Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (214)

The World-Honored One's earnest guidance and exhortation to King Śuddhodana

Original text: 大王。应作是念。我当云何。于人天中。得为眼目。于长夜中。得为照明。于爱河中。得为船筏。于险难处。得为导师。无依怙者。为作主宰。自得度已。复能度他。自解脱已。令他解脱。自得安隐。令他安隐。自证涅槃。复令他证。大王。不应观彼。现在世间。所受富乐。五欲自在。诸根如幻。境界如梦。谓于色境。声香味触。心生贪着。无满足时。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, you should always harbor this thought in your mind: How may I become the eye of beings among humans and devas, serve as a great illumination for all beings in the long night of birth and death, and guide beings on their voyage; how may I serve as a boat and raft for beings amid the river of love in the birth and death of the three realms, pulling beings across the river of craving; how may I serve as a guide for beings in the perilous and difficult places of birth and death, leading them out of dangerous terrain; how may I serve as a protector for those who have no refuge, so that beings have something to entrust their hearts to; how may I first seek my own deliverance and then come to deliver others, first liberating myself and then going on to liberate others, first attaining peace and security myself and then bringing peace and security to others, first realizing nirvāṇa myself and then enabling others to realize it as well. Great King, you should not merely look at the wealth, happiness, and the free indulgence in the five desires that one now enjoys in this world; in truth, the six faculties are all like illusions, and all realms are like dreams. Do not let your mind give rise to craving and attachment toward forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangibles, never knowing contentment.

These words are the World-Honored One's earnest, heartfelt guidance and exhortation to King Śuddhodana, urging his father to bring forth the great bodhi mind, to make great vows, to attain deliverance from birth and death, to benefit himself and benefit others, and to realize the great nirvāṇa soon. He was encouraged to vow to become the eye of humans and devas, guiding them toward liberation. Sentient beings have not yet opened their eyes and remain deluded and disoriented in the cycle of birth and death. If they can receive guidance, they will never again be deluded and disoriented; from then on they will walk out of the wrong path of false views and move toward the light. When can a bodhisattva who makes this vow actually accomplish this? One capable of serving as the eye of humans and devas must at the very least be a bodhisattva who has attained the first bhūmi. A first-bhūmi bodhisattva can serve as a teacher of humans and devas—a guide among humans and a guide among devas—leading sentient beings along the path to buddhahood. A teacher of humans and devas is the eye of sentient beings. When a bodhisattva attains the first bhūmi and enters the Tathāgata's family, he has already gained an initial thorough understanding of the Buddha's teachings. Only by thoroughly understanding the Buddha's teachings can one lead sentient beings in cultivation and serve as the eye of sentient beings.