Now we will really talk about the meaning of the scripture.
Previously, we introduced the names of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas present at this dharma assembly. Now I will read this passage aloud once to let everyone hear:
The phrase “At that time” simply means “at that moment.”
In fact, these words “At that time” can also be understood in what Master Chen just explained during his talk. When he spoke about the black mouse and the white mouse, where the white mouse represents daytime and the black mouse represents nighttime; it is pointing to how human life in this world is extremely brief, and how quickly time passes.
I feel like I waste a lot of my daytime hours, but nighttime hours are not wasted. Because we are all sleeping, nighttime hours everyone is doing the same thing and sleeping, so it is not wasted. So why do I say I waste a lot of my daytime hours?
When I was studying in high school, a teacher invited me to a meal. That meal was very interesting. He put a plate of soy sauce in front of us and a small cage on the table with several newborn mice inside. You could see their intestines and bellies from outside, they were newborn, very very tiny white mice. That teacher of ours taught us how to eat dinner. Grab the mouse by the tail, dip them in the soy sauce, and eat them just like that, like eating sashimi. He said that newborn mice are the most nutritious, a favorite kidney-tonifying food in China.
As I’ve mentioned before, in the past, I ate everything, my nickname was “The One Who Eats Everything.” So I feel I wasted a lot of daytime back then because I ate quite a number of these white mice. One was not enough to fill me up; that night I probably ate six. Now thinking back, I can still vaguely remember that strange “mouse taste”!
Actually, this “at that time” refers to the time when Shakyamuni Buddha was expounding the Dharma, which was thousands of years ago. So, our current expounding of the Dharma is also called “at that time.”
Speaking of time, as far as I know, “There is no time actually, time is created by humans.”
Humans divide a year into 365 days, a year into 12 months, and a month into 28, 29, 30, or 31 days. A day is divided into 24 hours, and in some places like the United States, they even adjust the clock forward or backward by an hour.
In reality, all of this is fabricated by human beings.
If we disregard time entirely, treating the past as the present and the present as the future, think about it everyone. We are “breaking time”.
Now, looking at you all, I realize that none of you are actually like this form. Among us, there are reincarnated Egyptians, reincarnated Indians among us, there are Japanese, there are Africans.
Among us there is also a cannibal.
Some are also reincarnated from non-humans.
One of us here is a reincarnated swordfish, and another is a very precious little bear cub.
“At this time”, the boundaries of time and space are broken; what the eyes see, the past, all comes to light, and you can also see this person’s future. You can also see the future of this person.
Among us one of us will become Yama. That precious bear will still be a precious bear in her next life, but in this life she will be human. That Mr. Swordfish will go to heaven and become a heavenly being. That cannibal will reincarnate to become a pig butcher in his next life.
This phrase “at that time” contains a lot of meanings. If you look at Grandmaster’s books, even setting aside “at that time”, just compare a photograph of me from twenty years ago when I was still a student, and me now, sitting here giving a Dharma talk. I am no longer the same person.
Are the person from twenty years ago and the person now the same?
In just twenty short years, the difference is like two completely different people.
Time, in this sense, is symbolic. Originally, there is no such thing as time, but because we leave traces as we move through what we call the past, we use that to represent time.
So time passes very quickly. If we do not cultivate ourselves, we will only continue to deteriorate.
If you have the personality of a pig, you’ll be reborn as a pig in your next life.
If you’re very combative, always trying to take advantage of others and harm them, you’ll be reborn as a snake.
If you’re cunning, you’ll be reborn as a fox.
If you’re narrow-minded and deceitful in many ways, you’ll be reborn as a centipede. This being deceitful in many ways manifests as many hands and feet, and if you have many stratagems it will make you a centipede.
In your next life, when you die, if someone comes with a sedan chair to carry you, be careful, you might become a crab.
And there’s more!
If a large bus comes to pick you up, be careful, you might turn into a caterpillar.
If an airplane comes to fetch you, you’ll turn into a dragonfly.
If you think you’re traveling through a time tunnel, you’ll turn into a snake.
These are all states of mind that arise at the moment of death, guiding you on your future path.
When a Buddha looks at it, the so-called “at that time” represents the “past,” “present,” and “future.”
In reality, many buddhas and bodhisattvas can return again, take rebirth, and continue to help sentient beings in this world. Though they were buddhas or bodhisattvas in the past, they may now appear as ordinary humans, teaching the dharma and guiding others.
However, you see, they still need to eat, defecate, and also sleep. You might not be able to see that they were buddhas or bodhisattvas in the past. Just like you can’t tell who is a bear, who is a swordfish, or who is a cannibal right now?
Don’t ask me later, because if I reveal it, someone will definitely sue me for defamation.
The second sentence is “the Buddha told the Elder Sariputra.”
In the past, when Shakyamuni Buddha expounded the dharma, his disciples would ask questions, and Shakyamuni Buddha would then answer them. But this time was different.
Shakyamuni Buddha spoke directly, directly to everyone, to Sariputra.
Why did he speak directly?
