In the world of life, who can avoid illness? This is true of ordinary people, and so are bodhisattvas.
When it comes to bodhisattvas, most of the images that pop into everyone's mind are the majestic and immovable images in the temple, or the great bodhisattvas who are compassionate and compassionate like Guanyin Bodhisattva and Jizo King Bodhisattva. But, as you know, bodhisattvas can also get sick.
The Nirvana Sutra says that bodhisattvas have five kinds of actions: sunnah, brahman, heaven, sickness, and infant. He also said, "The bodhisattva Mahāsāsa often practices the five kinds of actions. It can be seen that bodhisattvas may not be disease-free, but they can still realize the path, cultivate the path, and practice the path in the midst of illness.
The Wise Master of the Tendai Sect explained the "sick deeds" in the Myoho Lotus Sutra Xuanyi.
"Sick walkers, this never begins with great compassion. If a little good is born, there will be a sickness. Now the same life is good, called infant line; the same trouble side, called sick line. If all sentient beings are sick, then great compassion is smoked in the heart, which is why I am sick. Or play hell, or play in the form of an animal, incarnate as a hungry ghost, etc., all of which are the same as evil karmic diseases, such as tuning and so on. He also showed his parents and wives, Jin Zhen and Ma Mai, cold wind and clothes, fever and milk, and this showed that people have the disease of knot, karma, birth, old age, sickness, and death. He also showed the thirty-four hearts of the dojo to break the knot, showing the disease of the same two-fold seeing thoughts, convenient for the neighborhood, and making it diligent. The same is true of the Three Tibetans and the Tongjiao Bodhisattvas. He also taught the silent dojo with others, and the disease of ignorance in the first dust and sand. It is therefore the bodhisattva who is sick with the other, who is all over the Dharma realm and benefits all sentient beings. ”
The sentence "If all beings are sick, then great compassion is smoked, and it is therefore my illness" that originates from the Vimalaya Sutra.
The Buddha says that the Vimalayana Sutra Manjushri asks for the disease has this dialogue:
Manjushri said, "So be it! Layman! If it has come, it will not come; if it has gone, it will not go. So what? Those who come come from nowhere, those who go go nowhere, and those who are visible are even less visible. And leave it at stake, layman! Is it better to endure than to tolerate it? Healing is detrimental, not additive! The world is gracious and asks immeasurable questions, lay people are diseases, what is the cause? How long is its life? When the cloud is extinguished? ”
Vimal says, "If there is love from delusion, then I am sick; if all beings are sick, I am sick; if all sentient beings are not sick, then I am sick." So what? Bodhisattvas enter into life and death for all sentient beings, and if there is life and death, there is illness; if sentient beings are freed from illness, then the bodhisattva has no recurrence. For example, the elderly have only one son, and their son is sick, and his parents are also sick. If the child is cured, so are the parents. Bodhisattvas are like this, to all sentient beings, love like sons; sentient beings are sick bodhisattvas, sentient beings are healed, bodhisattvas are healed. And what is the cause of the disease? Bodhisattvas, with great compassion. ”
The meaning of this passage is worth playing with the disciples of the Buddha, and after Manjushri Bodhisattva inquired about the illness, Vimalakirti did not first answer Manjushri whether he could bear the pain of the illness himself, but first explained to Manjushri what the bodhisattva's illness was.
He said, "From ignorance arises craving, and my disease is born of craving." All sentient beings are sick from craving, so I get sick. If the sickness of all sentient beings is eliminated, my sickness will be cured. Why? Bodhisattvas deliberately give birth to this world in order for sentient beings to be free from the sea of suffering of birth and death. In this world, if there is life and death, there is sickness. If sentient beings are able to get rid of their sufferings, bodhisattvas will no longer have sick people. It is like an elder who has a thousand years of Gao Deshao, his only son falls ill, and the parents also fall ill; if the son is well, the parents will naturally be well. The same is true of bodhisattvas. To all sentient beings, the bodhisattva treats himself as his beloved son. If sentient beings are sick, bodhisattvas are also sick; if sentient beings are healed, bodhisattvas are also cured. If we want to say why my illness arises, the bodhisattva's illness arises from great compassion that cannot bear to see the suffering of sentient beings. ”
Therefore, it is not difficult for us to see from this far-reaching verse that bodhisattvas get sick because of compassion for sentient beings, and bodhisattvas cannot bear to see sentient beings suffering and "get sick."
Buddhas and bodhisattvas who want to enter samsara in order to save sentient beings will be born, old, sick and die like ordinary people. Ordinary people get sick because of their troubles, and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas get sick because of their compassion.
As far as mortals are concerned, the experience of being sick is always different from the experience of daily life, so every experience of being sick has the potential to make our understanding of life more profound and our feelings about life more real. The same is true for those who study Buddhism. An opportunity to be sick is an opportunity to break the self, to repair and reintegrate, to reintegrate, and in the process of each restoration and integration, the understanding of the Dharma will be further advanced.
The reason why the Buddha is called the "Great Doctor King" also has this layer of truth. In the Sutra of Medical Metaphors, the Buddha said, "There are four kinds of medicines that are good in the world, who know diseases and know medicines." If he has sufficient feet, he will be called the King of Medicine. What is four? One knows a certain disease and applies a certain medicine; the other knows the cause of the disease and uses the medicine with it; the third has given birth to various diseases and is ordered to cure the disease; the fourth cuts off the source of the disease and makes it not born later. is for four. ”
Illness does not necessarily have to be only a disease of the body, but can also include the disease of defilements, the disease of karmic obstacles, the disease of the Dharma body, and so on.
The illness is deep, the Tao is deep, the disease is more, the tao is used more, the illness is great, the Law is great, and the illness is seriously enlightened. Therefore, take the disease as medicine, take the disease as the use, become enlightened because of the disease, and borrow the disease.
However, the reason why we can be effective in illness is nothing more than in our ordinary every move, we all practice secret evidence, live and lie down, and meditate.
For us today, we can also learn from this: how we should face disease and everything in life.
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