The Sutra on Limitless Meanings

The Sutra on Limitless Meanings
Chapter Two - The Teaching of the Dharma

In the second chapter, the Buddha tells the Bodhisattva Great Adornment that He will enter into Parinirvana before long, and that the Bodhisattvas should ask any questions they still have that will resolve any remaining doubts. Speaking for the Bodhisattvas, the Bodhisattva Great Adornment asks what doctrine they should practice to quickly attain perfect enlightenment. The Buddha speaks of it as being it the Doctrine of Limitless Meanings.

The Buddha explains the empty nature of the Dharma (the spiritual reality) - that ultimately it does not have a specific nature or form, that it is neither great nor small, that it is neither visible nor invisible, etc. People cling to it being this or that, but these attachments just return them to the impermanent realm of Life & Death (Samsara).

The Buddha then explains the temporary nature of dharmas (the aspects of spirituality) and how they are born, remain a while, are changed and then perish - the ‘four aspects’ of transience. The one Dharma is beyond aspects - it is without aspects, and yet it is neither with nor without aspects. Calmly abiding in this, there is realization of the true spiritual aspect of reality, which is understanding all the different aspects in the context of the one Dharma. In applying this principle to the teaching of the Dharma, there are the different teachings that respond to the different prejudices, natures, desires, and capacities of living beings. In this way the one Dharma is invested with its different meanings.

The Bodhisattva Great Adornment then asks the Buddha to explain the difference between this Sutra of Limitless Meanings and the teachings of the prior 40 years.

The Buddha responds by saying that when he first attained enlightenment in Gaya He could see with His enlightened eye that all things spiritual could not be immediately taught to living beings because of their various different kinds of prejudices and capacities, and so he taught the various provisional teachings. He could not yet teach the absolute reality.

He taught that the nature of the Dharma is like water in washing off the stains that are the emotional troubles of living beings. However, water may come from a ditch, a stream, a river, a lake or the ocean. There are different meanings to each of these, but they are all water, and they all wash off different kinds of stains.

Depending on the inclinations and the capacities of those that were being addressed, there were different meanings ascribed to the Dharma, and so there were the different levels of realization. The Buddha explained the progression of teachings that He made over His life, including the four truths, the twelve fold wheel of dependence on origination, the paramitas, etc. In all of these teachings, He always taught about “suffering, emptiness, impermanence and selflessness; and that which is neither absolute nor temporary, neither great nor small, fundamentally without birth - the one aspect without aspects. The aspect and nature of the Dharma is neither coming nor going, and yet there are the four aspects of transience by which all living beings are driven.”

Because of these meanings the Buddhas are able to respond with the single Sound of the Dharma through a host of different of voices. They are able to reveal the single Spiritual Body (S. Dharmakaya) through countless different incarnations. This is the very deep sphere of the spiritual realm that is only fathomed between the Buddhas and not known by the Bodhisattvas of the provisional teachings and those of the Two Vehicles.

Upon making this teaching, there were a variety of spiritual signs, such as the shaking of the earth, the raining down of blossoms, treasures, etc., and great realizations by the assembly.

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