Translated by Dharma Master Lok To | Edited by Dr. Frank G. French

May all the merit and grace gained from adorning Buddha’s Pure Land, from loving our parents, from serving our country and from respecting all sentient beings be transformed and transferred for the benefit and salvation of all suffering sentient beings on the three evil paths. Furthermore, may we who read and hear this Buddhadharrna and thereafter generate our Bodhi Minds be reborn, at our lives’ end, in the Pure Land.

Sutra Translation Committee of the United States and Canada
New York- San Francisco- Niagara Falls- Toronto, 1999

Acknowledgments

We respectfully acknowledge the assistance, support and cooperation of the following advisors, without whom this book could not have been produced: Dayi Shi; Chuanbai Shi; Dr. John Chen; Amado Li; Hoi-Sang Yu; Tsai Ping Chiang; Vera Man; Jack Lin; Cherry Li; Tony Aromando and Ling Wang. They are all to be thanked for editing and clarifying the text, sharpening the translation and preparing the manuscript for publication. Their devotion to and concentration on the completion of this project, on a voluntary basis, are highly appreciated.

Preface

Buddhadharma is the wisdom of all people and the light of the world. If people possess wisdom, then civilization is able to expand and go forward. If one has light, then even he, as an individual, can help to disperse the darkness of ignorance. Thus, wisdom and civilization are the right way for everyone to follow, and Buddhadharma illuminates the world.

Just what is Buddhadharma? It is a method to enable all beings to become Buddha. Buddha means Enlightened One, but the term can be extended to mean enlightening oneself and others are well as enlightening all people and all sentient beings. Because everybody, in reality, possesses the Original Nature of Enlightenment, everybody can, therefore, become a Buddha. However, people in the world, in their daily lives, are strongly bound by feelings of love and hate, etc., and they are, also, deeply confused by their desire for and grasping at material objects. They, thus, confuse their own Original Wisdom and cloud their own Buddha Nature and are ultimately overcome by all sorts of obstacles and delusions.

Therefore, the great Dharma Master T’ai-Hsu recommended that Buddhism should be promoted and spread everywhere. Thus, all people should be encouraged to understand the Dharma, increase their wisdom, purify their own minds, and be directed onto the open, wide and comfortable Path, that from numerous and various beginning points arrives, at last, at the Supreme Bodhi.

For this reason, Dharma Master T’ai-Hsu wrote The Practice of Bodhisattva Dharma, which recommends accepting the Three Refuges to link up with the Triple Jewel, practicing goodness and generosity, observing the Five Precepts and the Ten Virtues, and diligently performing the Six Paramitas and the Four All-Embracing Virtues. So, practitioners, whether following Mahayana or Hinayana, whether monks or layman, of whatever degree–with either shallow or deep understanding and ability–will see, if they practice regularly, responsibly and sincerely, the Fruits of Bodhi gradually increasing day by day.

I fervently hope and desire that all people and friends in the Dharma, after reading this work and following its recommendations, will discover that their blessings and wisdom are constantly on the increase.

Dharma Master Lok To
Young Men’s Buddhist Association of America
Bronx, New York
March, 1999
(Buddhist Year :2543)

The Practice Of Bodhisattva Dharma

In the Buddha’s teaching, the Sutra collection and the Vinaya collection comprise  two kinds of Dharma. The Sutras are the collection of the Buddha’s discourses given over a forty-year period in the Ganges valley, in India, nearly 2,600 years ago, and they are concerned with the nature of mind and experience and the reality of the suffering, unsatisfactoriness, and frustration of conditioned existence. The Vinaya is the collection that sets forth the discipline of body and speech that Bhiksus and Bhiksunis (Buddhist monks and nuns) must practice. This monastic code of discipline is undertaken upon ordination, when one formally leaves home life, and Vinaya of this sort is primarily the concern of the Sangha (monastic body). An expanded version of this Buddhist training is the Bodhisattva ordination, wherein one undertakes the practice of the fundamental Bodhisattva Dharma of body and mind. This Bodhisattva Dharma encompasses many levels and degrees of practice, both worldly and transcendental, and it is truly wondrous and inconceivable.

Many people are familiar with the term Bodhisattva, but the genuine meaning of the term could stand some clarification. The average person perhaps considers images made of clay, wood or gold or portraits and paintings of saintly personalities to be some manner of substitute Bodhisattva. Indeed, through Asian national customs and traditions, we have come to associate religious statuary of this sort with the term Bodhisattva.Needless to say, this is incorrect. We should understand that there are Buddhist images portraying a higher degree of practice than Bodhisattva and also images of lesser sages, patriarchs, and even demons with bodies of oxen and serpents. These images should not be indiscriminately lumped together under the designation Bodhisattva. Actually, men and women cannot look like the representations of Bodhisattvas that artists have created. However, we are human beings with minds; and if we vow to practice Bodhisattva behavior, then we can gradually become Bodhisattvas. The Sanskrit term Bodhisattvais composed of two words: Bodhi,which means enlightenment or awakening, and sattva, which means living being.

