Today we are going to talk about the word “speaks” from “The Buddha Speaks of Amitabha Sutra“.
Who spoke of this sutra? It is Shakyamuni Buddha.
Who is Buddha speaking about? It is talking about Amitabha Buddha.
Who is he speaking to? It is to Sariputra.
Today we are going to talk about Sariputra. Who is Sariputra? Sariputra is a disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha. From what I’ve seen in the scriptures, Sariputra is regarded as the foremost disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha. Among all of the Buddha’s disciples, Sariputra is known as the one foremost in wisdom. Why is that?
Sariputra was originally a Brahman. His father was a priest of Brahmanism. His father was very wise. Sariputra was taught by his father since he was a child and became a very wise person. When he grew up, he also had many disciples. Finally, he came to take refuge in Shakyamuni Buddha and brought a total of 350 disciples to take refuge in Shakyamuni Buddha.
He is a wise elder with profound insight, capable of controlling his own birth and death, and able to realise his true nature.
On one occasion, Shakyamuni Buddha said that he is going to return soon. Sariputra then told Shakyamuni Buddha, I’ll leave before you. As a disciple, he wished to go ahead first to prepare the room for his teacher, to arrange the living space and even take care of things like property and transportation for convenience. So Sariputra said that he would return first to make these preparations.
However, Sariputra was able to say it this way, he said: “The disciple should go first and prepare some things for the teacher when he goes to the place later.” Then Sariputra went back to the place where he originally lived, cleaned the room, sat in the middle of the room by himself, meditated, and left! So he was a disciple who left earlier than the teacher. From this, we can prove that Sariputra himself could decide his own life and death.
Let’s imagine today a disciple saying, “If my teacher plans to leave in ten days, I will go ten days earlier.” That would require extraordinary spiritual attainment. A person cannot simply pass away at will. Of course, hanging, diving into water, setting oneself on fire, and slitting one’s wrists do not count! These are not counted. To be able to “master life and death”, one must be like Sariputra, sitting like this and saying, “Oh! I will go back ten days before my teacher”, then dying while sitting like that. As far as I know, Sariputra will return to the human world in the future to become a Buddha. His Buddha name after achieving enlightenment will be “Padmaprabha Buddha” [Lotus Light Buddha].
That time in my book “The Great Shock of Zen” I mentioned Sariputra, and his story. Sariputra himself was not… how should I say it? Ladies, he didn’t like them. He was rather strict about this. He insisted that a practitioner should not have women around.
Once he went to treat Vimalakirti’s illness. Because there were celestial maidens and goddesses beside Vimalakirti, serving him, Sariputra thought to himself: “It’s wrong for a practitioner to have such beautiful women walking around and serving him!”
The lady next to him had telepathy and knew what Sariputra was thinking. Suddenly, many flowers fell from the sky. The goddess scattered flowers in the sky. Wow! Many flowers fell. Those that fell on others fell to the ground as soon as they fell. Only those that fell on Sariputra stuck to him. Sariputra used his hands to brush off the flowers, but he just couldn’t brush off the flowers.
Sariputra asked the goddess next to him, “Why can’t I shake the flowers off my body?”
The celestial maiden said, “Because there are flowers in your heart-mind, that’s why you can’t shake off the flowers.”
There is a very profound meaning in this.
This Goddess Who Scatters Flowers showed her supernatural power again and changed Sariputra into a celestial maiden. The celestial maiden changed into Sariputra standing. Sariputra also tried to use his supernatural power and wanted to change back quickly to himself, but he couldn’t. The celestial maiden said to him: “Right now, you are me, and I am you. So if a beautiful woman is serving Vimalakirti Bodhisattva, what is wrong with this?”
According to what the Goddess Who Scatters Flowers said, it’s just a difference in appearance. This heart-mind, the buddhanature is the same, being male or female is only outer form. After Sariputra learned this lesson, he realized that male and female are just an appearance, and there is no difference. Since a man can become a woman, and a woman can also become a man, all such changes are only matters of outward form.
Therefore, in the eyes of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, those who differentiate between men and women are ordinary people, and those who do not differentiate between men and women are Buddhas. When the highest realm is reached, there is no difference between men and women at all. Therefore, if Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva wants to become female, he becomes female, and if he wants to become male, he becomes male. Therefore, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva can also be the celestial husband Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. He appears as a woman in order to show his compassionate form. The goddess who served beside Vimalakirti Bodhisattva had served tens of billions of Buddhas, so Sariputra had underestimated her at that time. In fact, she was also very extraordinary.
The Buddha spoke this sutra with great wisdom, merit, and supernatural powers. Since Sariputra himself was the wisest venerable, it can be seen that “The Buddha speaks of Amitabha Sutra” is also a scripture with very high wisdom.
When the Buddha was speaking about scriptures, he often had many ways of saying it.
Some were long, some were short, some were clear, some were metaphorical, some were direct, some were indirect, some were not saying it at all, some were saying it a lot, some were talking about the past, some were talking about the future, and some were talking about the present, so the Dharma that the Buddha spoke of is endless.
So today I am here, sitting here speaking it, which is also equivalent to sitting and saying it. And not only sitting, but also sitting on the floor. Ah! I don’t know how long I will sit?
In short, I am saying it, and you are listening, and you will be able to say it in the future. One day, everyone will say the Dharma until there is nothing left to say, which is in line with what the Buddha said,
“Of all the Dharmas that the Buddha said, there are no Dharmas to speak of.”
When there is nothing to say, it is “real saying”!
Om mani padme hum.