Sutra text from last issue:
Living beings are stupid and give rise to views.
Their afflictions are like a torrent or a blaze.
The Guiding Master expediently extinguishes them completely.
Banner of Universally Assembled Light has this awakening.

His blessings and virtues, like space, are unending.
No limits or boundaries could be found for them.
This is the Buddha's unmoving power of great compassion.
Light Shining awakens to this and is delighted.  

The Guiding Master is the Buddha. The Buddha is a Guiding Master who receives living beings, takes them in charge; and expediently extinguishes them, their afflictions, completely. The Buddha employs all types of Dharma-doors of expedients to extinguish all of their afflictions which are like a raging flood or a fire. Banner of Universally Assembled Light has this awakening. The Fire-Ruling Spirit named Banner of Universally Assembled Light has deeply entered this door to liberation.

His blessings and virtues, like space, are ending. That is, the Buddha's blessings and virtues are like the void in that they never come to an end. Even though empty space has nothing to it, you can't say there is no empty space. The Buddha's blessings and virtues resemble empty space in that they could never run out, never be used up. No limits or boundaries could be found for them. If you tried to discover just what ultimate perimeters there are to the Buddha's blessings and virtues, they could not be found. You could never calculate them or understand them through numerical reckoning or analogy--which is the meaning of not being able to locate their limits or boundaries. This is the Buddha's unmoving power of great compassion. The sort of still and unmoving strength involved here is that of the Buddha's greatly compassionate mind, a kind of treasury of great compassion. Light Shining awakens to this and is delighted. The Fire-Ruling Spirit named (Great) Light Shining (Everywhere) has understood this state, and a type of joy wells up in his mind.

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The verses (gathas) in the Sutra text were brought up by Ananda when the Sutra Treasury was being compiled. It wasn't that a particular individual presented them in that way at the time described in the Sutra. What are the verses? They repeat what was previously said in the prose section in verse form. It's not at all certain that the particular Spirit spoke in just that way. He might not have used exactly that line to praise the Buddha, but another line instead, and when the Sutra Treasury was being compiled, Ananda stated his meaning. When the introduction says that Spirit So-and-So received the Buddha's awesome might and spoke the following verse(s), it definitely doesn't say that Spirit represented all ten Spirits and spoke the ten stanzas which follow. He just received the Buddha's awesome might to speak his own four lines of verse, and afterwards each Spirit spoke his own four-line gatha.

This point is very important! You can't use a literal interpretation as the basis for understanding the Sutra. That's totally mistaken. It's known as relying on words to understand the meaning. You become attached to the text of the Sutra, and that is fundamentally not in accord with the Buddhadharma. When the Nirvana Sutra had not yet arrived in China in its entirety, and the first half of the Sutra said, "Icchantikas do not have the Buddha-nature," Dharma Master Daosheng stated that they do have the Buddha-nature. While the second half of the Sutra was not yet available, no one accepted what he said. Later on when the rest of the Sutra arrived, part two did indeed say that icchantikas do have the Buddha-nature.

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Sutra:
I contemplate what the Tathagata has practiced.
Throughout oceans of eons without bounds.
Such manifestations of powers of spiritual penetrations.
Are what the Spirit Palaces of Multitudes of Wonders understands.

Commentary:
The Venerable Ananda, during the compilation of the Sutra Treasury, used repeating verses to restate what had been said in prose. Also, the repeating verses represented what the Fire-Ruling Spirits had said. Since the prose section had already named the Fire-Ruling Spirit who is first, his name does not appear in the four-line stanza. Because of that, some of you think the stanzas after that were spoken by that Fire-Ruling Spirit, which is not in accord with the meaning of the Sutra. What the Sutra means is that each Fire-Ruling Spirit elucidates the state of the Buddha which he himself has achieved, the kind of door to liberation which he himself has entered. After that, when verses are employed, it's the Venerable Ananda using verses to express it once again. Why does he say it in lines of verse? That's for fear people might not have completely understood the previous meaning, and so he restates it in verse form.

