The Tathagata's House, the Tathagata's Dress, the Tathagata's Court.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH. The Lotus Sutra is a very noble sutra, which summarizes all the teachings that the Buddha taught his disciples for 45 years. Before preaching this sutra, because the backgrounds of his disciples were not the same, he used many means to lead them gradually to the One vehicle. When the basis of sentient beings was matured, the Buddha spoke directly about the One vehicle. The One Vehicle Way does not mean to deny all the methods and methods that the Buddha said before, but just to say that the previous methods are steps, the means to teach sentient beings into the One vehicle. . Like a doctor, after understanding the disease, understanding the medicine, how to cure it, he will give the patient this medicine or another medicine. The Buddha too, with wisdom, he cures all diseases of sentient beings, depending on the ability to use one or another means, rather than bringing all the medicine to drink at once. For example, when a person has a stomach ache, the doctor tells him to abstain from milk and give medicine to treat stomach pain, and then recovers, the doctor tells him to drink milk to strengthen himself. If the patient does not know, he will tell the doctor first and then inconsistently, first tell him not to drink, then tell him to drink. Buddha, too, before only said the Four Truths, Humanity and Selflessness... so that sentient beings could be liberated from birth and death and reincarnation. When ego-clinging has been destroyed but dharma-clinging has not been eliminated, enlightenment has not yet been final, so the Buddha taught again, breaking down dharma-attachment for complete liberation. But there are disciples who think that before the Buddha taught the Four Truths to attain Nirvana, now they say that it is only a means, and there is a higher Dharma One vehicle. Thus, the Buddha said differently before and after, because he thought so, in the Dharma Flower Assembly, there were 5,000 unbelieving bhikkhus who got up and went out. By the way, you know enough, the Lotus Sutra is a sutra of the highest vehicle, the Buddha said to bring disciples to the One vehicle, to understand and enter the Buddha vehicle, only for those who have matured abilities. Therefore, whoever writes, accepts, maintains, and preaches this sutra will have immeasurable merit. If it weren't for great faith, by cultivating good roots for countless eons, it would be difficult to do this. While reading, reciting, and speaking the Dharma Flower, he must at least have understanding, practice, and follow the teachings of the sutras in order to benefit the listeners, as well as the speaker, otherwise, the reception, reading, recitation, teaching and speaking not much benefit. As in the Dharma assembly of the Sixth Patriarch Hue Neng, a teacher Phap Dat came one day to pay respects and bow three times without his head touching the ground. The patriarch rebuked: Bowing is to destroy pride, show respect, and bow. If your head is not on the ground, surely you are still holding something in your heart? Phap Dat said: He has chanted the Lotus Sutra for 3,000 sets but has not yet seen the Way. The patriarch taught: Even if you recite 30,000 sets, it's useless if you don't practice. If you can practice the spirit of Dharma Flower, you will walk with me side by side. The Lotus Sutra teaches humility and patience through the example of the Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, a bodhisattva who goes out to meet everyone and bows respectfully, saying:"I respect them very much, I don't dare to disrespect them because they practice the Bodhisattva path and will become Buddhas later." Some people are happy to hear it because they consider it a blessing. Some listeners were also indifferent because they did not understand what he wanted to say. But someone who heard him got angry because he thought that he was infuriating him, so he scolded and beat him, but he still kept a calm mind towards everyone because he knew that everyone had Buddha nature and knew who Everyone who listens to the Lotus Sutra will become a Buddha, because the sutra teaches: "If you are weak in writing, you will not become a Buddha". All sentient beings, either in the present, or in the past, or in the future, will inevitably hear the Lotus Sutra once, and if they hear it, they will attain Buddhahood. Because he knows this well, he respects all. The second reason why he respects them is to respect his understanding, that understanding is that every living being has Buddha nature. Third, to respect them means to respect the Buddha's teachings, to be humble to everyone. If we despise people, that is, we despise the Buddha's teachings, but we also despise our own understanding. The example of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging is enough to make us give up our pride, and instead of talking nonsense, talking in vain, and letting our minds wander, we can also benefit from chanting the Sutras. But if we don't destroy pride and practice humility, we lose a lot of the merit of reciting. Chanting but also need to pay attention to learn to practice the spirit of the Bible, let alone teach people. Self-recitation is difficult, speaking to others is even