Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of Father and Son

Original text: 大王。应作是念。我当云何。于人天中。得为眼目。于长夜中。得为照明。于爱河中。得为船筏。于险难处。得为导师。无依怙者。为作主宰。自得度已。复能度他。自解脱已。令他解脱。自得安隐。令他安隐。自证涅槃。复令他证。大王。不应观彼。现在世间。所受富乐。五欲自在。诸根如幻。境界如梦。谓于色境。声香味触。心生贪着。无满足时。

The nirvāṇa attained by an arhat means that after the five aggregates of the physical body have ceased, the physical body never arises again—body extinguished and wisdom terminated. Such an arhat neither continues to study and practice the Buddha's teachings nor benefits and brings joy to sentient beings; his compassionate mind is thin, he does not wish to become a Buddha himself, nor can he lead sentient beings to attain buddhahood together. Therefore the arhat's nirvāṇa without remainder is not ultimate. The most ultimate nirvāṇa is the abiding-nowhere nirvāṇa (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa) attained by the Buddha, who never abandons any sentient being. The mental conduct of bodhisattvas differs from that of arhats: although they are capable of entering nirvāṇa without remainder, they do not enter it; life after life, they cultivate and realize the Buddha's teachings within the three realms, continuously benefiting themselves while also guiding and benefiting sentient beings. Thus bodhisattvas are greater than arhats, more compassionate than arhats, possess greater wisdom than arhats, and have more vast supernatural powers than arhats.

The Buddha earnestly and patiently exhorted His father that he should not regard the wealth, happiness, and free indulgence in the five desires that he currently enjoys in this world, and should not give rise to greed and attachment toward the objects of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, without ever being satisfied—he should no longer crave those realms of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma. When the mind craves the five desires and the six sense objects, it is not easily satisfied. The World-Honored One's father had been a king for several decades, enjoying the worldly pleasures of the five desires, yet still did not know their suffering and did not know to escape from them. The Buddha therefore exhorted him: you should no longer crave the wealth, honor, and happiness of this world, because the faculties are like illusions and the realms are like dreams. The six faculties are all illusory transformations—the eye faculty should not crave forms, the ear faculty should not crave sounds. Do not be lost in the pleasures of the five desires, living a life of decadent luxury; all of these are illusory transformations. The realms of the six sense objects are all like dreams, not real, and will vanish into illusion at any moment.

Why did the Buddha repeatedly and earnestly exhort His father the king? Because the wealthy and powerful are very difficult to liberate; they have long been immersed in the pleasures of the five desires and cannot easily pull themselves out. The poor, however, live lives of hardship and deeply feel the suffering of the world; when they encounter the Buddha's teachings, they will spontaneously and courageously practice and cultivate with diligence—unless their merit is too meager (alpa-puṇya), and, preoccupied with making a living, they rush about in worldly life and are unable to study and practice the Buddha's teachings.