The Truth Sutra number 31 (thirty-one)
Land of Paradise
Author: MINH DANG QUANG
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LINK: PENITENT
(By version, published in 1993)
Edited and translated into English by LE DUC HUYEN, translator. (Page 613)
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The paradise that people call today is because once there was a certain land where people were no longer greedy and wanted. All of humanity goes to Nirvana, while they are going, that middle place is the heavenly way. The Way of Heaven is the midway between man and Buddha. The purpose of sentient beings is to approach the Buddha. Therefore, heaven is a temporary step for humanity to step up to Buddha, just as adults are the footsteps of children to the old man. An old man compares it to a Buddha, an adult compares it to a God, and a child compares it to a human. Buddha, Nirvana is the destination of all.
Once upon a time, on the slopes of the Himalaya, there was flat ground, high, wide, and vast. At that time, people born there were very numerous, huddled together to form a society. That land is called paradise because of a story like this:
Because that country was in ancient times, people were still in the natural reality of the universe, and everyone knew the origin of the universe. Earth's four elements and sentient beings are children of earth, water, fire, and wind, changed by cause and effect, without head or tail. At that time, the teachings were very narrow, all grass, trees, animals, people, small, big, male, female, color, famous... all had a name for living beings. Sentient beings live together in the same way in a temporary way, without distinguishing between nouns, mother, or father at all! As far as objects with palpable bodies, what people also call "things", not even naming this or that dish. The ways of dealing with each other, and doing things with things, people call them dharmas, just dharmas, not having a name (noun), or distinguishing them.
But it is widely understood that all things are nonexistent; only all beings are the same, are combined germs, and are living substances. Those living things are animals. The human body is a combination of germs, just as water, fire, and wind are combined germs, not earth, water, fire, and wind. Just like the globe is a big swarm of germs. In which each grain of sand is a combination of countless small germs, which are imagining, shaping, and sprouting; and so are water, fire, and wind. All are bacteria, small germs, large insects, iron, and stone are also germs of living beings. These insects are produced by fire; all are caused by fire, even electricity is also caused by bacteria. All kinds of germs, all kinds of relative nature, transfer to each other, combine into the shape of large and small beings, and all things. They still fight each other forever according to the nature of relativity, causing the dharmas to change; in living beings, everything must change. The very change, the struggle of that germ, is the dharma.
Here we are, each of us has a body. That body is a mass of germs: see germs, hear germs, smell germs, taste germs, touch germs, think germs, female germs, male germs, black germs, white germs, etc. … all kinds of germs are fighting. For example, the germ goes, if it wins, it drags its leg! The germ says, which it wins, it says something! The female germ wins the man's lustful heart and turns into a woman. The male germ wins the woman's lustful heart and turns into a male. Germs of greed, hatred, and delusion make desire, anger, and confusion...These germs are also called enlightened insects because they all have awareness, which is knowing.
So this is our combined microbial body, which has no dominant self and is unstable, through the struggle of germs. We are eating and drinking germs, walking on germs; there is nothing that is not living germs, but enlightened germs: the germs of Enlightenment. Their power is called spirit, their dharmas are called god. So in the universe or in each body, there are three things: living, knowing, and spirit is the master. Those three things make us, not the body, not real. Of all the germs in the body, only the thought germ is the most powerful, which often overcomes the other germs; it is the mother of the sex germs. But the long-lasting, the most durable of germs is the Truth-Like germs, natural, unmoving. This germ is happy, calm, peaceful, and very healthy. If this germ can win, then sentient beings are Buddhas, then!
In addition, there is also the germ of wisdom, sharp as a sword, brighter than the sun. Most of the germs are caused by two temperaments, which are pure or dirty, that is, good or bad, painful or happy, relative...
Because of that understanding, people in that land (Paradise) do not cherish their lives or possessions. They strive to overcome the bad germs, nurture and help the good bacteria (enlightenment germs) to reach the mature and dignified realm. They consider the matter of the body to be mixed and unclean, because it contains all kinds of harmful insects.
