Sakyamuni's Final Teaching -- The Lotus Sutra (NOT!)
John Ayres
Buddha's Last Instruction
(Jpnse: Yukyo-gyo; Also known as the "The Teaching
Bequeathed" by the Buddha)
Translated by Peter Chow
Edited by John Ayres
You, bhikshus and others, after I die, you must
follow the precepts. They will be your light for the
darkness; the treasure for the poor. Respect and
follow these precepts as you had treated me. I and
the precepts are the same; there is no difference.
Precepts for Purifying
Abstain from any business and dealing in real
estate. Do not keep human or animal slaves. Avoid
all jewels and money; avoid them like fire. Do not
cut down trees and plants, dig up soil, cook
medicine, or forecast the future. One must live a
self-controlled life style. Live in a clean simple life
style. Do not get involved in politics. No
supernatural healing and don’t suck up to wealthy
people. One must constantly strive to escape the
curse of karma. Do not hide your weakness or do
any unusual or unnatural acts to attract people. You
must live on the donations of people. Know the limit
and be satisfied. Do not obtain and store excess
donations. These precepts will allow you to purify
and stabilize your mind and soul. Thus gain the true
knowledge and escape suffering. One must live
under the purifying precepts. Do not allow them to
deteriorate. If you can follow these precepts, you will
gain the good Dharma. If you fail to live by these
precepts, no virtue or merits will be gained. Know
that the purifying precepts are firstly for you to live
with virtue and merit in a place of peace and
security.
You, bhikshus and others, after you live according
to the purifying precepts, then you must control your
five senses -- sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.
Do not allow yourself to be trapped in the five
pleasures -- color attractiveness, music, fragrance,
tastes, and pleasurable tactile sensation. Control
these senses as a shepherd watching his herds, so
that the animal does not damage other people’s
property. If one loses control of the five senses to
the five pleasures, the damage is unlimited and
uncontrollable. It is like an uncontrollable, crazed
horse that will drop his rider into a deep mud ditch.
You will be like one robbed by a thief, bitter for the
rest of your life. After you understand these poisons,
you must control the five senses and not be
dependent on the five pleasures. One must
constantly be aware of the damage they cause.
Even if you fail to control them from time to time at
the beginning, over time their influence will be
weakened.
The mind is the master of the five senses.
Therefore, you must control your mind well. The
mind can be frightening, worse than a poisonous
snake, a crazed animal, a psychotic thief, and an
uncontrollable wild fire. It is like a drunk who only
concentrates on the intoxicant in his hand and does
not see the deep ditch that he is walking toward. It is
like a crazed elephant that is out of control, or a
mad monkey jumping tree to tree. You must control
(shaku-buku) and stabilize your mind at once.
Otherwise it will do many evils.
You, bhikshus and others! In eating, treat it like
taking medicine. Be indifferent to its taste. Do not
eat excess when it is good or eat less when it tastes
bad. Just eat enough to eliminate hunger and thirst.
It is like a bee collecting pollen, it captures the
essence and does not damage the color or
fragrance. You, too, when accepting offerings (kuyo)
from people, must be interested only in avoiding
troublesome work (so that the mind can be totally
focused in training). Do not seek to attain a lot, for
you will destroy the kind heart of the person who
offers you food. It is like a smart farmer who knows
the capacity of his cow and does not exhaust him.
You, bhikshus and others, must train hard all day
and not lose time. Do not waste the beginning and
the end of the night. Recite sutras during the night
and rest only if necessary. Do not waste time in
sleeping. You must think that it is as if you are
trapped in an eternal fire with the world ablaze,
searching for a quick escape route to nirvana, so
you must not sleep. An afflicted mind is like a
psychotic killer continually looking to kill. How can
one sleep peacefully if one escapes from one’s
afflicted mind? To eliminate the afflicted mind, one
must recognize his past bad deeds and feel shame.
To be shameful is the best method to avoid
committing bad deeds. Constantly feel shameful;
there is no substitute for it. People, who have no
shame, are no better than animals.
Avoid Hatred
You, bhikshus and others, focus inwardly to the
heart, even at the moment when your body is under
torture. Do not allow hatred to develop. Also control
your speech. Do not say any angry words. If you
lose control of your anger, you will block your path
and loose your merit, virtue and fortune. Being
patient is a virtue. The one who has patience is
called the person with superior strength.
(Being patient means to bare other people’s insults.)
If you can not bare other’s insults, treat them as if
you were drinking honey. Otherwise, you are the
person who does not know the Tao and has no
wisdom. Why? Because hatred can damage the
virtuous dharmas, and destroy your good name.
Then, in this life and the next, no one will be happy
to see you. You must understand that an angry
heart is worse than wild fire. You must always
prevent and protect against this and never let it
control you. Nothing is worse than hatred for
damaging your virtues and merits. For ordinary
people, because of their desires, when they lose
control of their anger, it is forgivable. Thus you
could forgive their insult. However it is unforgivable
for you, who have left the home to practice the Tao,
to possess hatred as you should have no desires. It
is as illogical as a thundering fire to arise from
nowhere.
Avoid Afflictions and Suffering
You, bhikshus and others, look at yourself. You
eliminated all your valuable possessions, wear
meager clothes, only, hold a begging bowl and beg
food to survive. This is to destroy your arrogance.
