Chapter 44: The dharma-body in primal cycle meets the force of the cart; The mind, righting monstrous deviates, crosses the spineridge pass.
In which some Daoists are enslaving Buddhist monks and our gang doesn't stand by that.
Hello everybody, I hope you’re having a nice April.
The dharma-body: There are three types of bodies: the Dharma body, the reward body, and the manifested body. The Dharma-body means the essence of Buddhahood, what makes a Buddha a Buddha, the ultimate truth or Law or enlightenment, and the true nature of the Buddha’s life. A Buddha of this kind is referred to as the Buddha of the Dharma body or the Buddha in his body of the Law. To make it sound easier, according to the Lotus sutra, the Dharma body indicates the essential property of a Buddha, which is the truth or Law to which the Buddha is enlightened.
“A little dust - the eye reveals three thousand worlds”: The doctrine of the three thousand realms was formulated by Great Teacher Tiantai (Zhiyi) in order to help people put into practice the Lotus Sutra’s teaching that all people can attain buddhahood. “A little dust” indicates one’s life as it exists at any given moment. “Three thousand realms” refers to all phenomena—all things and their varied functions. The principle of three thousand realms in a single moment of life teaches that a single moment of life includes three thousand realms, and life at each moment permeates and pervades all of them. Life at each moment contains limitless potential. When one transforms the state of one’s life at this moment, the environment that surrounds it also changes, which can even result in a change in the entire world. Thus, the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life is a teaching of hope and transformation. In other words, so long as one is alive, one’s life at each moment possesses three thousand realms, each of which is unique and distinct from the others. Read here if you want to know more.
“The God of the Year rides forth;
The God of the Woods takes a drive”: Don’t cite me on this but the God of the Woods is Goumang and the God of the Year is Tai Sui.
“As they strained and tugged, they cried out in unison to call on the name of the Bodhisattva King Powerful for help”: I didn’t find any reference to this Bodhisattva, sorry.
“Like full moons their faces were handsome and bright;
They had the fair forms of jade-Heaven gods”: Has anybody noticed that monks in this book are always handsome?
“How could you then not follow the Three Jewels and not revere the law of Buddha?” : The three jewels are the Buddha (the exemplar), the dharma (the teachings), and the sangha (the community of practitioners).
“When Zhu Eight Rules heard in his sleep that there were nice edibles, he immediately woke up, saying, "Elder Brother, aren't you going to take care of me, too?”: Typical Zhu.
As you see, I had to research a little more in this chapter, which for me is more entertaining than just making comments. I hope you liked it, see you in 3 days!