Because if he didn’t speak, his disciples below and all the heavenly beings would not know who Amitabha Buddha is.
Many disciples used to ask me, “Is Shakyamuni Buddha the same as Amitabha Buddha?”
Because many people don’t understand. Shakyamuni Buddha is Shakyamuni Buddha, and Amitabha Buddha is Amitabha Buddha. Sometimes you might ask elderly Buddhist women how many buddhas there are, and they’ll say one, because they only know Shakyamuni Buddha, so there is only one.
Actually, there are many many Buddhas.
Today, we recite Amitabha Buddha’s name, we recite 36 trillion. This sentence alone is enough to terrify us! After a long while, we think that we humans are the greatest, not realizing that Buddhas are more numerous and greater than us. In fact, humans shouldn’t constantly think that they are the greatest, in reality, humans are the most insignificant.
Compared to any other planet, Earth is tiny. If we compare our solar system and Earth to all other planets, we can see that the Earth we humans live on is very insignificant.
If we compare wealth, of course the Earth we now live on, we ourselves feel that it is big, maybe our Earth is very wealthy. We didn’t realize that those planets like the Sun, Uranus, Pluto, Mars, and Saturn, many planets are much bigger and more wealthy than us.
In the end Earth is just from a sneeze by the Sun, a tiny droplet that spurted out. So from the aspect of comparing wealth, like the house we live in, the place we live in is big means that we are wealthier. Actually Earthlings are the poorest.
The Buddha told the Elder Sariputra:
How far is hundreds of thousands of millions of buddha lands?
Even before reaching the West, there are already hundreds of thousands of millions of buddha lands. This shows that the Western Pure Land is very far!
In the past, Shakyamuni Buddha’s disciple who was Foremost in Supernatural Powers went to another buddha land to listen to dharma teachings.
Let’s say this Leizang Temple is for example a buddha land, and a buddha is currently expounding the dharma. Yanting is listening to the dharma teachings here, and a very small, gray mosquito is flying around in front of him.
Yanting thinks that the mosquito will sting him and tries to move it away or swat it dead.
This buddha tells Yanting not to swat it dead because this gray mosquito is Shakyamuni Buddha’s disciple, Maudgalyayana. He has manifested here from the Saha world with his supernatural powers to come to our buddha land to listen to dharma teachings.
You see, the people of this Saha world are as ugly as mosquitoes, and also so insignificant. The only thing frightening about them is when they open their mouths.
Think about it, the people of other buddha lands are so big. The people from our Saha world are so small. The universe is very great, it is not as small as what the human mind contains.
Now I say a simpler example, there’s an analogy for this. We humans, one country is fighting with another country. In the world, two powerful countries are waging war with each other, fighting a war. In the eyes of the Buddha, it’s like two germs fighting on the tiny area of a snail’s antenna. So, what does this fight between two germs on a snail’s antenna have to do with Shakyamuni Buddha?
Someone once came to me and said, “Lu Sheng Yen, you say there’s a Buddha, so why doesn’t the Buddha help me? You say there’s a Buddha, so why doesn’t the Buddha help us liberal countries? Why does the Buddha allow so many people to suffer death and injuries under bad regimes?”
Now, I ask you all instead, “Do you care about the war between germs? Do you care which germ wins?”
The Buddha sees sentient beings like germs fighting. This is a natural phenomenon. If you don’t cultivate yourself and become buddhas on your own, you’re just like those germs.
I told that person, “Only humans can save themselves, they cannot rely on others for salvation, nor can they rely on the Buddha to save them.”
This “Ultimate Bliss, ” these two words alone require extensive explanation.
Land of Bliss, generally speaking, is a world without suffering and afflictions, it is called Land of Bliss. Supreme level of happiness flavor. There is no happiness greater than this Ultimate happiness.
The happiness in human life, however, usually comes only after experiencing suffering. In Chinese, there is a saying that expresses this well, so-called being very happy is called “painful joy”.
“Oh, painful joy!”
Philosophers also say that the greatest joy can turn into sorrow, when happiness reaches its peak, it may turn into sadness. In this sense, suffering and happiness are intertwined. Suffering is happiness, and happiness is suffering, but in this land there is no suffering.
In this Pure Land, in this Ultimate Bliss Land, there is a buddha. His name is Amitabha. Amitabha has many other titles, including Immeasurable Light and Immeasurable Lifespan.
“Right now” is referring to the present moment, meaning currently “teaches the dharma.”
At that time, more than two thousand years ago, he was expounding the dharma.
But right now is he expounding the dharma?
Right now he is still expounding the dharma. But one also stops to drink tea when expounding the dharma.
Is he currently drinking tea or expounding the dharma?
I don’t know.
I think when the Buddha said Amitabha Buddha is expounding the dharma right now, he meant that he was expounding the dharma at that time. But on a broader level, it can also be understood that whenever a buddha is eating, sleeping, walking, or drinking tea, all of these activities are forms of teaching the dharma.
The Dharma talk now concludes! Just moments ago, the Buddha was giving teachings; now, it is time to rest.
Om Mani Padme Hum.