Chan and Enlightenment 禪與悟(英文版)

Where did humankind come from at the very beginning? Christianity says that human beings were created by God—that the Earth was created first, and then human beings were created afterwards. No matter whether such a statement is correct, let us see what the sutras say about this.

According to fascicle 14 the Sutra of the Motion of Brahma, as well as the chapter on the “Original Conditions of the World” of the World Account Sutra in fascicle 22 of the Long Agama (Skt. Dirghagama), we find the introduction about the origin of human beings, which says: the world goes through four stages from existence to destruction, namely, formation, existence, destruction, and voidness. The total span of these four stages is called a large kalpa (eon). When the world has completed these four stages, some sentient beings among the heavenly beings of the Heaven of Radiant Sound at the second dhyana heaven, after depleting all their karmic rewards and ending their lifespan, will gradually descend to the Brahma Heaven, and further go down to the material world of the earth.

The heavens include those of the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. All the heavenly beings in the desire realm have tangible forms, whereas those of the form realm are only mental and spiritual phenomena, without the existence of material phenomena. Originally sentient beings in the Heaven of Radiant Sound of the second dhyana heavens had no physical phenomena, no physical bodies, but they had spiritual and mental phenomena. However, after gradually descending to the earth, they could still fly freely at first, without the sensation of a physical body. Little by little, they took on the energy of the earth and ate the things on the earth, so that, with their bodies becoming coarse, they could not fly and gradually began to age and die. These are our ancestors.
So, where did the people of the Heaven of Radiant Sound come from? They have cultivated meditative concentration in different worlds, and having succeeded with cultivation, they were born into the dhyana heavens. Therefore, sentient beings existed since time without beginning, while human beings on the earth had an initial starting point.

How to Be Born as Human Beings
In addition to the sentient beings of the Heaven of Radiant Sound who arrived here to become the ancestors of humankind, where did the later human beings come from?

1. The Mixed Agama (Skt. Samyuktagama Sutra) says: “Those who create the ten evil karmas (deeds) will be born in the hells; if they are born as human beings, they will suffer from various hardships. Those who create the ten virtuous karmas (deeds) will be born in the heavens; if they are born as human beings, they will be free from various hardships.” What is said here refers to the retribution or reward of karmic causality. The ten evils refer to the ten evil deeds, including killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, divisive speech, harsh speech, frivolous speech, greed, anger, and ignorance; namely, three for bodily conduct, four for the verbal conduct, and three for the mental conduct. If one creates all of the ten evil causes, one will fall to the hells; if one only creates a portion of them, one may be born in the human realm, and yet suffer from various hindrances and hardships. On the contrary, the ten virtues refer to no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech, no divisive speech, no harsh speech, no frivolous speech, no greed, no anger, and no ignorance. As human beings, it is not easy to do all the ten virtuous deeds. If one can do all of these deeds, one can be reborn in the heavens; if one does just a portion of them, one will be born in the human realm and be free from various hardships.

2. The Sutra of the Buddha Speaking to Suka the Elder about Different Karmic Retributions (Chn. Fowei shoujiazhangzhe shou yebaochabie jing) says, “When one performs the ten virtuous deeds incompletely, lacking in some of them, one will attain the results of the human destiny due to ten such deeds.”

3. Fascicle 1 of the Treatise for Discerning the Correct (Chn. Bianzheng lun) quotes from the Sutra of a Demon Transforming Himself into a Monk (Chn. Mohua biqiu jing), saying, “The five precepts are the roots for human beings, and the ten virtues, the seeds for heavens.” That is, people who uphold the five precepts can all be born as humans in the human realm, and people who cultivate the ten virtues can take rebirth in the heavens. The five precepts refer to no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech, and no consumption of intoxicants.

4. The first part of the Commentary on the Ullambana Sutra says, “The human vehicle means that the three refuges and five precepts carry sentient beings across the three miserable planes of existence to be born in the human path.” The human vehicle signifies the means of transportation that human beings travel in; that is to say, it is the means of transportation or the conditions required for coming to the human realm. There is also the means of transportation for going to the heavens, which is called the heavenly vehicle. The conditions required for becoming shravakas and pratyekabuddhas are the two lesser vehicles, while those required for becoming bodhisattvas are called the greater vehicle. The supreme means of transportation is the buddha vehicle. One achieves buddhahood by cultivating the Buddhadharma, which includes five levels, the lowest one being the human and heavenly vehicle, which takes the three refuges, five precepts, and ten virtues. That is to say, taking the three refuges, upholding the five precepts, and cultivating the ten virtues enable one to be born in the human (and heavenly) realm(s).

5. Chapter three of the Introduction to the Buddhadharma by Master Yinshun says that the human realm has four superior features: encountering both suffering and happiness in the environment, knowing shame, having wisdom, and persevering. Only when one is equipped with these conditions can one be a human. Hence, there is the saying that it is rare to be born with a human form. In addition, because only the human form can be the best instrument for spiritual practice, it is all the more precious.

What Is a Pure Land?
A pure land is where the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other sages live. It is a world that is achieved by the merit of a buddha, and it can also be a world that is achieved by the power of a buddha’s vows. It differs from our world in that it is an environment without illness, vexations, and sufferings. However, because the accomplishments of their spiritual practice are different, the pure lands they build are different too. Likewise, in a pure land, what the buddhas build differs from that of the ordinary people. Therefore, the pure lands are classified into four levels:

1. The land the Dharma Body inhabits, which is perpetual and omnipresent. It is formless, yet there is not a single form that is not found in this pure land.

2. The land of the Reward Body (Skt. Sambhogakaya), which is a buddha’s body of merit; a buddha’s merit can be shared by the bodhisattvas in the sagehood, and can enable them to continue in the buddha’s pure land to accomplish the paths of a buddha and a bodhisattva.

3. The pure land of the buddha of the Transformation Body (Skt. Nirmanakaya) who has come to deliver ordinary people. The world of ours is also a pure land—if we follow the Buddhist teachings or come into contact with the Buddhadharma, we will feel that the pure land is right in front of us. Of course, there are also buddha-lands that are the worlds where one may take rebirth after death, yet the pure buddha-land where ordinary people inhabit is also the land of the transformation body.

4. The land where ordinary beings and sages dwell together. Even if we go to the Western, Eastern, or any other Pure Land, we are still ordinary people. Although one can see many bodhisattvas, arhats, and buddhas there, even in the same place, the pure land that bodhisattvas perceive is different from the pure land that ordinary people perceive. This is called the land where ordinary beings and sages dwell together.