A Brief Explanation of the Mahāyāna Ten Dharmas Sūtra

The Buddha said that bodhisattvas who delight in the Buddha's Dharma should respectfully make offerings to good spiritual teachers; for the sake of hearing the Dharma, obtaining the Dharma, and seeking the Dharma, they should endure the various afflictions and unsatisfactory circumstances of the world; for the sake of accomplishing the Buddha Way, they should make great vows, practicing what is difficult to practice, enduring what is difficult to endure, never resting or ceasing until they reach the stage of Buddhahood—this is the conduct of bodhisattvas. 

The Buddha said: how should bodhisattvas practice in accordance with the Dharma? Bodhisattvas contemplate the five aggregates of clinging—the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of volitional formations, and the aggregate of consciousness—and see that they are impermanent, suffering, empty, and not self. Although they contemplate and think in this way, they do not become weary of the five aggregates of clinging as the arhats do. Arhats practice only wishing to extinguish suffering, attain liberation, and leave the three realms; they do not wish to accomplish the Buddha Way, their compassionate minds are thin, they ignore the suffering of birth and death of sentient beings, and they do not wish to benefit and bring joy to sentient beings in this world. Bodhisattvas are not like this: bodhisattvas have vast minds and great compassion, pity sentient beings, and make vows that throughout the long course of cultivation over countless kalpas they will extensively deliver immeasurable multitudes and then attain the fruit of Buddhahood. 

In that case, bodhisattvas cannot abandon the five aggregates of clinging and extinguish themselves into parinirvāṇa; rather, they must retain the five aggregates of clinging life after life, using these five aggregates to benefit themselves and others. The Buddha said that bodhisattvas must not only use the five aggregates of clinging but must skillfully utilize the five aggregates—skillfully employing, holding, and cultivating them. Arhats fear the five aggregates, believing that possessing them brings suffering; bodhisattvas understand that the substance of the five aggregates is originally the tathāgatagarbha, and thus no longer fear the world of the five aggregates, because the five aggregates are illusory, conjured forth by the tathāgatagarbha; as long as one does not generate inverted views toward the five aggregates and does not cling to the five aggregates of clinging, there will be no suffering. 

The Buddha further explained how bodhisattvas contemplate the five aggregates of clinging as suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self, yet do not become weary of them. The Buddha used analogies to illustrate that bodhisattvas should have wisdom and should not reject the body of the five aggregates. For example, a wise person sells poisonous substances, packages them well, but does not consume the poison himself. Or, for example, someone makes offerings to the fire deity: after making the offering, although he reverently praises it, he does not touch the fire with his hand, lest he be burned and suffer anguish. Bodhisattvas are likewise: although their minds turn toward nirvāṇa and accord with nirvāṇa, they do not realize or enter nirvāṇa. Because once one enters nirvāṇa, one can never again have the five aggregates of clinging to study the Buddha's Dharma, extensively benefit sentient beings, and accomplish the Buddha Way—thus one would regress from bodhi, a great loss! Although bodhisattvas do not realize nirvāṇa, their minds are without afflictions and are not defiled by worldly afflictions; such bodhisattvas are most worthy of respect. 

The Buddha spoke verses in praise of the great bodhisattvas. First, bodhisattvas have great wisdom, possessing the prajñā wisdom of the patience with non-arising and the wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas of the vast and profound Consciousness-Only teachings. Second, bodhisattvas have fearlessness, not fearing birth and death, extensively delivering immeasurable multitudes in the long river of birth and death within the three realms. Furthermore, bodhisattvas have the wisdom eye and the Dharma eye, with pure wisdom. Such bodhisattvas are great bodhisattvas of the first bhūmi and above, endowed with the wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas, having entered the family of all Buddhas, being the true sons of the Buddha, able to share the family enterprise on behalf of the Buddha, possessing skillful means to deliver sentient beings and supremely wondrous wisdom; their vast renown surpasses that of the two vehicles of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. 

Such bodhisattvas truly understand the nature of the five aggregates of clinging as suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self, understand the nature of arising, ceasing, and transmigration of the deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses, and know that the self is illusory and unreal. Even so, they cannot bear to enter parinirvāṇa; seeing that sentient beings in the world remain long in birth and death and yearn for liberation, for the sake of sentient beings they do not realize nirvāṇa and do not abide in the unconditioned state of nirvāṇa, because that would be of no benefit to sentient beings. Regarding conceit, the Buddha said that bodhisattva-mahāsattvas have already departed from all forms of conceit, their minds are compassionate and sympathetic, and they constantly keep sentient beings in mind. They constantly move about in the world, living by alms-begging, proclaiming Dharma teachings that can benefit all sentient beings.