Now the text says: I contemplate what the Tathagata has practiced Who is saying, "I contemplate"? The Fire-Ruling Spirit named Palaces of Multitudes of Wonders is saying "I" of himself, and it was Ananda who represented him in saying that when Ananda wrote the line of verse which goes, "I contemplate what the Tathagata has practiced," referring to observing the doors of practice cultivated by the Tathagata. Those conduct doors were cultivated throughout oceans of eons. And so we need to look at the repeating verses along with its corresponding prose section in order to understand it. The prior section of prose said, "The Fire-Ruling Spirit named Palaces of Multitudes of Wonders obtained the liberation door of contemplating the Tathagata's powers of spiritual penetrations and manifesting without bounds." The powers of spiritual penetrations which the Tathagata attained were the doors of practice which he cultivated throughout oceans of eons. "Oceans of eons" isn't just referring to one great eon, or two or three, or even hundreds of thousands of great kalpas. Rather, the eons are so many they are like a great sea-infinite and unendingly many eons. That inconceivable and boundless amount is termed oceans of eons. This extended throughout such seas of kalpas, and if you tried to find their boundaries, to state ultimately how many great eons there are, you would never know. There are no bounds to them. They could not be known through calculation or analogy; hence they are said to be without bounds.

The text continues: Such manifestations of powers of spiritual penetrations. Over such a vast period of time, he manifested all kinds of powers of spiritual penetrations to teach and transform living beings, inspiring all living beings to bring forth the resolve for Bodhi. That's why he manifested the powers of spiritual penetrations, which are what the Spirit Palaces of Multitudes of Wonders understands. You don't have to use any other words to explain this, just the words "are what the Spirit Palaces of Multitudes of Wonders understands." From that line of verse you can tell that the gatha was spoken by the person compiling the Treasury of Sutras. Therefore, when the previous prose section mentioned a certain Fire-Ruling Spirit by name and said he "received the Buddha's awesome spiritual might and spoke the following verse(s)," if that Fire-Ruling Spirit received the Buddha's awesome spiritual might and spoke the following verse(s), why couldn't the other Fire-Ruling Spirits also receive the Buddha's awesome spiritual might and speak the following verse(s)? All of you should reflect upon this principle. You ought to know that without requiring a detailed explanation. I didn't go into the details before, because I thought all of you, being so much more intelligent than I am and so learned, would understand this principle. It never occurred to me that you would even have to go consult a commentary about this principle. And is the commentary necessarily correct? Commentaries represent individual points of view. You have your commentary, I have mine, and other people have theirs. But it's not for certain that any particular commentary can stand the test. Then why are the commentaries included in the Tripitaka? It's not for certain that everything included in the Tripitaka is totally right! For that reason Mencius said: "It would be better not to have books than to believe in books entirely. In the Wu-Cheng Chapter 1 select only two or three passages."

"Wu-Cheng" is the name of a section in The Book of History. The Book of History says: "When King Wu attacked the tyrant Zhou, the blood which flowed from the people killed floated the iron pestles." The pestles which had to float weighed a few hundred catties. The iron pestles wielded by the ancients weighed a minimum of two hundred catties, about three hundred pounds. You make the calculation: how many people would have to be killed for that to happen? King Wu was the best of kings, and the tyrant Zhou was the worst. King Wu's army was a humane and righteous army. Using such an army, when the most humane person was attacking the least humane of people, when the king who had the most Way-virtue went to attack the tyrant Zhou, the king most lacking in Way-virtue, why would he still have to kill so many people that their blood made iron pestles float? Yet that's what The Book of History says. If you believe this, well, is such a thing possible? Could this actually happen? How much blood would be needed to float iron pestles? For that reason, Mencius said it would be better not to have books at all than to believe the principles set forth in books entirely. Without any books, people would not be made so confused.

Therefore, if in the course of your study of the Buddhadharma you cannot break your attachments of mind, if you are attached, all the principles in the Buddha's Sutras are telling people to break their attachments. So long as you have attachments, you will never achieve genuine wisdom. Why not? It's because you have attachments. Hence there is the saying: "When confused, one is a living being. When enlightened, one is a Buddha." What is meant by Buddhahood? It means attachments are gone. If you are attached, then you are a living being. But when you become enlightened, you are a Buddha. That's why, after the Buddha achieved Buddhahood, he "sighed, 'Strange indeed!' three times." He said, "Strange indeed! Strange indeed! Strange indeed! All living beings have the virtuous characteristics of the wisdom of a Tathagata. It is only due to false thinking and attachments that they fail to certify to their attainment." Why do we lack wisdom? It's also due to having attachments. If you're attached to fame, you will die from fame. If you're attached to profit, you will die from profit. Consequently, fame and profit are the two killers of people.

~ To be continued