2024/12/01 Living Buddha Lian Sheng Exposition on the Vimalakirti Sutra (Mahapratisara Bodhisattva)

2024/12/01: Living Buddha Lian Sheng Exposition on the Vimalakirti Sutra (Mahapratisara Bodhisattva) at Rainbow Temple

Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple, Redmond, WA, U.S.A.
https://tbsseattle.org/

Rainbow Temple, North Bend, WA, U.S.A.
https://tbs-rainbow.org/
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A TROVE OF DIVINE WISDOM
A PASSAGE TO ENLIGHTENMENT...
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Why do we have eight-four thousand kinds of mental ailments? Why? Because you think that there is something to gain, that’s why you have ailments. If you don’t think there is anything to gain, you will have no ailments. Why do siblings fight for inheritance? A person is in heaven, his money is in the bank, the brothers are fighting for his money, and his wife is lying on the chest of another man. What belongs to you? Think carefully and clearly. Nothing belongs to you! When you realize there’s nothing to gain, then the merits and blessings are not merits and blessings. Therefore, they are merits and blessings. Buddhadharma is not buddhadharma; therefore, it is buddhadharma. These kinds of paradoxical phrases are all over the sutra. Otherwise, you will not understand why Sakyamuni Buddha said that the so-called buddhadharma is not buddhadharma. It’s quite baffling; he said the buddhadharma is not buddhadharma, then again, he said it is buddhadharma; he also said the same thing about merits.

Today, I have explained it very clearly. The most important sentence in the Heart Sutra is as there’s nothing to gain, you are a bodhisattva. Because you comprehend that there is nothing to gain, your mind is at ease and you have no contention whatsoever; you can then gain meditative stability. You are mindful of others, therefore, you are a bodhisattva. Since there is nothing to gain, therefore you are a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva originates from this. If you want to become a bodhisattva, you must first realize that there is nothing to gain. This is the key point of the Vajra Sutra. Buddhadharma arises. Why did buddhadharma arise? Because human beings have eighty-four thousand kinds of illnesses. Due to these eighty-four thousand kinds of illnesses, there are eighty-four thousand kinds of buddhadharma. If there are no humans, there is no need for buddhadharma. If everyone is a sage, there’s no need for buddhadharma. [In this case] Buddhadharma is not buddhadharma. In this way, do you understand?

No view of self, no view of others, no view of sentient beings, and no view of lifespan are the four non-views or non-phenomena spoken by Sakyamuni Buddha. If you truly eliminate these four views and if you genuinely comprehend this, you will be completely at peace and at ease. I would not care if...
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Read the full discourse here: https://en.tbsn.org/guidem/detail/263...

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