Everyone Has a Wonderful Dharma Lotus Blossom Sutra in Their Heart

To truly read a sutra—the Lotus Sutra—you read a sutra as something multidimensional; it is not an appearance, not an appearance of black letters on white paper. When you read the classics, the best way to read a sutra is to realize and enter it. In other words, everyone has a Lotus Sutra in their heart; it is your self-nature. This is the sutra’s teaching: once you awaken to this teaching, you have gained the entire sutra. This is what it means to gain the sutra.

Everyone has a Lotus Sutra in their heart, and everyone has a Buddha of Nirvana. Because your mind already neither arises nor ceases—you have always been this way—everyone has a Buddha of Nirvana, a stupa, and a Lotus Sutra. (Can you surge up from the earth through your own spiritual powers and vows?) Because you are a Buddha of Nirvana, you too surge up from the earth to hear the Lotus Sutra. Spiritual powers and vows: first make the vow, and they will surge up.

Finding your source is the same as finding your own refuge and support. Your parents are right here—the richest parents in the whole universe are in your own heart. This is like the poor child: you have wandered outside for thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of millions of years, and it turns out your father and mother are so, so rich. That father and mother are your original Buddha-nature; that is your ultimate refuge.

So we must return; that is your support. Only by returning there can you feel complete love and warmth, feel satisfied, become complete, and see that the moon has no waxing and waning, and people have no sorrow and joy, meeting and parting. Only then can you experience this statement, feel this state, and feel that everything is complete, everything once again so pure.

In this world, you are complete, but you cling to appearances, so within completeness there are purity and defilement, beauty and ugliness. Although it is complete too, within this complete Buddha of yours there is everything, including the Six Paths of Rebirth. Buddha is very pure. Therefore, attain Fruition; cultivate and realize.

Actually, sometimes, if we truly believe in Buddha and believe what Buddha says, we could spend our whole lives in cultivation and realization, and it would not be excessive. You give one lifetime; after so many lifetimes, (what does it matter to spend one lifetime?) Throw yourself into it—use one lifetime to attain enlightenment.

We are even unwilling to give up one or two years now, because we have not had enough fun and want to have fun. Actually, the things we play at are just what we play every day: playing from childhood to adulthood, playing all the way to death. We never stop; sometimes it feels impossible to stop.

But, (Stopping does not mean making you give anything up. Has your mind stopped?) (Has your mind heard the Dharma?) Having heard it, (does it truly believe what the Buddha says?) (Does your mind long to return?)

It is not asking you to give up the things of this world; it is not asking you to give them up. (Has your mind come to a stop?) (Have you stopped to reflect?) (Where are we going?) (What am I doing every day?) (Do we really know that there are many lifetimes?) (Where did we come from?) (Where are we going?) (Is death about to arrive?) (Do we have another twenty or thirty years to live?)

Everyone knows our future. Even if we live another thirty or forty years, we are already middle-aged; assuming a hundred-year lifespan, we have another forty or fifty years. Everyone knows—and our lives are not exactly great: you are old and sick; when you get old, your muscles and joints hurt all over. (Can you really be better than you are now?) At the very least, by the end of life, the body is not as good as it is now. (And will your state of mind be better than it is now?) Even if you have wealth, even if you have everything, (will your mind be happier than it is now?) (Will your experiences and sensations be better than they are now?)

And we let one day, then another and another, pass like this. In the end, we know for certain that we will die; everyone knows this. We live like this without a single awakening. We do not awaken—we just keep talking and talking, without knowing how to awaken. We do not know how to say, “Wow, I have awakened; this is how I spent these decades in this world.” We look for our value, our self’s value, within it.

We do not even know who we are; (how can you express your value?) Nothing satisfies you. In fame, wealth, emotion, and desire, you may obtain everything, but whoever reaches the highest point must be extremely lonely. Become president, and you are very lonely. Own wealth—(how much would you consider enough?) Those who seek value and achievement amid these worldly desires: through all their suffering and pleasure, (have they found it?)

(Why can’t they find it?) He is simply continually experiencing, in that process, the pleasure of felt experience and struggle. So successful people say that success is not in that final bit; it is in the process. Because there is nothing—no Attainment. No Attainment: in the end, when he attains everything, his mind is exactly the same as when he had attained nothing. No Attainment means that in this process there is a sense of achievement, a feeling of something—because there is a sense of achievement in this process.

We live in this delusion, unwilling to give up, unwilling to give up even a little desire or Habitual Tendency; some people do not even have a sense of achievement, yet are unwilling to awaken. Our lives—seventy or eighty years—actually become this. Just to satisfy some small Habitual Tendencies and Desires of our own, these decades pass. And we could have used these decades to attain perfect and unsurpassed awakening, return to the source of our self-nature, the deepest mystery of life, the source. Return to the source of life.

