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

Original text: 尔时世尊。告净饭王言。大王。如上所说。解脱法门。当自系心。正念观察。勇猛精进。决定修作。过去未来。现在诸佛。依此得证。无上菩提。能招世间。一切富乐。能消世间。一切渴爱。能伏世间。一切我慢。能破世间。一切邪见。能灭有情。一切罪恶。未登初地。凡夫异生。皆令证得。平等法性。如是法要。非诸声闻。及辟支佛。所行境界。唯诸菩萨。之所修作。

Explanation: The Buddha said to King Śuddhodana: Regarding the dharma gate of liberation as described above, you should gather your own mind and observe it with right mindfulness, and with heroic diligence resolutely cultivate and practice it. The Buddhas of the past, future, and present all attained unsurpassed bodhi by relying on this gate of liberation. By relying on this dharma gate of liberation, one can attain great self-mastery within worldly dharmas and the retributive results of all wealth and happiness; it can extinguish all craving and attachment in the world, subdue all conceit of self in the world, break all wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) in the world, and destroy all sins and evils of sentient beings. Through cultivating this dharma gate of liberation, those ordinary beings and unregenerate persons who have not yet attained the first bhūmi can all realize the equal nature of dharmas. Such an essential dharma is not the realm of practice of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; only the great bodhisattvas can cultivate and realize it.

The World-Honored One exhorted King Śuddhodana to place his mind upon the dharma gate of liberation, to relinquish the myriad dharmas, to relinquish the enjoyment of the five desires, to relinquish the illusory dharmas of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and the eighteen realms, and with heroic diligence to use right mindfulness and right deliberation to observe and deliberate upon the myriad dharmas—all these dharmas are indeed like a dream, like an illusion; they are false and illusory, impermanent, and suffering. After contemplating and observing them in this way as they truly are, one will spontaneously and proactively practice with heroic diligence and resolute cultivation; once the mind genuinely accepts this, one can realize liberation.

Therefore, learning Buddhism means first hearing the true Dharma, then engaging in right deliberation and deliberation in accordance with principle, and cultivating diligently and heroically according to correct principle. Cultivation must be carried out with heroic diligence in order to succeed, because learning Buddhism is the same as the principle of boiling water: if we want to boil a pot of water, we must keep adding fire and let the fire burn continuously so that the water can boil; if the fire goes out halfway through, the water will cool down again, and if we then heat it and stop again, when will this pot of water ever boil? Heroic diligence follows exactly this principle—with one sustained effort, this pot of water can quickly be brought to a boil. If cultivation is lax and slack, one will advance and retreat repeatedly, wasting a great deal of time and energy in the process. Heroic diligence and resolute cultivation belong to the power of meditative concentration (samādhi); when the mind is resolutely within the dharma of liberation and continuously cultivates the dharma of liberation, the result will inevitably be liberation.

By what did the Buddhas of the ten directions and three times attain unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment and accomplish the Buddha Way? All of them relied on the contemplation that all dharmas are like a dream, and realized accomplishment through the three gates of liberation: emptiness (śūnyatā), signlessness, and wishlessness. First hear the true Dharma of the contemplation that all is like a dream, then engage in right deliberation, and cultivate according to the correct principle arrived at through that deliberation, passing through the four steps of hearing, deliberation, cultivation, and realization. If one does not listen to the sūtras and hear the Dharma, there will be no right mindfulness with which to deliberate; without being able to deliberate in accordance with principle and contemplate the true reality of all dharmas, there will be no cultivation of right diligence; one will not be able to realize the true reality of all dharmas, will not be able to realize the contemplation that all is like a dream, will not be able to enter the first bhūmi, and will not be able to attain all the subsequent liberations.

If one wishes to realize the illusory nature of the myriad dharmas, to realize the intrinsically pure mind, and to realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment, one must first begin with listening to the sūtras and hearing the Dharma; after hearing the Dharma, one must gather the mind and deliberate according to the true meaning. One must rely on the Buddha's authoritative statements (āgama), gaining faith through verification with body and mind; when the faculty of faith is firm and one knows that this dharma will certainly lead to liberation and the accomplishment of the Buddha Way, one will then resolutely cultivate with heroic diligence, never retreating from the great path of bodhi, and therefore will certainly realize the fruit of bodhi. First one realizes the fruit of the Small Vehicle bodhi, realizing that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and eighteen realms are illusory, with no self or person; then one awakens to the Ālayavijñāna mind, realizing that the Ālayavijñāna neither arises nor ceases, and understanding that the myriad dharmas are all born from the Ālayavijñāna—that the self is illusory and all dharmas are illusory, that everything is of the nature of the Ālayavijñāna and apart from this there is nothing else; therefore the myriad dharmas are all empty, and one can reach the fruit of the first bhūmi; then in sequence one realizes the second, third, and fourth bhūmis, and finally attains the fruit of the Buddha-bhūmi, entering the ultimate and perfect great nirvāṇa. Cultivation proceeds in exactly this sequence.