “The teaching of people.” This is because all
people can become Buddhas. The Buddha is a perfected human being; he is most
certainly not a god. God, too, must believe in the Buddha, because God is
limited to existence within the three realms. Thus, Buddhism may be called “The
teaching of people.”
Buddhism may also be
termed, “the teaching of the mind.” Everyone has a mind, and the mind itself is
the Buddha. In this way, all religions should unite. They may set themselves
apart from me, but I do not set myself apart from them. I include all religions
within Buddhism. I include all people, good or bad, within Buddhism. The bad
people will gradually reform, the confused ones will eventually become
enlightened. As Buddhists then, we must expand our capacity to the end of space
and the Dharma Realm in propagating the Teaching. Buddhism can then spread
throughout space. This is an extremely important point.
Why do I say that all
religions are included within Buddhism? It’s because Buddhism pervades space
and the Dharma Realm. Which religion goes beyond space? Which religion goes
beyond the Dharma Realm? Not one of them. Therefore, they are all included
within Buddhism. Can you deny the validity of the statement that all religions
are included within Buddhism? You cannot because it is perfectly logical. For
example, Buddhism may be compared to the government of a certain country, a
government which has a lot of different departments. All the other religions
are nothing more than different departments of the Buddhadharma. What so
strange about that? Nothing. It’s very ordinary. But since you never thought of
it in that way, you thought that they were not Buddhist. Could there be
anything which is not Buddhist? Buddhism considers all living beings as
included within it; they just belong to different departments, that’s all.
Disciples of the Buddha,
if we all had mental capacities of that great scope, we would have taken the
Buddha’s teaching into space, and to other worlds long ago. But it’s just
because we all have our small “territories” that until the present the
Buddhadharma has been limited to this Saha world in which we live, and we have
not spread it throughout the worlds of the ten directions. We should be greatly
ashamed. So at Mountain Monastery all are welcome to come, and all welcome to
leave. Those who leave haven’t left it either Gold Mountain Monastery and the
Buddhists of the entire world are one, and there are not distinctions made
between “us” and “them”. We hope to maintain attitudes which are this open and
broad so that we can carry great work with the Buddhadharma. If your mind is
small, your work will be small. If you mind is large, your work will be great.
If you can unite with the people of the entire world, Buddhism will pervade
everywhere. Why do I say this? The Avatamsaka Sutra says,
“If one wishes to know,
The Buddhas of the three periods of time,
One should contemplate the nature of the Dharma
Realm:
Everything is made only from the mind.
If you really want to
truly to understand how the Buddhas of the past, present, and future accomplish
Buddhahood, you should take a look at the nature of the Dharma Real. Everything
is created from the mind. When we cultivate the Way, what do we cultivate? The
mind. When the mind arises, the various dharmas arise. When the mind is
extinguished, the various dharmas extinguished. If you can “not produce a
single thought, you can unite with the Dharma Realm. Why haven’t we united with
the Dharma Realm? It’s because we have discriminations, we have thought. In cultivating
the Dharma, you may cultivate Dhyana, the teachings, the precepts, the secret
school or the Pure Land, but it is all in order to bring your thoughts to a
halt so that you do not produce a single thought.
When you don’t produce a
single thought,
The entire substance
manifests;
When the six sense organs
suddenly move,
You’re covered by the
clouds.
Why are we so stupid, so
lacking wisdom? It’s because we base our actions on the workings of the six
organs. If one is not turned by the sense data as it reaches the six sense
organs, but can on the other hand turn, or be in control of it, then there’s
hope. If you are in control of the situation instead of being controlled by it,
then:
Inwardly one views the
mind, and there is no mind;
Outwardly, one views
forms, but there are no forms;
Distantly, one views
objects, yet there are no objects.
If you can view these
three as empty, you must then further view emptiness as empty. If you hold onto
our view of emptiness saying, “I am empty, empty, empty…” you still have a
thought. You must not even hold onto emptiness. Then you can return to the root
and go back to the source, take the road back home. You can return to that land
of Eternal Still Light. Then you won’t be disappointed in your cultivation. Do
not on the one hand sit in Dhyana meditation while on the other entertaining
idle thoughts, such as, “Tomorrow, how will my business go ? What appointments
do I have ? What profits will I gain ? If you study the teachings and think,
“I’m going to master the teachings, become a great Dharma Master so that people
will bow to me, pay reverence, and make offerings. Boy, then I’ll have more
money than I know what to do with and eat anything I please.” With false
thoughts like that, your meditation and
your study of the teachings are of no use to you. It’s also useless to keep the precepts thinking,
“ I am going to keep the precepts, become a Vinaya Master, and people and gods
will make offerings to me …” If you cultivate the Secret School, reciting
mantras while thinking idle thoughts, you won’t obtain samadhi either, and you
won’t obtain a genuine response from your study. If you recite the Buddha’s
name while thinking idle thoughts, that too is useless. You must not give rise
to a single thought. All of cultivation is merely using poison to fight poison,
to cure you of your false thoughts and discriminations. If you can have no
discriminations, if you can cut off the root of your discriminations, then you
have potential. So, although I’m not much of a speaker, and not skilled at
expounding the doctrines, since you are all so sincere in asking me here to
speak, I have told you these simple principles, and wasted a great deal of your
time. However, I will not say, “I’m sorry.” That’s because if I said, “I’m
sorry,” that would indicate that I really did know how to talk.
Does anyone have any
questions? If so, we can look into them together.
Student: What is the Buddhadharma?
The Master: It is just your asking. Do you understand? I ask you, what
is not the Buddhadharma ? (The student does not answer)
You’re imitating others by not speaking. That is not the non-dual
Dharma-door. All dharmas are the Buddhadharma, there is not one which is not
the Buddhadharma.
Student: Is attachment is the Buddhadharma ?
The Master: Non-attachment is the Buddhadharma; attachment is the
Buddhadharma. If it were not the Buddhadharma, you would not be able to be
attached. When you begin to cultivate, sitting in Dhyana, studying the
teaching, holding the precepts, and reciting the Buddha’s name are all
attachments, but although they are attachments, one cultivates in order to
break these attachments.
If you see affairs and
are awake,
You can transcend the
world;
If you see affairs and
are confused,
You fall beneath the
wheel.
If you haven’t eaten your
fill you will have to wait for another opportunity to eat some more. If you are
full you need not strike up false thinking.