There is nothing wrong with it; having fun is quite enjoyable—just playing every day, repeating the same thing every day. Repeating the same thing without getting tired of it—that puzzles me.

Therefore, those of us who cultivate and realize the Buddha-Dharma, you must often step outside this lifetime and look at it; you must often cultivate this perspective. Do not see yourself merely as one life, one lifetime. Then your view is very short, and you are being pulled along by the things of this world—by your Habitual Tendencies and Desires, by ego-clinging.

You must often step out and look at your lifetime, because someone else’s lifetime is your lifetime; everyone is the same. From the person with the highest attainment to the lowest beggar, you can see the whole lifetime of the person you consider the lowest. The universe stages these every day. One lifetime, one lifetime, one lifetime—everyone’s lifetime disappears before you; they all perform television dramas for you, and you watch every day. Once you have watched other people’s, you see there is not much difference from yours.

So keep stepping out and looking: (Will I live like him?) (Will I live like her?) Maybe I will be like him. There is always something, and always some person, who may be like you, roughly speaking; the plot is roughly the same, the felt experience roughly the same. Only the people you meet differ, and the appearances differ; the rest is the same. The plot is still sorrow and joy, meeting and parting; the felt experience is still sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy. (What could there be?)

(After seeing other people’s, do you still think you have to act out that television drama in that way?) (Are you going to awaken all at once and say, “I am going to act in another television drama”?) Go cultivate; attain enlightenment.

At that time, you will know that when you attain enlightenment and return to the source, that is the time of the Buddha’s perfect and equal awakening; everything is clear. Only then are you truly satisfied and complete. Otherwise, there is no meaning. No matter which end you rush toward, there is no meaning. There is only returning.

Truly, the illustrious figures of the ages are washed away by the great waves. All illustrious figures are reduced to nothing but names in a history book. If our lives are lived this way, only for our own Habitual Tendencies and Desires, we live lives so small they are not worth mentioning. Even if you are an illustrious figure, you too are washed away by the great waves and carried eastward. (What is there?) No Attainment. When you die, you do not even know how you died or when you died. A lifetime simply passes like this.

Therefore, those who have heard the Lotus Sutra should reflect on their lives, because this is the highest teaching in Buddhism. When the highest teaching enters your mind, you should reflect on your life. For this highest teaching, to reach this goal—this is your ultimate goal. Everyone ultimately returns; everyone must awaken; there will always be some encountered condition that awakens you.

On this journey, our time is limited; we have only a few decades. In these decades, once we choose to walk this road, we cannot walk the other roads. Because your time and energy are limited, once you do this, you cannot do the others. This choice is a little cruel.

But on this road, everything is done around your attainment. For the purpose of attaining enlightenment, nothing is absolutely right or wrong. But whether you choose to give something up or take it up is only because it obstructs the Path; if it does, give it up. If it does not obstruct the Path, take it up—it is fine; settle karmic ties.

If it has a great effect on your nature of mind, if your mind has stuck to it and become attached, let it go. Or, within these things, experience your gains and losses, the gains and losses of appearances, the feeling of gain and loss, and break this attachment to appearances.

But most important, first make a vow: vow to attain Fruition in this life, or to attain perfect and unsurpassed awakening: “I must attain it.” You have this vow, and then you have motivation. In the process of attaining it, you must walk the Bodhisattva Path, because without the Bodhisattva Path you cannot break the self; ego-clinging is the greatest defilement.

Therefore, arouse the mind of awakening; benefit others—benefiting others breaks the self. Because we never forget ourselves, every thought is self-centered: “I, mine; I, mine; I am very unhappy; I am so bothered today; it hurts here; it itches there. My child, my parents, my…” So, (When you never forget the self, you can only arouse the mind of awakening and walk the Bodhisattva Path; otherwise, how can you return to the source?)

The mind of awakening is the mind of the Bodhisattva. Simply put, the mind of awakening is the Bodhisattva’s mind of benefiting others. That is what a Bodhisattva is. (If you do not become a Bodhisattva, how will you realize Buddhahood?) Then first become a Bodhisattva. To become a Bodhisattva, you must arouse the mind of awakening and practice the Six Perfections; it is that simple. The purpose is to let us attain realization, return to the source, and attain the Fruition of perfect and unsurpassed awakening.

In our limited time, choice is extremely important. (What do you choose to do?) (Where do you choose to put your time and life?) It is extremely, extremely important.