That's why they live a very Truthful life! For them, all things were already nonexistent, and the names of dharmas, the transformation of things, and living beings were also empty. They think that when sentient beings are still very confused, the germs of delusion overcome them, and they will mistakenly recognize the dharmas. That is to say that sentient beings are dharma, all things are dharma, and the doctrine of things is dharma, only the dharma, not sentient beings, and all things. But if the germ of confusion has opened its eyes and has awakened, then all is the germ of enlightenment, from initial enlightenment to full enlightenment, the knowing will know completely. Then sentient beings are knowing, and fully knowing are Buddhas, yes! The Buddha is fully enlightened, like an old man, and sentient beings are as narrow as a child. Then, sentient beings will be Buddhas. Buddha is the ultimate victory of gods and humans, that is, the enlightened insect has won all over and is the master. And the sound of living beings is still fighting, so it has not been determined yet.
Then only living beings or will be Buddhas for truth, because it is the master, not everything is a misunderstanding, and the dharmas are an unstable struggle, not real. The germs that fight to declare themselves, to gain the self-mastery, and to call themselves the Dharma, such as the germs of injury, the germs of humanity, the germs of right, the germs of pride, etc. They are constantly trying to claim the title of king, but because of their non-determined nature, they are restless and stable! Most of which are called small germs, useless bacteria, unselectable, so they are also called premature germs. But only germs of concentration, Truthfulness-Likeness, enlightenment, are living forever and ever, winning all by nature, happy and peaceful, so called me, having me, the king can live. That self is the germ of enlightenment or Buddha.
One day, when this body of all things, dharmas, and living beings, it disintegrates and fails, then there will only be germs of awareness, standing firm as us: results, that's it!
Because of that, the people of that land, they earnestly follow the Buddha, one day they no longer know the physical body and the dharmas, or temporary beings. They don't want to regret what they have outside. Like a planter, they look at the seed, one day, and do not appreciate the tree, its leaves, branches, fruit, or flowers: nothing! They believe that the path from matter to spirit, from body to mind, from shell to seed, from evil to good, from movement to purity, is to proceed. Leaving the former to the latter, leaving the bottom to the top is eternal happiness; everyone's goal must be: that's all! No one goes back and forth that is good, no one stands still and is secure.
___ Dear oh! The foam floats,
Blurry undulations, ups and downs...
The heavier the wealth, the heavier it is: drag it, regret it, and let it go."
(Link: The Boat of Wisdom: The Three Jewels Sutra.) => ON THE WATER
That is greed, a mind deeply rooted in matter, a dirty body in spirit! He will break like a tree that is not wrong. Because no one can be in the material or the material spirit to go back and forth in the same place.(LINK: [21] The spirit is not tight, the material is not wasted, the thing is yes, the reason it is not.) ☑
Just as no one can avoid old age and Buddha, so tired of desire. And trying to force it to do suffering, but the old Buddha is good, not evil. Why are you afraid? The truth of the universe is to advance, to be clean, to help us, to bring us up, so what crime do we hide?
Therefore, the sentient beings in that land (the Land of Heaven) have only two classes: material and spiritual. The road from matter to spirit, connecting the two terms at the beginning and the end, is called heaven!
Heaven is the ascending footsteps of material people.; Just as adults are the footsteps of children to the old man, so. In that land, the upper class lives by the spirit of awareness, Truth-Likeness. They take the precepts of concentration and wisdom as food, and they cultivate the germs of enlightenment to be strong, good, and full of fertility, to suppress the poisonous germs. They respect and preserve them with the whole truth: goodwill, so! Their bodies are like ripe old fruit peels; they no longer look at it, because they have hardened their hearts, yes! They do not do evil by themselves to feed the body; they do not regret taking care of the body. They can leave the body at any time. They only care about raising the spirit to go up and go forever. They are like dead bodies, or are not for them, not in themselves. Just like Shakyamuni Buddha in the past, after enlightenment, he attained enlightenment and understood the truth. At that time, he wanted to enter Nirvana and leave the body, because the seed mind was old and ripe, the body shell did not need to feed it anymore.
