CHAPTER I: BUDDHISM WITH SCIENCE
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2. WHAT ARE THE FIVE WAYS OF SEEING THROUGH THE BUDDHISTIC ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE?
The first way of seeing is through the physical eye. The physical eye has the same function for all ordinary people with sight, and is not outside of the specific form.
The Physical Eye
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The Dharma Eye
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The second way of seeing is with the Dharma eye. The Dharma eye’s sight is vast and boundless. It embraces all of the species and things in the Universe, including mountains, rivers, and continents, and all of these pertain to the specific form and belong to thousands of Dharmas’ metamorphoses. As for the aspects of thought (fixed thought, reflective thought, directed thought, etc.), they are called specific substances and are all thousands of Dharmas. Thousands of Dharmas affect every person. What is perceived through hearing, seeing, and knowing are also thousands of Dharmas. In this regard, a single substance can be transformed into thousands and thousands of end substances; from endless space to thousands of accomplished forms, all of these belong to thousands of Dharmas. This is the reason for Buddhism saying, “One essence is metamorphosed into thousands of Dharmas.”
As an example: One kind of flour could be made into thousands and thousands of different types of bread or cake. Their shapes, additional ingredients, and tastes are all different, but their substance is still flour. Humans and the Universe are not outside of the essential substance. The essential substance is transformed into mountains, rivers, and continents, and all the things in the Universe. All of these are called Dharma.
Humans in general use the physical eye to observe. Buddhism utilizes the Dharma eye to become acutely aware. For this reason, every limited thing, every object, every gesture, and every movement cannot be fully understood by the physical eye. On the contrary, the Dharma eye fully perceives it. The physical eye can only see the surface, whereas the Dharma eye can see the core. The physical eye sees a cake by its shape. Therefore, study and experimentation are needed to know the ingredients and the method of baking if one has never encountered this type of cake before. In other words, a person who can make thousands of different cakes with physical eyes has already learned about every one of them. In contrast, a person with Dharma eyes just has to look and know clearly and thoroughly without experimentation.
Buddhism relies solely on essential substance to release the thoughts of specific substances and to be self-aware of thousands of Dharmas. Owing to releasing thoughts—from reflective thoughts, fixed thoughts to often dreamy thoughts and false expectations—the conclusion is reached that all previous elements give rise to unpractical life and acts. Thus, how can one obtain thorough knowledge?
When one acquires Dharma eyes, one perceives the true form of reality. First, it is a look at other people’s thoughts. Later, it is an examination of our own thoughts, seeing if the polluted bad thinking habits of specific substances still exist and what they are like? What are our own actions? Do our words and actions match? If yes, why do they match? If not, then why not? What are our predetermined habits? What are our polluted habits? How are these habits polluted? If the answers to these questions are transparent, one will thoroughly know the movements of thousands of Dharmas and completely understand the movements of the unstable mind and how it is initiated in all people. At this point, there is no need to closely examine the specific form or fabricate theory in the mind, one still fully understands the reasons and facts about the generated minds of human beings as well as other species —In particular, this person or that person from their actions to their thoughts, later if they have passed away, an understanding of where they will be delivered, which is a real reward or retribution, based upon the merit accumulated throughout their lifetime of thinking and acting.
The one who can truly see with Dharma eyes is the one who has performed the conduct, vow, and practice sincerely. His or her thoughts are clear of preserving individuality, thought, and karma—that is, embracing the ego. This one understands the motion of thousands of Dharmas with a mind that is not entangled, obstructed, or involved with anger and resentment in the place of hatred or love. His or her nature is impartial, yet inclined to help others and save unhappy people. Seeing with Dharma eyes means leaving the greedy mind and its unreal reputations. One’s mind is not being attracted by expectations and desires for wealth, nor is it immersed in the specific form; thus, he or she possesses the Dharma eyes. If someone is aware of thousands of Dharmas and yet his or her mind is still immersed in thousands of Dharmas, he or she is not attested as having the Dharma eye. This is important to remember.
The Divine Eye
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The complete Dharma eye immediately attests to the Divine eye. The vision of the Divine eye is that of the third level. It is a comprehensive way of seeing the Universe and Devas as well as the Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds.[3] The one with Divine eyes is clearly aware of which nature seeds of specific substance thoughts took root to become the formation of the worlds and precept scenes without error. Those with the Divine eyes can see the acts and way of king-life of Devas as clearly as seeing a sweetsop (sugar apple) that is sitting in front of them. With this knowledge, the mind does not desire to become a Deva or Fairy. Why? The answer is that Devas and Fairies are not outside of thousands of Dharmas. Ordinary people build their living worlds in specific forms, while Devas and Fairies create fine forms as a residence for Fairies and Deities. This Universe houses thousands of precept scenes and worlds. Each precept scene and each world is administered by a species. Each precept scene establishes its main characteristic as its main nature. For example:
This solar system is inhabited and administered by humans and houses many different species that coexist in the Earth. Together, they take Earth as their main nature and are influenced by the Earth’s nature. All of the materials for living are supplied by the Earth.