(If you do not attain realization in this life, are you planning to wait for the next life?) (Are you preparing for a next life?) (Are you not preparing to attain realization in this life?) You have heard that realizing Buddhahood is very far away; you have heard that it is very difficult. So you plan to cultivate over many lifetimes, and spend the second half of this life having fun first, thinking there is still time. No—I am telling you. First make the vow to attain it in this life.

Because after you hear the Lotus Sutra, you may think: since the Lotus Sutra speaks of so much merit, perhaps you have already done a great deal over many lifetimes; perhaps this is the final lifetime. If you still do not turn back to the shore and arouse your aspiration, you will truly miss this final lifetime. Then wait for the next life, the life after that, and the life after that. The next time you hear the Lotus Sutra, (who knows when that will be?) Perhaps a Lotus Sutra in black letters on white paper will be placed before you, but you will not gain it.

Therefore, I hope you cherish the causes and conditions and the opportunities for cultivating the Path. You can come; you can choose not to practice sitting meditation; no problem. (But where is your mind?) This is very important. (Where is your mind?) (Does your mind long for cultivation and realization?) Every day, sitting there, (does your mind long for cultivation and realization?) (Where is your mind?) It is not about saying, “I did not sit in meditation today; I played chess, or something else, or went out to have fun,” but (where is your mind?)

Then the highest view must not be lost. You are everywhere; you are Buddha, Tathāgata; you are everywhere. The three-thousand great-thousandfold world is right here within you. There is no gain or loss, because you are complete in everything. Everything is complete: gain is you, loss is you; what is lost and what is gained are all matters within this. The appearances of gain and loss all arise within this; you are that thing; gain and loss are all within it, all an attachment of your mind.

All transformations of the Dharma Realm take place within you. Without this thing called you, there is no transformation. They are all transformations of your emptiness—the Dharma Realm. All causes and effects and all cycles of samsara take place within you. If you cling to appearances, you follow them in; if you do not cling to appearances, you are Buddha.

So when you cling to appearances, the Dharma Realm is samsara; the Dharma Realm is moving; Buddha is moving, arising and ceasing. Yet within this arising and ceasing there is complete Buddha-nature. Do not think Buddha-nature is unmoving; do not cling to the appearance of unmoving. This is a matter of cultivation and realization. When everyone cultivates to some point, we will talk again. Because you have not realized it yet, some concepts have not been explained; there is no use explaining them in advance.

So first be aware yet unmoving, and only then is there no appearance of unmoving. (Where is there an unmoving Buddha waiting for you?) Neither arising nor ceasing is not the same as being unmoving. So, in Saha, you will see the Land of Ultimate Bliss; only then is this possible. If the state of neither arising nor ceasing were an unmoving appearance, (how could you see it in Saha?)

Ultimately, I am telling you, what turns when you finally attain enlightenment is just one thought of yours. The deluded are sentient beings; the awakened are Buddha; the enlightened are Buddha. It is just one thought—one turn, and you are through. Therefore, the highest insight is extremely important: you are always playing games in your mind, cultivating and realizing.

(So why, by the end, has Buddhism extended into so many schools and become philosophical speculation?) The classics have become more numerous and more complex. Consciousness-Only has so many concepts. In fact, it is simply your mind playing games. You have too many games. In your mind, everything in the Dharma Realm is there: the thoughts of sentient beings in the Six Paths, everything—all of it is here. You are the substance of the Dharma Realm.

If you are attached, there is no end. If you cling to appearances, you can go on through lifetime after lifetime, for several hundred billion years, several hundred billion years, several hundred billion years—truly grinding the earth into motes of dust. The Buddhist scriptures often say, as a metaphor, to grind some planet into motes of dust, then take those motes one by one, walk for however long, and throw one away. No matter how many you count, you still cannot break all appearances, because there are too many appearances in your mind.

In the end, you must awaken to the fact that all appearances are empty appearances; you must awaken to this. If you cannot awaken to this, if you cling to appearances, you have no hope in this life; you will never attain the Fruition of Buddhahood. You cannot break them all. (You think that if you do not cling to women and become a monastic, that is it?) That is merely the appearance of women. Your appearances are boundless; distinction and attachment are boundless. That is why the Lotus Sutra is so important.

Actually, once you have read the Lotus Sutra and truly understood its contents, you have basically understood the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, and the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment as well.

Sometimes we may awaken for a moment—suddenly awaken: “Wow, I do not have much time in this world.” (Have you ever had this kind of alertness?) With my limited time, I choose the best, the highest. And when you have this ability—(when you have such causes and conditions for cultivation and realization, and have this ability, why not study the best?) With limited time, (what one thing will I complete?) (What one thing will I do?) Use your limited time.

