After seeing the buddhas in all directions, one will have a dream in which on an elephant’s head there is a man who handles diamond pounders who points a diamond pounder at the six sense organs. After the six organs have been pointed at, Universal Sage Bodhisattva will teach the Dharma for this follower, to purify the six organs through repentance. In this way the follower will repent for a day or for twenty-one days.
Then, by the power of the concentration by which the buddhas appear and by the beauty of the preaching of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, with their ears followers will gradually hear sounds without hindrance, their eyes will gradually see things without hindrance, and their noses will gradually smell odors without hindrance. This is as taught extensively in the Wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra.
The Sutra of Contemplation of the
Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva
Reeves translation
A major portion of this sutra explores the specific evils that arise from the six sense organs. Rather than break them up and comment on them separately, I’m going to list the evils of each organ from the prose section and use the gāthās to wrap it all together. Again, all of this comes from the Reeves translation
Eyes
“In innumerable previous lives, because of your eyes you have been greedily attached to material forms. Because of your attachment to such forms, you greedily desire the dust of the passions. Because of your desire for the dust of the passions, you receive a woman’s body.* Living in age after age, you are deluded by and attached to forms. Forms harm your eyes and you become a slave to desire. This is why forms cause you to wander in the threefold world. This makes you so blind you can see nothing at all.”
Ears
“Because of your ears, you have sought external sounds for many eons. Hearing wonderful sounds gives rise to deluded attachment to them. Hearing evil sounds brings about the damage of a hundred and eight kinds of affliction. This kind of retribution from evil ears results in evil things. Incessantly hearing evil sounds gives rise to various entanglements. Due to your perverted hearing, you will fall into truly evil paths, remote places, or wrong views where the Dharma cannot be heard.”
Nose
“In the innumerable eons of your previous lives, because of your lust for odors, you developed sense discriminations and became constantly attached to them, and you fell into life after life. Now you should contemplate the cause of the Great Vehicle. This cause of the Great Vehicle is the true character of all things.”
Tongue
“You should speak about the bad and evil things done by your tongue, saying: ‘This tongue, moved by thoughts of evil actions, makes me praise deluded speech, idle talk, harsh words, divisive talk, slander, lies, and wrong views, and it also makes me speak useless words. With such a multitude and variety of evil actions, which provoke fights and dissension, I teach what is not Dharma as if it were Dharma. I now repent for all such sins. … The errors of this tongue are countless and without limit. Thorns of evil actions are rooted in the tongue. It is this tongue that stops the wheel of the true Dharma. Such an evil tongue cuts off the seeds of blessings. Meaningless things are frequently forced on others. Praising wrong views is like adding wood to a fire, bringing greater harm to beings already in raging flames. It is like someone who dies from drinking poison without getting any sores. Recompense for my sins, for the evil, wrong, and bad things I have done, should result in my falling into evil paths for hundreds or thousands of eons. Because of lying I will fall into a great purgatory. Now going to the buddhas of the southern direction, I confess my errors and sins.’ ”
Body and Mind
“Now you should repent of body and mind. The sins of the body are killing, stealing, and fornication, while thinking bad thoughts is the sin of the mind. Committing the ten evil actions and the five irredeemable sins is just like being a monkey, or like birdlime glue. Attachment to all sorts of things leads to the passions of the six sense faculties. The actions of these six sense faculties fill every threefold world. the twenty-five states of existence, and all places where there is life, filling them with heavy branches, small branches, flowers, and leaves. Such actions also increase ignorance, old age, death, and the twelve kinds of suffering, and inevitably involve the eight evils and the eight difficulties. You should now repent of such evil and bad deeds.”
And now in gāthās
If you have evil in your eyes,
Impure with hindrances from actions in the past,
You should recite the Great Vehicle
And reflect on its first principle.This is called eye repentance.
It exhausts past bad actions.When the ears hear noise,
The principle of harmony is upset.
This produces craziness,
Like that of a foolish monkey.You should recite the Great Vehicle
And meditate on the emptiness and formlessness of things,
To exhaust all evils for a long time,
And hear sounds from all directions with heavenly ears.The nose is attached to scents.
In accord with its contamination, contacts occur.
In this way the deluded nose, in accord with its contamination,
Gives birth to all kinds of entanglements.
If you recite the Great Vehicle sutras
And meditate on the reality of things,
You will long be free from evil actions done in the past
And not do them in future lives.The tongue causes five kinds of bad consequences
From harsh words spoken in the past.If you want to control it yourself,
You should make an effort to practice compassion,
Think of the meaning of the true quiescence of things,
And not conceive by making distinctions.The mind is like a monkey,
Never resting for a moment.If you want to subdue it,
You should make an effort to recite the
Great Vehicle,
Keeping in mind the Buddha’s great awakened body,
His power, and his freedom from fear.The body, master of its organs,
Dances freely among these six harmful faculties
Without obstacle,
Like dust swirling in the wind.If you want to be rid of these evils,
Long separated from dirt and trouble,
Ever in the comfort of nirvana,
And at ease with a calm heart,
You should recite the Great Vehicle sutras
And keep in mind the mother of bodhisattvas.Innumerable excellent skillful means will be obtained
By reflecting on the true nature of things.
These so-called six methods
Purify the six sense organs.The whole ocean of hindrances from past actions
Arises from illusion.
If you want to repent, you should sit upright
And reflect on the true nature of things.
And, most important, the gāthās conclude:
All sins are like frost and dew.
The sun of wisdom can dissipate them.
For this reason, with all your heart
You should repent of the six senses.
*While Reeves and The Threefold Lotus Sutra have “receive a woman’s body,” the BDK English Tripitaka Tiantai Lotus Texts says, “your body is derived from a woman.” A footnote explains: “In traditional interpretations of the Chinese shou nu ren shen, nu ren has been read in the genitive; and in a previous English translation of this sutra, this phrase is translated as “[you] receive the body of a woman.” In our translation we have read nu ren as ablative, and therefore render the phrase as “your body is derived from a woman.”
And assuming the “derived from a woman” is correct, does that then play into the Four Forms of Birth: (1) birth from the womb, as in mammals; (2) birth from eggs; (3) birth from dampness (the way worms were thought to be generated); and (4) birth by transformation, that is, spontaneous birth without the womb, eggs, or dampness, as in the cases of deities and beings in the hells. Are we “derived from woman” instead of having been born through transformation in the heavens?