Eliminate arrogance like a disease. Arrogance is
even bad for ordinary people, how much worse for
you who have left your home to practice the Tao. To
escape arrogance, lower your status and become a
beggar.
You, bhikshus and others, a warped and prejudiced
mind is opposed to the Tao. Always respond with a
straight forward mind. If others discriminate against
you, as you are a person of the Tao, their act does
nothing to you as it is like hitting the air with a
hammer. Always be straight forward and honest as
the basis.
The Benefit of ‘Few Desires’
You, bhikshus and others, know for certain that
people who possess many desires are usually
looking for profit, thus they will have many sufferings
and afflictions. People with few desires do not long
for things and do not seek things, so they do not
have those problems. Be always seeking to reduce
desire. Cutting down your desire will create many
virtues and merits. People with few desires need not
lie to please people. They are not controlled by their
senses. People who practice reducing desires have
a straight forward heart that does not rely on
pleasures. They are not afraid of anything, do not
worry, and are never dissatisfied. People who
reduce their desires already possess nirvana. This
is called few desires.
The Benefit of Knowing Satisfaction
You, bhikshus and others, if you desire to escape
the sufferings and afflictions, you must perceive and
know satisfaction. The dharma to know satisfaction
is the resting place of riches and happiness. For
one who is satisfied, even if he is sleeping on the
ground, he feels pleasure and happiness. For one
who is never satisfied, although he may be living in
heaven, he still will feel unhappy. One who always
feels satisfied is rich although he is financially poor.
One who never feels satisfied will always be trapped
in the five pleasures. This is called knowing
satisfaction.
The Benefit of Distant Separation.
You, bhikshus and others, if you wish for a quiet,
natural and peaceful environment, you should
separate yourself from the busy, noisy environments
and live alone. The person who lives in a quiet
environment receives respect from heavenly angels.
When one gives up the company of others to live
alone, the root of bitter thinking will be destroyed.
However if you enjoy the company of others, you will
become polluted by afflictions and sufferings. It is
like a big tree being overly populated with birds. The
tree will die and its branches will brake. One who is
tied up by worldly affairs will be killed by the
bitterness of people. It is like an old elephant
trapped in the deep mud, who can not pull himself
out. This is called distant separation.
The Benefit of Being Diligent
You, bhikshus and others, if you could go forward
diligently, no difficulty will stop you. It is like the
continuing flow of a small stream of water which can
penetrate rock. If the practitioner’s mind constantly
takes rest, it is like turning a stick on a piece of
wood to start a fire. If you stop turning the stick
before it gets hot, even if you wish for fire, fire will
be difficult to obtain. This is called vigorously
advancing.
The Benefit of Constant Memorization
You, bhikshus and others, seek virtuous knowledge
and virtuous protection and assistance. There is
nothing more useful than constant memorization.
Afflictions and sufferings can not penetrate the mind
of a person who practices constant memorization
because his mind is constantly in control and
occupied by the mantra. If you lose control of your
memorization of the mantra, you will lose the virtues
and merits of your practice. One who is strong in
memorization will not be influenced by the five
pleasures. It is like entering the enemy’s territory
with an impenetrable force field. There is no worry.
This is called constant memorization.
The Benefit of Meditation: a stabilized mind
You, bhikshus and others! When your mind is under
control, it has been stabilized. When the stabilized
mind becomes set, you will know the aspects of all
the dharmas of the world that arise and become
extinct. Therefore, you must constantly train hard to
stabilize your mind. The one who attains this, his
mind will not be scattered. It is like an engineer who
had built a dam to collect water. The practitioner is
also like this. With the water of wisdom, one must
constantly practice meditation and stabilize the mind
so that you do not leak or lose the wisdom. This is
called stabilizing.
The Benefit of Wisdom
You, bhikshus and others, once you possess
wisdom, you will no longer have greed. Also you will
always be in control of yourself. This is the dharma,
among my dharmas, which allowed me to realize my
escape from suffering. If you have not realized this
wisdom, you will feel as if you are not practicing the
Tao, or as if you are not an ordinary person. You will
feel lost because you do not understand anything.
One who has realized wisdom is a strong ship for
the sea of death and disease; a great shinning light
for the darkness of ignorance; the medicine for all
sick people; a sharp ax for cutting down the trees of
afflictions and suffering. You must constantly
observe your intellect; the wisdom will accumulate
by itself. One who has gained the shinning wisdom,
even if he has only an ordinary eye, he will see
clearly. This is called wisdom.
The Benefit of ‘No Play’
You, bhikshus and others, all kinds of play cause
your mind to scatter. Even if you are one who has
left home (to practice the Tao), you will not escape
suffering. You must at once, abstain from all kinds of
games and play in order to realize the ultimate
happiness.
Sorry at this point, I have not been able to translate
the rest of this text in which Buddha told his
followers to ask him any questions before he died
so that there would be no doubts in the future.
There was no more discussion on the method of
how to practice Buddhism in the future.
Translated by Peter Chow, Vancouver, B.C.,1995
I hope the above translation help you as much as it
helped me. Please feel free to distribute my
translation provided no alteration is made to the
content.
Drop any comments to: Ect...@deepcove.com