The Ten Wonders

The Ten Wonders
& The Source of Enlightenment

The Ten Wonders that are the Door to the Origin of Enlightenment

The First five:

1. The Wonderful Original Cause - This is the very first inspiration of the Bodhi mind to walk in (practice) the path of the Bodhisattvas. It is the ultimate cause of the cultivation of enlightenment. In the 16^th Chapter of The Lotus Sutra, Sakyamuni made an illustration to describe a number of lifetimes that it so great that it is impossible to calculate or even imagine. With the lifetime of the wonderful original cause even exceeding this, it is seen for what it is - timeless and eternal. Only the Buddha is able to know eternity like this. All of the manifestations of the cause in the past were not the original cause. The Lotus Sutra speaks of the Buddhas that lived in the remote past and their work in forming the causes and conditions for future enlightenment. However all of these causes happened in the interim period and were not the wonderful original cause. When placing the cause somewhere in the interim period of the past, it is more difficult to believe in it. Therefore The Lotus Sutra discards all the manifestations of the past and eliminates doubt in all which is provisional and not real. The wonderful original cause that is eternal is here right now for you to make at this very moment. Included in this cause are all the objects, wisdoms, practices and ranks that are on the path of enlightenment. This wonderful original cause must be ever renewed in order for one to stay on the true path. The Lotus Sutra says:

“I originally practiced the path of the Bodhisattva, this becoming a livelihood that still has not ended.”

2. The Wonderful Original Effect - The wonderful original cause directly leads to the attainment of the ultimate enlightenment, with its virtues of eternity, bliss, purity, and the true self¹. The ultimate enlightenment is the wonderful original effect, which includes the wonderful Threefold Dharma, the Threefold Body of Enlightenment². Realizing that one has already attained enlightenment and come into this world for all of eternity is the wonderful original effect, also called the Wonderful Enlightenment. In The Lotus Sutra, the wonderful original cause and the wonderful original effect are revealed to be identical. The Lotus Sutra says:

"I have in reality attained enlightenment and come into this world for a limitless, boundless, ever increasing number…”
"In reality I have attained enlightenment and come into this world for eternity, if anything. However by ways and means I instruct living beings in order to teach them.”

3. The Wonderful Original Land - There must a place for the wonderful original effect to exist. Where is the land that the original Buddha returns to reside? The words of The Lotus Sutra say: “Since I have come, I have always been here in this Saha World³ teaching the Dharma and instructing living beings”. The original Saha World is the wonderful original land of the Buddha. The Lotus Sutra says:

“I have already attained complete enlightenment in the Saha World and instructed and guided these Bodhisattvas.”
“Since I have come, I have always been in this Saha World teaching the Dharma and instructing, as well as other places guiding and benefiting living beings.”

This land is not the Saha World of routine everyday existence, but the wonderful original Saha world, the original place of enlightenment where the Buddha has always been teaching the Dharma to the living beings that accept it with faith.

4. The Wonderful Original Sympathy & Response - Having already attained the effect, there is the original time of realization of the 25 Samadhis⁴. With the vow of mercy and compassion, there are the sympathetic spiritual capacities that are connected with the serene illumination of the Buddha’s eye. Therefore we speak of the original sympathy and response. The Lotus Sutra says:

“If there are living beings that come and reach me here, with my enlightened eye I will observe their faith and their other spiritual roots, sharp and dull.”

This is the wonderful original illumination of spiritual capacities and the wonderful original sympathetic response.

5. The Wonderful Original Spiritual Penetration - This is the very first time that one unites mercy and compassion with spiritual transformation. To influence others, the Buddha makes spiritual penetration, displaying signs and stirring living beings in order to spiritually uplift them. Therefore it is called the wonderful original spiritual penetration. The Lotus Sutra says:

“The secret mystery of The One That Has Come; the power of spiritual penetration.”

And in the meantime it says:

“Some revealing my life, some revealing the lives of others - some revealing my work, some revealing the work of others.”

This is taking on the form of the ten spiritual realms and making the various kinds of incarnations and is called the wonderful original spiritual penetration.

Next, the second five...

Footnotes:

1. eternity, bliss, purity, and the true self; The Four Virtues of Nirvana, personified in the 15h Chapter of The Lotus Sutra as the Four Leaders of the Bodhisattvas springing forth from the earth.

2. The Threefold Body of Enlightenment: The eternal embodiment of enlightenment; see also part 5 of the Threefold Dharma in the Ten Wonders of the Manifestation of Enlightenment

3. The Saha World: The Spiritual Realm of Life & Death, the mortal realm in which we all live and endure.

4. The 25 Samadhis: The meditations that reach into each of the 25 Realms of Existence to enlighten living beings

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