more difficult. Therefore, the Buddha said, whoever preaches and speaks this Sutra, he has planted good roots for many kalpas. But in order for the teaching of this sutra to be fully beneficial for both oneself and others, the preacher needs to meet the three qualities as taught by the Dharma Master in the sutra. That is at the Tathagata's house, wearing the Tathagata robes and sitting on the Tathagata throne. Beings in the Three Realms is a house created by their own karma, which is illegal karma, greed, hatred, delusion, and afflictions. Now people who want to speak the Lotus Sutra should not stay in that house, but must make their home with compassion. Kindness is for joy, compassion is for suffering. To be happy to see living beings in peace, to save suffering when seeing sentient beings suffering. If parents see their child happy and healthy, then give them more clothes, shoes... to make them happier, or be happy with them, that's kindness. But when it's sick, take care, give medicine, rice porridge is marble. The Buddha, too, for sentient beings who had good karma, he used words to teach, because the good in the three worlds has not yet been liberated, so he brought the good dharmas out of the world to make them practice, that is the heart. From. But for those sentient beings who are bound by karma and suffering, the Buddha uses the teachings that teach us to practice to eliminate karma and to end suffering, which is compassion. But realizing that compassion is not a day or two. The sutras have divided into three levels of compassion: 1. Sentient beings from grace. 2. Dharma world predestined words, or great compassion. 3. Irrelevant word or ungainly pronoun. Sentient beings are dependent on loving-kindness: It is compassion and general reciprocity, with new conditions arising, for example, if you see living beings suffering, you will develop compassion, when the scene of suffering is over, your compassion will also disappear. Compassion has birth and death, it's called a sentient being. Dharma Precepts of Conditioned Words: As Buddhas, Bodhisattvas see that all living beings are closely related to each other. For example: A trader, a farmer, a teacher, a student, a housewife... These people, if we look at them one-sidedly, we see that they are not related to each other, because everyone does a job. But the truth is that all of them have a survival relationship, helping each other. Understood in this way, there is no longer the nature of defying common interests but protecting individual interests. Our current knowledge, such as knowing how to do math, is due to people in the past who either passed away or went elsewhere. Even though the Buddha has passed away, his teachings are still effective in helping sentient beings to enlightenment. Thus, between Buddha and sentient beings, between people in a country or more broadly, humanity in the world, after all, there is a relationship with each other, called coincidental co-arising, or dharma world, which is what principles that depend on each other to achieve. Based on the principle "Dharma realm coincides with dependent origination"that generates compassion, it is called dharma precepts of predestination, or great compassion. This co-existence of dependent origination is always present in things, they are never interrupted, or limited, so compassion based on it also has no birth and death, no limit, no distinction between person, body, primitive, human or animal. Or we have Buddha nature, other people, other sentient beings also have Buddha nature. Although we and other people and living beings are different from each other, the Buddha-nature is inherently identical. Like the right arm, the left arm, though different, is the same body. So when the left arm is injured, the right hand is anointed based on that body identity, not discrimination. So is the great compassion. Above all is Unconditional Love: It is compassion that does not rely on any reason to arise, does not wait for an object, is unconditional. Like the sun shines, if you don't choose this place, it will shine down, that place will not shine down. The latter two virtues of compassion are as vast as the universe of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, and we Buddhists only practice sentient beings dependent on loving-kindness, but these are also the goals that we aspire to, in order to This will also have the dharma precepts of dependent and unconditioned love like the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Compassionate mind is the "Tathagata's house", in which the speaker of the Lotus Sutra must live in order to speak the sutra to be complete. That is the first condition. The second condition is "Wearing gentleness and patience". Already have compassion, but how to show it? It is necessary to have the virtue of being soft, loving speech, not just having a compassionate mind, then just say unpleasant words and harsh attitudes. There are mothers who love their children, but because of that love, they often beat and scold them, do not speak softly to teach, or teachers beat them because they love their students when they do wrong homework... That lack of compassion is often painful. So in addition to compassion, it is necessary to have loving speech that makes people love to listen. The