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| Sutra: The Three Jewels |
He clearly saw the sins of sentient beings because of their food; they ate each other unfairly and oppressed them, but he could not do anything by himself. He clearly saw that the body lived for Him; at that time, it was busy and laborious, and it was no longer useful.
Besides, all living beings can enlighten themselves by themselves, because it is difficult for anyone to teach anyone, so he wants to enter extinction. But at that time gods and humans came to him and said:
___ Dear World-Honored One! This body is not originally His; it is the capital of the four great things, the common sentient beings, the dharmas, all that gave birth to it. It is of all who give, of all that give, of all that nourish: save and use. It has asked for all, so much about the new life to give birth to him, to give birth to a Buddha, to give birth to a seed mind. Then he is the Buddha, he is the seed mind, so don't know it anymore. He also has no right to create or destroy it. He considers him to be bodyless! His sinful body seems to have died, but this body has since been enlightened; its master is sentient beings, all things, and all dharmas. He gave it back to all, no longer confused, accumulated sinful karma, then sentient beings will use it to store his Dharma treasure. He is also born by sentient beings, but the purpose of sentient beings' arrival is to live, cultivate, and study.
Because of them, He got to the place, so He had to teach and guide them. His body will be a Dharma brothel for them, yes! As long as they still make an offering and keep it, he himself does not have to cancel it. Beings will rely on their body, which is the shell of that tabernacle, to receive Dharma alms. He only gave the Dharma to sentient beings; it was enough for them to make offerings, sorry to keep that body very precious, that's it! And so, the new Heaven was born, for mankind to step up.
The heavenly realm of mankind is the offering of four things to the Buddha Sangha, and the Buddha Sangha gives the Dharma of light back to the world. Due to the grace of giving Dharma and making gifts, it is a happy and bright paradise for mankind to follow Buddha's footsteps. Because there are Buddhas, there are gods, and gods are human beings. Because of the offerings to listen to the Dharma, that's why the devas asked the Buddha. And when the Buddha accepted the word, from then on the gods always supported the Buddha, and humans, by making offerings and listening to the Dharma, were reborn as countless gods. Those laypeople are temporary, sojourning in matter, in evil. They have to protect the young body, to practice raising the young mind to quickly age and harden. So that when old and hard, the body and shell of evil matter will pass: completely cut off! That means that everything is progressing to the ultimate spirit, going up forever, and the evil matter of the body shell will be removed from the time, the passerby, the next person.
The path from evil to good, from body to mind, from matter to spirit, from shell to seed, is exactly the same.; Heaven comes about because of the interval, thanks to the embellishment of the gift of wealth and the light of the Dharma giving. Heaven above, is tall, cheerful, brighter than humans, is because of its purity, not greed, and is more intelligent and wise. That land is called paradise because on high there are monastic liberation, enlightened bhikshus, living according to the truth. They live by spirit, pure mind, giving Dharma to the householders, the lower classes of the household make offerings about the four things, and support the monks. Just like the soul and the flesh exchange with each other, both are living enough body and mind, so the road connecting the middle is called Heaven. There the mendicant lived only with his mind, and his body belonged to sentient beings and of Buddhism. The householders who still make offerings are the monks who still teach and teach, and when they stop making offerings, they no longer give away the Dharma. That's up to the householder, the will of the latter: leave it or leave it, but the one who goes before is not known.
In that land, householders have a lot more duties, because they are still in the circle of sins, and if they are still greedy and attached, they will suffer even more. So everyone is determined to advance and overcome, but does not like stagnation or standing still. They both take care of the body and also take care of the mind. They have just made offerings to the Sangha to preserve Buddhism, help the Sangha to grow, and raise teachers for later, such as setting up classes, schools, and preserving books for themselves.
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