Now Buddha says, everyone who hears the Lotus Sutra can be assured of realizing Buddhahood. But there is no guarantee for the other things. In the next few decades, you may not become a billionaire; you may not. You may not become a high official. Buddha did not say you could become a high official, nor did he give a prediction that hearing the Lotus Sutra would make you something or let you earn several hundred million. He only said you could attain realization. He gave you a prediction. So we do things that are guaranteed; we do not do things that are not guaranteed. (Do you understand?) Buddha has guaranteed it for us—do something that is guaranteed.

Actually, cultivation does not cost any of us much money: eat cabbage and radishes, really, sleep on half a bed; it truly does not cost much. As for supporting your family and saving money for your children, (how do you know what those children need?) Perhaps that child practices better than you do.

They practice fasting and do not eat, while you still eat three meals and have to spend money. They do not even eat, I am telling you. If you attain Buddhahood, he will surely attain it too, I am telling you; he will surely not even eat. They sleep on the floor and do not even need a bed. (How will you spend all that money?)

What I mean is not that I am telling everyone not to be wealthy, because sometimes having money is a kind of satisfaction. But most important, (how much should you earn?) Then, when you have it, (where should you use it?)

When you have several hundred million, I believe in everyone’s abilities. In this world, over the next few decades, you may all become wealthy, you may all become high officials. Because this world is wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep. Anyway, with your talents, you may all be quite capable out there…

When you have several hundred million, if you cultivate, you will not need much money either. The most important thing is that there is no problem with making money—but (where will you use it?) (What will we do with so much money?) Leave it to our children, buy a house, buy a villa, travel, put it in the bank, display our wealth, buy designer brands, buy luxury cars, buy famous watches, and so on and so on.

(What do we use money for?) (Why do we work so desperately to make money?) Everyone knows that money cannot truly bring us happiness; wise people say this, and everyone says that money cannot buy happiness. But having money is a good thing. Sometimes money makes you very happy; sometimes it can satisfy all your Desires.

(But is it a good thing when all your Desires are satisfied?) (Where do we use our money; what do we want to do?) First think it through: (what do you want to do?) (Where will you use it?) Then go and make money. Then remember that you must attain enlightenment.

There is only so much time; this life has only so much time, just this little. As for worldly things, worldly Dharma: (do we attain enlightenment first and then possess worldly things?) (Or do we first possess worldly things and then attain enlightenment?) Anyway, I think realizing Buddhahood is more assured; nothing else is assured, I am telling you.

Awaken to your own nature. This does not mean that at the beginning, once you have awakened, you can immediately realize complete spiritual powers and boundless Dharma power. But if you are willing, when you see your own nature, your self-nature, when you see your source, if you are willing to continue cultivating, this is not a problem.

(Are you willing to choose again to use your limited life to cultivate toward the state of your spiritual powers?) And you do not care anyway—when those spiritual powers come, (so what?) Sentient beings only think you are extraordinary. But once you have seen your self-nature, if someone says you are extraordinary, (what good is being extraordinary?)

You have seen your Buddha-nature; you have seen your Buddha of Nirvana. (Do you still care what that sentient being says about you?) (He is a child; he understands nothing; he does not even know who he is—how can he judge you?) (Is that not so?) So whether you have spiritual powers or a particular state, (do you like to display them to him?) (Would you display a spiritual power before children who do not know who they are—play magic tricks, then make them long for it?)

But there are also many teachers (gurus) who, sometimes after awakening, cultivate the form-body and cultivate both nature and life. If your mind is truly complete, your view is truly complete, and your energy channels are open, some longstanding ailments or some things will quickly transform, transforming very quickly.

Because the completion of the Bodhisattva Path means that after seeing Buddha-nature, you must still walk the Bodhisattva Path and complete your merit; this is the body of merit. When each of us attains enlightenment, your body is a body of merit. You must walk the Bodhisattva Path, spread the Dharma, and liberate sentient beings. Then your form-body will change, and so on. Of course, at that time the form-body no longer matters. You are not deliberately trying to transform something and doing things for that purpose.

But if we improve the form-body, that is good too; sentient beings cling to appearances. They might think: “Wow, you have learned Buddhism so well; your body looks good, your state of mind is good, and light is shining from your head, here and there. I am not going for cosmetic surgery; I will learn Buddhism from you; I will become so beautiful.” (Is that not so?) It is good too.

It is just that time is too short, because cultivating the form-body takes a very long time. The process of breaking the ego-clinging in your nature of mind already consumes a very long part of your life; cultivating the reward-body takes a very long time as well. Then you need a long period of retreat cultivation. In other words, there will be less time to teach the Dharma or benefit sentient beings.

Note: This text was prepared from a teaching video by Yang Ning. If it differs from the video, the video takes precedence. Watch the video.