Today we venture into the scripture text of “The Buddha Speaks of Amitabha Sutra”. What do the first four characters, “Thus I have heard,” mean? 

I often see “Thus I have heard” in Buddhist scriptures, which sounds like “It seems so, it seems so,” but it shouldn’t be interpreted that way. It means it is as if I were personally listening to the Buddha’s teachings. Why? 

Because after Shakyamuni Buddha’s passing, his disciples compiled and recorded the teachings he had given, based on their memories. In Buddhist scriptures, the first four characters of each passage are always “Thus I have heard.” “Thus I have heard” means “It is as if I personally heard the Buddha’s teachings.”

These characters, “Thus I have,” represent the “accomplishment of faith.” 

We weren’t physically present at that time, but now, seeing this sutra is as if we were there listening to the Buddha’s teachings. Because we believe it was spoken by the Buddha, we believe this scripture was spoken by the Buddha, so “Thus I have” is a kind of “accomplishment of faith.”

What is the accomplishment of “I heard“? 

It is the accomplishment of “I went to listen” – the accomplishment of “I heard.” You can think of it this way. You all have accomplishments, because at least you have accomplished “the accomplishment of hearing.” Going to listen is also a kind of accomplishment; believing is also a kind of accomplishment. Don’t you believe? 

Take Christianity, for example, which specifically says “faith brings salvation.” The so-called “faith brings salvation” is actually the accomplishment of faith. And here we add these words: “accomplishment of faith,” and “accomplishment of hearing.”

The next words are “at one time,” “一时” (yī shí), meaning a specific period of time. Actually, there is also accomplishment at that particular time. What is that accomplishment called? 

That accomplishment is the “accomplishment of time“, “时成” (shí chéng). 

When Shakyamuni Buddha was expounding the dharma, many disciples sat there, and those who had faith accomplished something, those who heard accomplished something, and those who accomplished something at that time—that is the accomplishment of time.

In future, after you all have listened here, when I am no longer around, you all can also write “Thus I have heard.” 

When writing “Thus I have heard,” you must remember it more clearly. It should say something like, on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, at eight o’clock in the evening, so-and-so was sitting here giving a sermon. You must remember it clearly! Don’t write something like: “There was maybe a Master named Luhe who gave a sermon at Yutian Temple.” Why would it become Yutian Temple? 

Because the chinese character “雷” (lei, thunder) when seen from a slightly farther distance, can be mistaken as the character Yu, which means rain. And if you can’t remember the character that comes after Lu “卢” , you might just use the character “河” (he, river) for “river,” so it becomes like Luhe. This “Thus I have heard” would be wrong. However, I understand that if memory is not very good, sometimes when writing, this phenomenon happens, you might connect East to West, like putting a cow’s head on a horse’s body.

When the scriptures were compiled in the past, there were also many omissions. Many disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha gathered together to study what Shakyamuni Buddha spoke about. It required the collection of everyone’s memories to compile such a scripture. If one person were to write it (solely written by one person), they would likely get the time, place, and names all wrong. 

Recently, I’ve been reading our magazine, and sometimes when the masters mention names or words in their teachings, because we only hear the sounds and don’t know the actual characters, there are still many errors. So, we need to be more careful when encountering nouns, otherwise we will all make mistakes

“Thus I have heard, at one time Buddha…” The word “Buddha” also signifies an accomplishment. Shakyamuni Buddha is certainly an accomplished one, “the major accomplishment,” that is, Buddha.

Where is the location? 

It’s “in Sravasti, at the Jeta Grove in Anathapiṇḍika’s Park,” which is also an accomplishment. What is this accomplishment called? 

It’s called “the accomplishment of a place“—the accomplishment of location. The Jeta Grove in Anathapindika’s Park where Shakyamuni Buddha resided was a gift from a benefactor. He expounded the dharma and taught extensively at that location, and that location thus became an accomplishment. 

Just like us today, our Lei Zang Temple is also an “accomplishment of location“. It is not the word “vinegar” in “being jealous,” so that people in future won’t hear this and write it as: “Master said, vinegar accomplishment” , “eating vinegar” like being jealous. Ah! 

It is not the “vinegar” of “being jealous,” it is the word “place”, same word as in the term “deal with”. “Place” and “vinegar” sound the same, which is why Taiwanese people often “leak wind” when speaking Mandarin. I believe there is a difference between “place” and “vinegar,” the pronunciation must be different, but I really can’t pronounce them so that there is a difference between them.

I think my Mandarin is fairly standard, because I spoke it for over ten years in the military. But since coming to the US, for about five years, I’ve rarely spoken Mandarin. Master Chen and the others speak Taiwanese, and Mr. Lin next door also speaks Taiwanese. Everyone speaks Taiwanese, so I can’t be understood in Mandarin alone. Recently, my Mandarin has declined significantly. Because I haven’t spoken Mandarin for so long, I sometimes struggle to keep up when giving sermons. Many disciples in Taiwan who listen to my recordings have asked why my Mandarin isn’t fluent. So please forgive me; it’s truly been five years since I last spoke it.

When do I speak Mandarin then? 

Only when expounding the dharma, and even then, it is without preparation. Most of what I say is unprepared. It’s like having to pick a topic and just based on what one has studied in the past, one has to structure it and deliver it, thus making it difficult to speak fluently. 

Like the Mandarin spoken by Master Chen and some others, I understand it even less. But frankly, I can’t keep up with their Taiwanese either! 

They speak beautifully in Taiwanese. If asked to expound the dharma in Taiwanese, they would speak even better than the dialogue in puppet shows; Taiwanese language is known for its clear and sonorous speech, it’s truly splendid. If we could understand Taiwanese, we could also offer Taiwanese classes, with Master Chen as the main lecturer. I will teach Mandarin, and the young master can teach English and Cantonese in the future. Language, this topic, is truly also a difficult subject. Mainly because China is so vast and has so many dialects. I hope that in the future, China will only speak one language, making it easier for the country to unify in the future.

The next sentence is “Together with a gathering of great Bhiksus, 1250 in all, all great Arhats whom the assembly knew and recognized.” This sentence speaks of “the accomplishment of the assembly“—everyone has accomplishments. “Together with a gathering of great Bhiksus, 1250 in all, all great Arhats,” they were all great Arhats. Great Arhats represent the very high Four Noble Realms, meaning everyone has accomplishments. 

Today, everyone is here listening to the Dharma. When you go back and write down the scriptures, you can write something like, “Thus I have heard. It seems there are 150 people gathered, all of whom are great Bodhisattvas.” However, it seems there aren’t 150 people. So even this 1250 people would be a lot of people. We only have 150 people here, which is too few. If we deduct those who came from afar, like from Canada, then we’re left with 30 people. If we deduct the teachers sitting in the front, then we’re left with 10 people. Amitabha! May there be more and more.

Om Mani Padme Hum