Lotus Sutra is the ultimate vehicle of sutras, and it is difficult to believe. If it is spoken in harsh and harsh words, how can sentient beings hear it. Like a very good medicine that is too bitter, it has to be coated with sugar to give it to children to drink. Sentient beings are like children to the Buddhadharma. Phap Hoa medicine is the ultimate bitter medicine, if it is not wrapped in a layer of gentle and patient sugar, it is difficult for sentient beings to drink. Throughout his life, the Buddha was always gentle and patient. As once when he went for alms, he met an evil person who stopped and cursed. He still stood silently to listen to him finish, and then gently asked: At your house, there are times when relatives come to visit, right? He replied: Yes, why not. He continued: Every time they come to visit, maybe you also bring gifts and cakes to eat? Have. And if they don't eat, to whom does the gift go? The other replied: It's about me. At that time the Buddha said: In the same way, you have been scolding me with vulgar words just now, but if I do not accept them, those words must return to you. So I advise you not to use rude words towards anyone, but to use gentle words. Through gentleness and patience, the Buddha enlightened that person. Because people who scold themselves always carry a bias, either because they see their identity that they don't like, or because their actions affect their interests, or because they misheard or misrepresented themselves. Wanting to get rid of the scene of anger, delusion and jealousy, it is necessary to be gentle and patient in order to be calm to deal with, but responding impatiently is like adding fuel to the fire. But the patience of the Buddha is patience in wisdom, patience to teach, as when he asked the person who scolded him. This virtue is very necessary to overcome all difficulties. Rings have three things: 1. Complaints about harm: Tolerance against hateful insults, specializing in causing hardships of other people towards them. 2. Long life suffering: Tolerance for things that inadvertently bring us suffering such as heat, cold, hunger, thirst. If a practitioner of the Way half quits practicing because he can't stand these obstacles, it's because he doesn't have patience. 3. Unborn Dharma ring: The highest ring. Because of knowing dharmas that are not born Having no birth, the insults and insults people say to them are also birthless. For example, the sentence: "You are an idiot", every single word is not a scolding, just because we bring the mind to distinguish it, compare it and put it together, accept the unborn as birth, so it's uncomfortable. If you know that its true nature is unborn, then it won't become a scolding, where can you get angry and suffer. Everything else, too, is unborn. If you believe that, you won't see the truth of the truth, which is called non-birth, dharma-forbearance. Finally, the third condition of the preacher is to sit on the Tathagata's throne: To sit is to stay, the Tathagata's seat is necessarily empty, "empty" this means the absence of the self-nature of things. All dharmas are devoid of self-nature, because of their lack of self-nature, they cannot be obtained, not completely empty. The Buddha abides in that vacuum, so it is called sitting on the Tathagata throne. The Diamond Sutra says: "How many sentient beings I have allowed to enter Nirvana without remainder, to destroy countless boundless beings like this, but I have not seen any sentient beings to be saved." His whole life was saved, but he did not see any sentient beings being saved, so the teaching of saving birth was complete. Because if you just look at it on your face, you will see infinitely many sentient beings, how can you save them all? But the Buddha is in the non-self-nature, in the unborn of the dharmas, so he can no longer see the appearance of sentient beings. Therefore, when he spoke the Dharma to one person, it was the same as speaking to many people, because he brought the enlightened mind to an equal mind and spoke the Dharma. Standing on that mind of equality, even if there was only one listener, he would not be troubled. There were many followers, and he did not rejoice. Sentient beings hear that and rejoice, He also does not take it as a joy. Listening to him lazily, He did not get angry. Hearing that indifferently He also did not accept. That equal liberating attitude of the Buddha towards these three types of people who listen to the Dharma is called the three great compassion. Thanks to him having realized the necessity of the Dharma of emptiness, dwelling in that great compassion, he was able to speak about the Dharma of saving birth for 45 years, otherwise, the teaching and saving of birth would be treated by lazy people, and those who do not love, to discourage Him. In short, staying at the Tathagata's house, wearing the Tathagata's robes and sitting on the Tathagata's throne are the three virtues, the three conditions for the ultimate completeness of reading, reciting, and teaching the Lotus Sutra. "One respects the Buddha, For a thousand lifetimes I vow to stay at the Tathagata's house, I curse to wear the Tathagata's robes, I will sit on the Dharma seat of the Tathagata forever and ever."END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.29/5/2021.