The designation Bodhisattvaoriginally meant a living being who had developed or had determined to hold the Bodhicitta. Cittais a Sanskrit word that means mind or heart; in the East, the two words heartand mindare synonymous. To search with great perseverance for the Supreme Bodhi and to develop a compassionate heart in order to effect the liberation of all sentient beings from their states of conditioned suffering–such is the authentic meaning of the life and path of one who has taken the Bodhisattva vows. Therefore, if we can resolve determinedly to develop the Bodhicitta, to search above for the Tao of the Buddha and seek below to convert all sentient beings to the right path–not simply in theory but in genuine practice–then we are practicing realBodhisattva Dharma. Only one who urges all beings to strive upward and penetrate the region of Great Enlightenment can validly be recognized as and be called a Bodhisattva. Thus, it should be clear that images of clay or gold are not the real thing; and only those who have determined the Bodhicitta are genuine Bodhisattvas.

To initiate the Tao of the Bodhisattva, one need not already stand in the highest regions of sanctity. By the same token, when we observe our own natures closely, we see that pure-mind realms are not so very far away. Starting from our worldly state, we march, step by step, toward the highest, holiest region and create purity and freedom. Starting from the shallow and progressing to the deep, we transform inferior into superior beauty. Beginning as worldlings, with the Bodhicitta we shall eventually enter the blessed stage of the Final Diamond Heart. This is the condition of the superlatively enlightened Bodhisattva.

Most people who have confidence in the Buddhadharma and consider themselves Buddhists do not vow to develop the Bodhicitta. Thus, they remain mere worldlings if they do not choose to add to themselves the dimension of Bodhisattva mind. Genuine Buddhists who have determined the Bodhicitta are as rare as the feathers of a phoenix or the horn of a unicorn.

Another kind of Buddhist are those who, after encountering the Buddhadharma, imagine the accomplishment of Buddhahood to be so lofty as to be virtually unreachable. Because of their inadequate self–confidence, such people fail to realize the real goal and cannot complete the Buddha Tao. They grasp the expedient teaching which was revealed gradually by the Buddha–i.e., wholesome karma in this world and the subsequent reward of heavenly bliss. Learning this very shallow Dharma, they wish only to satisfy their desire for bliss and blessings in the present life. They can be said to have learned some Buddhadharma, but they are still quite far, in reality, from any genuine, profound understanding of the Teaching. In short, they are merely grasping expedient teaching as absolute truth. Buddha was to censure this kind of understanding as icchantika,that state of being unable to make spiritual progress.

Yet another kind of Buddhist is the sort who is personally aware of the suffering of birth and death and so learns the void Dharma of the Middle Way beyond the two extremes ofisand is not.Always grasping the extreme of is notand in quest of liberation, he wishes to attain the non-active stage and Nirvana for himself alone. However, in practicing this Middle Way, one should not cling to the extremes of isand is not, and then one can enter the stage of void samadhi. Even though this is considered a superior position and can lead to the practice of Mahayana, it is, however, notthe Bodhisattva Tao leading to the Supreme Buddha Fruit. Thus, this approach was censured by the Buddha as having the nature of a spoiled seed.

We are concerned here with the promotion of the practice of Bodhisattva Dharma, never allowing aspirants to indulge in the bliss of men and devas or to cling to the attainment of void samadhi. The practice of Bodhisattva Dharma, whether high or low, worldly or transcendental, starts from the human level and proceeds until the complete Tao of Bodhi is won. This characterizes that practice which goes all the way through from top to bottom, and it requires nothing apart from determining the Bodhicitta and vowing to act as a Bodhisattva. This development is analogous, by way of example, to a person beginning kindergarten and proceeding until he eventually reaches the research institute and earns his doctoral degree; at all stages of his academic career he is called a student. Similarly, in developing Bodhisattva practice, one begins by vowing to determine the Bodhicitta and progresses to the Final-Diamond-Heart stage. The beginning stages of practice are still at the worldly level, but eventually one approaches the Buddha Fruit. All stages are termed Bodhisattva, and practice is an ongoing matter. The Bodhisattva stage immediately preceding the Buddha Fruit is termed the Final Diamond Heart. Though it is not easy to carry through, by not letting go of Bodhisattva Mind even for one instant, one will gradually complete the work and achieve the goal.

The Practice of this Bodhisattva Dharma is easily initiated by accepting the Three Refuges of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Because it is feared that a person might stray onto wrong paths, one, after accepting the Three Refuges, is encouraged to determine to hold the Four Great Vows. These are:

1. Sentient beings without number I vow to enlighten;
2. Vexations without number I vow to eradicate;
3. Limitless approaches to Dharma I vow to master;
4. Supreme Bodhi I vow to achieve.

The purpose of taking the Three Refuges is to enable people to disentangle themselves from erroneous views; and the Four Great Vows are used to teach people to hold to no desire for the bliss of men and devas or the void samadhi of Dviyana (the two yanas of Sravakas and Pratyekabuddhas). This path can be termed the direct road of the Bodhisattva Tao that leads one to the Supreme Bodhi. After accepting the Three Refuges and thus inaugurating the Bodhisattva-Dharma training, it is very important for one to practice everywhere, continually turning the Wheel of the Dharma and aiding all sentient beings. Relative to this view, The Vimalakirtinirdesa Sutra says: “The Bodhimandala (place of spiritual practice) of the Bodhisattva is everywhere.”

[ Next: Accepting The Three Refuges To Link Up With The Triple Jewel ]

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Source: Young Men’s Buddhist Association of America