SAMANTABHADRA BODHISATTVA’S SEVENTH GREAT VOW: TO BESEECH BUDDHAS TO REMAIN IN THE WORLD
Master Jun Hong Lu: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s seventh great vow is: “To beseech Buddhas to remain in the world”.
In the era between “the passing of Shakyamuni Buddha and the rise of Maitreya Buddha”, how do we beseech the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to remain in this world? If you don’t even know who the Bodhisattvas are, how would you be able to implore Them to come to this human realm?
When you understand the meaning of “It is the mind that becomes the Buddha”, you should know that it is your mind that is working in accordance with the Buddha’s teachings.
In this era between “the passing of Shakyamuni Buddha and the rise of Maitreya Buddha”, who will become the Buddha? The answer is your mind because “The heart is the Buddha”. If you have the heart of a Buddha, you are in fact, a Buddha.
After all, “When the minds of sentient beings are pure, this is where the Buddha resides”. Even sentient beings who have never encountered Buddhism, as long as their hearts are pure and calm, they will be able to see the Buddha in them. This explains why a person tends to be able to come up with solutions whenever he calms down. How does this happen? It is because the Buddha in their heart has emerged.
When a conscientious person is angered, in the heat of the moment, he may feel like fighting the other party to the death.
However, as he calms down, he will ask himself whether this is necessary and he will think, “After all, the other party is just as pitiful. We are all humans, why are we so eager to harm each other?”
When this thought arises, don’t you think the Buddha in your heart has emerged?
Therefore, to have “the presence of the Buddha to remain”, you must ensure that the Buddha in your heart is always present in this human realm, that is, the Buddha must be ever-present in your heart.
“Sentient beings with a defiled mind see the Buddha’s Nirvana”. All of us, our minds are filled with defilements and contaminants, however, the Buddha has shown us the illuminative way by demonstrating His attainment of nirvana.
What is nirvana? It is a type of awakening that transcends all boundaries to another domain. So, what about us, humans, what can we do? We need to learn to liberate ourselves from the shackles of the human realm.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms, Volume 11 Chapter 14