What Do We See – Dharma Talk September 5, 2010
“The people think:
‘This world is in a great fire.
The end of the kalpa of destruction is coming’”
Lotus Sutra Chapter XVI
We read this passage every time we perform a daily service that includes the recitation of the Ji Ga Ge section, or the poem part of Chapter 16. It is because we are deluded in our view of the world around us that we fail to see what is truly there. How many times have me made a judgment or an assessment of a situation only to later find that we have formed a mistaken, a completely incorrect conclusion?
I can think of times when based upon appearances only, I have thought that a particular food would not taste good only to find that I in fact like it. Or how about times when we looked at a person and drawn a conclusion based upon some small or insignificant aspect and failed to see something of greater importance. Perhaps the person is dressed funny or perhaps they have a speech impediment, or a physical disability, or maybe they just look different from ourselves, or talk with a different accent.
There are countless times each day perhaps when we make judgments such as these and frequently we are completely wrong.
Our sufferings, our daily struggles are also the same. Perhaps we have felt forlorn or despondent over some matter thinking that there is no solution. In our Buddhist practice it can be the same
There is a story of two men, both seriously ill, who occupy the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation, and so forth.
Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed in this way.
One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.
It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”
The fact that neither man could truly see either because they had no sight or because they had no window, did not prevent them from enjoying a beautiful reality, and in the mind that reality was no less real for either of them just because it was not an actual observed phenomena of the moment.
At the beginning I quoted a passage from the Buddha in Chapter 16. Now here is what he immediately followed it with:
“In reality this world of mine is peaceful.
It is filled with gods and men.
The gardens, forests, and stately buildings
Are adorned with various treasures;
The jeweled trees have many flowers and fruits;
The living beings are enjoying themselves;
And the gods are beating heavenly drums,
Making various kinds of music,
And raining mandarava-flowers on the great multitude and me.”
Lotus Sutra Chapter XVI
So the Buddha tells us that should be viewing life and our lives in a way that is not dependant upon our ordinary sight or on seeing merely with our two eyes. That we should instead of looking we should perceived life as it really is.
This is not merely glossing over difficulties or completely ignoring problems
Every day we make choices in how we will perceive the reality of the world in which we exist. We have many options each one of which is equally a possibility for us to live in, we only have to decide whether we will use the Eye of the Buddha or the eye of a common mortal. Our reality our perception and our existence in reality is solely contingent upon our own Buddha life existing within ourselves.
Depending upon how strongly we have nurtured it’s development, on how well we are able to center our lives on Enlightenment will determine how we see our lives and situation in life. If we live with great joy many possibilities are available to us that are not otherwise available if we live a life of suffering rooted in Hell, Hunger, Anger, or Animality.
If the man with no sight had chosen to live with a reality of no vision he would not have had the joy of seeing beautiful things in his life, not to mention the wonderful interaction he had with the person he shared his room with. His reaction to his situation allowed him to live a life of joy and cause others to be joyful as well.
“Thereupon the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the white curls between his eyebrows, and illumined all the corners of eighteen thousand world in the east, down to the Avici Hell of each world, and up to the Akanstha Heaven of each world. The congregation saw from this world the living beings of the six regions of those worlds. They also saw the present Buddhas of those world. They also heard the Dharma expounded by those Buddhas. They also saw the bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, and upasikas of those worlds….They also saw the stupas of the seven treasures which had been erected to enshrine the sariaras of those Buddhas after their Parinirvana.” Lotus Sutra Chapter I
Because of the powers of the Buddha the people assembled at the beginning of the Lotus Sutra were able to see things beyond their ordinary mortal eyes. Worlds and beings were illuminated. Just as the blind man illuminated the world of his roommate the Buddha illuminates our world and our vision too, if we only practice the teachings he left for us.
“Sariputra! What is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds? The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open the gate to the insight of the Buddha, and to cause them to purify themselves. They appear in the worlds in order to show the insight of the Buddha to all living beings. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to obtain the insight of the Buddha. They appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha. Sariputra! This is the one great purpose for which the Buddhas appear in the world.” Lotus Sutra Chapter II
The insight of the Buddha, the ability to see the true nature of reality is something the Buddha wishes to share equally with all beings.
“Sariputra! The Buddhas appear in the evil worlds in which there are the five defilements. The worlds are defiled by the decay fo the kalpa, by illusions, by the deterioration of the living beings, by wrong views, and by the shortening of lives. Sariputra! When a kalpa is in decay, the living beings in that kalpa are so full of illusions, so greedy, and so jealous that they plant many roots of evil.” Lotus Sutra Chapter II
What the Buddha is saying to Sariputra, his smartest disciple, is that because we view the world incorrectly, we view the world through deluded eyes and mind we make the wrong causes and when we think we are doing good we are in fact causing ourselves even more suffering.
“They are distracted. They will doubt my teaching, and not receive it. I know that they did not plant the roots of good in their previous existence. They are deeply attached to the five desires. The suffer because of stupidity and cravings. Because they have many desires, they will fall into the three evil regions…They say ‘Things exist,’ or ‘Things do not exist.’ They are attached to sixty-two wrong views. They are deeply attached to unreal things. They hold them firmly, and do not give them up.” Lotus Sutra Chapter II
Further the Buddha says; “All things are from the outset in the state of tranquil extinction.” This is not merely positive thinking, or simply being optimistic. It goes beyond those because it requires us to shift our view of the phenomena we experience on a daily basis. If we truly wish to be happy we need to remove the attachments we have to those things that cause us suffering. This may sound like a no-brainer, and yet only through practicing Buddhism, by chanting Odaimoku can we gain the wisdom to transcend our delusions, our attachments to the things that cause us to suffer. We may not be able to easily see those things, we may often times be so mired in delusions and suffering that our entire judgment is clouded. Yet by chanting Odaimoku we can strengthen and nourish the good Buddha wisdom that already resides within us. Remember the Buddha said in the quote above that he wishes to cause us to purify ourselves, to show the insight of the Buddha to us, to cause us to obtain the insight of the Buddha, and to enable us all to enter the Way to the insight of the Buddha.
With that I will close my Dharma talk for today wishing each of you the continued courage to persevere in the face of sometimes extremely difficult and seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Never give up, this land this life is the Buddha land and you are a Buddha if you manifest it!