There are eighteen precept-scenes that make up the Heaven’s world. They adopt the fine substance of fire as their main nature, nobility, generosity and administration as precepts, authority as law, and indulgent luxury as a way of living.
Outside of the Heaven’s world is the Fairy Plane, which is made of three levels: Divine Fairies, Plane Fairies, and Earth Fairies. They use fine substance as their main nature, precept scenes to establish precepts, supernatural powers as law, and nobility and tolerance as a way of living.
There are countless precept scenes and regions, including those of Hungry Ghosts, Animals, and Hell, which hold starvation, lust, and austerity as their main natures. Because these three ways specialize in killing and lust’s Tao, they use killing along with lust’s Tao as their mind.
Each precept scene or world houses millions and millions of Divine species and Fairy species. Their levels of consciousness are different, but they are divided into classes that are not different from humankind on Earth. The living standard and way of life is uniform on each world, but different from that of every other world. This is the same as for people living in different countries or regions. Each country has its own customs and living standards; regardless, the Earth houses all human beings.
[3] There are countless living species in our world, each having its own way of living in an appropriate environment called a sub-world. One thousand sub-worlds form a small thousand worlds. One thousand small thousand worlds form a middle thousand worlds. One thousand middle thousand worlds form a great thousand worlds. Here, the Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds means: that Great Thousand Worlds are formed by the Three Thousand—small thousand, middle thousand and great thousand worlds. Inside our globe, there are Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds, and outside is the immense Universe, with countless other Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds.
—Explained by Di Như Bodhisattva Mahasattva in the Lord Maitreya and Long-Hoa sutra
The fourth way of seeing is with the Supernatural Result eye.[4] The Supernatural Result eye is generated from the essential substance. It functions as a spotlight. How so? It embraces the three previous ways of seeing. As its nature and essence are impartial, all human beings and animals are born with it; however, each species has different capabilities and different ways of gaining knowledge. When a person sees and reflectively thinks to gain knowledge, it is called intellectual knowledge. What people acquire through teachings is also called intellectual knowledge. What people acquire through research and experimentation to expand their understanding is known as contemplative knowledge. What a person knows instinctively is called contemplative intelligence. Comprehensive learning through many progressive consciousnesses is called awake intelligence. The awake-intelligent person knows how to light up every place, immediately allowing him or her to develop what is called seeing knowledge.
The Supernatural Result Eye
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Supernatural Result eyes are all-embracing. The person who is not heavily greedy in the specific form or individuality can acquire Supernatural Result easily. From the human world’s viewpoint, each person develops Supernatural Result in proportion to his or her level of consciousness and capability. Since individuals vary in the ability to gain Supernatural Result, some are viewed as intelligent, and some are not. The truth is that we all have the essential substance within ourselves. Because of too many illusory thoughts of specific substances, ignorance is created, obscuring Supernatural Result eyes. This is why Tao practitioners should cultivate through many levels to ultimately acquire Supernatural Result eyes. The ones who do not recognize the self-enlightenment of the Supernatural Result eye and use their own passive knowledge to see clearly, only see and know the specific substance and specific form.
The majority of educated intellectuals do not believe something simply from hearing it. They only believe something when it is shown to them. Due to this, their belief belongs to the belief of the specific form. The specific form usually relates to illusion rather than the self-confidence of the essential substance. When the believer practices and gains the essential substance belief, belief in specific substances and specific forms is eliminated. This results in gaining seeing and knowing. Science is highly based in the specific forms and the specific substances’ thoughts, so scientists find it difficult to realize the essential substance.
[4] This Result is attained through the process of Precept-Contemplation-Result.
The fifth way of seeing is through the Buddha eye. The Buddha eye is all-embracing and impartial. No one is able to perceive it, except the Buddhas, and thus there is no discussion about it.
When we speak of science, we think of it as a whole. Science is divided into many branches. Each branch includes specialists who research and experiment in their own fields. For instance, in scientific medicine, each doctor specializes in his or her own field. This is why a scientist’s knowledge is limited to a certain field of study. This situation is like how one kind of flour could make a hundred different cakes or breads and how different shops specialize in each kind of cake or bread.