In the forty-nine years of the World-Honored One's teaching of the Dharma, He spoke many words of secret meaning which sentient beings do not understand; they only understand and accept them according to their surface meaning, and thus it is very difficult to rely on the meaning rather than the words. The following are some of the World-Honored One's words of secret meaning, unknown to sentient beings. 

(1) The Tathāgata predicted that śrāvakas would attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, but it is not as literally stated. The reason for such predictions is that śrāvakas also have the buddha-nature, the potential to become Buddhas, and thus can also become Buddhas. Moreover, the śrāvakas whom the Tathāgata predicted are either bodhisattvas practicing in secret or śrāvakas who will in the future turn to the bodhisattva path; they temporarily practice the śrāvaka path of liberation, eradicating afflictions, and when their Mahāyāna roots of goodness mature, they will practice the bodhisattva's six pāramitās and myriad practices, cultivating the prajñā and Consciousness-Only wisdom, whereby they will in the future accomplish the Buddha Way. 

(2) The World-Honored One told Ānanda many times that He suffered from back pain, but it is not as literally stated. The Buddha said this out of pity for sentient beings; He did not truly have illness or pain. Because His disciples, when ill, were unwilling to take medicine, which obstructed their cultivation of the Way, the Buddha took the lead in using medicine to treat illness. Seeing that even the Buddha used medicine, the disciples, when ill, no longer felt ashamed and also used medicine for treatment. 

(3) The Buddha said He was old and frail and needed an attendant, but it is not as literally stated. The Buddha never grows old and never becomes frail; He manifested this for the sake of sentient beings. 

(4) The Tathāgata debated with the non-Buddhists, but it is not as literally stated. The Buddha no longer had any adversaries; it was a deliberate manifestation. Thus, when disciples encounter adversaries, they will say: "Even the Buddha was like this, let alone us," and when they encounter adverse conditions thereafter, they will not feel deeply ashamed. 

(5) A poisonous thorn injured His foot, manifesting the receiving of karmic retribution, but no such thing actually occurred. The Buddha had long been free of the retribution of evil karma; out of pity for ignorant sentient beings who create karmic actions, He manifested the receiving of karmic retribution. Seeing that even the Buddha received karmic retribution, sentient beings think, "How much more so for us," and thus dare not create karma. 

(6) Devadatta made himself an enemy of the Buddha, but it is not as literally stated. Devadatta had been the Buddha's good spiritual teacher for many lifetimes; he manifested opposition to the Buddha everywhere, in order to gloriously display the Buddha's virtues. Seeing the Buddha's virtuous conduct, sentient beings feel boundless reverence and take refuge in the Three Jewels one after another, following the Buddha in study and practice. 

(7) The Tathāgata went out begging for food with an empty bowl, but it is not as literally stated. The Buddha's merit is immeasurable; He could do without food and drink, and even if He ate, He could transform food Himself; and even if He did not transform it Himself, there are immeasurable sentient beings in the worlds of the ten directions who would make offerings to the Buddha. The Buddha manifested in this way so that those meager-merit (alpa-puṇya) disciples who could not obtain alms, comparing themselves with the Buddha, would not feel inferior, ashamed, worried, or distressed. 

(8) A woman placed a wooden basin against her belly and slandered the Buddha, but it is not as literally stated. This woman was a manifestation; no such thing actually occurred. The Buddha made this manifestation in order to comfort disciples of later generations. When disciples are slandered, they will think: "Even the Buddha was slandered, let alone us," and thus their minds will not regress from the Way. 

(9) The Buddha ate horse barley for three months, but it is not as literally stated. The Buddha manifested this in order to deliver five hundred horses. The head of the horses, through the power of his vows, was also born into the body of a horse, skillfully delivering the five hundred horses, and the Buddha assisted in delivering them. Therefore, sentient beings should form good karmic connections with good spiritual teachers; when they descend into evil destinies to receive retribution, good spiritual teachers will go into the evil destinies to deliver them—how fortunate it is to encounter a good spiritual teacher. With the Buddha's merit, whatever He ate was the supreme flavor, let alone horse barley. By eating horse barley for three months, the Buddha not only delivered the five hundred horses but also delivered several hundred bhikṣus. Therefore, in studying the Dharma we should rely on the true meaning of the Tathāgata, not on the surface meaning of the Tathāgata's words; rely on the Dharma, not on persons; rely on definitive sūtras, not on non-definitive sūtras; rely on wisdom, not on consciousness. There are altogether four reliances and four non-reliances, which we should diligently study and practice.