As far as Buddhism is concerned, true Tao practitioners learn to self-subdue uncontrollable characteristics and self-pride, aiming to acquire natural characteristics to release intrigued, wishful thoughts, which are polluted specific substances that have been inherited in their bodies and minds. They tend to re-evaluate their thoughts in order to be more aware of them. When the awareness is clear, they begin to absorb the essential substance. The process of cultivating essential substance is the most important one in Buddhism. When this process is completed, which means that the essential substance is completely absorbed, true enlightenment is achieved. This is similar to the process of cleaning a pearl that is accidentally coated with dirty substances, oil, and other substances, which are dimming its illumination.
In examining Buddhism from the outside, one might see Buddhism as passive or as simply an exercise in controlled mind. Someone with this perception does not understand Buddhism at all. As one steps deeply inside of Buddhism, one admits that Buddhism is extremely active. True Buddhist practitioners are willing to forgo and control their own desires, to release selfish personal ambitions. They are willing to bear hardships without harming others. They dare to advise the wicked and actively encourage others toward good deeds to form a Tranquility-for-Salvation for humanity to escape the dead end they are about to stumble upon, as long as the essential substance is restored.
As far as simply controlling the mind process, Buddhism does not emphasize mind only. Nor does it consist solely of physical practice. Buddhism usually exhorts: “You should vow and truly fulfill your own vow in order to be completely enlightened; not because of your work, being immersed in what you are doing.” Imagine a person who is trying to level a mountain. If this person tries to rely on physical strength alone to do it, it will be a very difficult task. A person must utilize his or her intelligence. With intelligence, one can accomplish any work. If you desire to eliminate ignorance, you should utilize effort to understand ignorance. If you only use effort without an understanding of ignorance, the harder you try, the greater your ignorance becomes. The fact is that Buddhism also utilizes physical works in order to be clearly aware, but this is not the same as being immersed in physical practice.
The practice of solely relying on mind is related to fanaticism. Buddhism fully understands this and says, “On account of the illusory, unsettled mind, humans are immersed in illusory reputation. As the mind entertains wishful thoughts, humans become greedy, dishonest, and evil. The mind is the horse that carries the specific substances of our usual thoughts, which are trapping humanity. However, humans are closely attached to the mind and therefore subject themselves to the birth and death karma.”
Buddhism aims at conquering and controlling the mind until the Essence of Mind is obtained, that is, the mind is completely managed, the mind’s behavior is fully realized. That is called clear mind. Once clear mind is acquired completely, it should be thrown away in order for a Buddhist practitioner to become smooth and to reach full enlightenment, which is called without mind. So, does Buddhism exclusively specialize in mind?
Buddhism is a self-strengthening religion that emphasizes correcting oneself and practicing the body and mind to become a recording apparatus to communicate and exchange with the Universe to solve the birth and death problem. From the vantage point of the physical eye, vison itself, as well as seeing places and things, is passive seeing. Passive seeing never truly sees. It should, therefore, release each covered thought, each layer of color, to create a pair of eyes that surpasses the passive seeing to actively and actually see. This is known as the Dharma eye. Once the Dharma eye is obtained, the sacrifice is much greater than before; from the inner mind to the outer world, there is no entanglement, smooth, and no taking up the karma of thousands of Dharmas. This leads to acquiring Divine eyes. Seeing with Divine eyes, knowing that the precept scenes and worlds are created by fixed thoughts’ karma seeds; fine Dharmas of specific forms are formed by filtered thoughts of specific substances. This is not very different from humanity. It still has longevity, but when the limit is reached, it decays and passes. The attainment of Divine eyes includes the true understanding through Dharma eyes, rather its seeing and knowing is a hundred times greater than that of Dharma eyes. The person with Divine eyes is fully aware that his or her seeing and knowing is nonetheless limited. Therefore, this person is not entangled with dreamy, confused, and insane thoughts and thus truly acquires the Supernatural Result’s eye. Supernatural Result’s eyes clearly see and know the fact and reason for transmigration of each living being in each life in the Human realm, the Divine realm, the Fairy realm, the Animal realm, the Hungry Ghost realm, and Hell. This becomes as clear as examining one’s own hand and seeing all the small lines and wrinkles in the palm as well as the hand itself.
It is a unique situation when Buddhism talks about science in our day. These words are bright and confirming statements, recapitulating the complete attestation of the three generations of Buddhas, which is handed down to increase human knowledge or to pave the way to liberation through knowing, seeing, and solving of humanity in the current and future generations.
In terms of the knowledge of Buddhism—from seeing, hearing, knowing, to the five ways of seeing mentioned above, for the one who has completely acquired the essential substance, one never speaks falsely. This is a noteworthy statement. Now, let’s listen to the words of the Meditation Master.
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