Part 5
In the Kingdom of Magadha, the Night Ruling Spirit Vasanti says to Good Wealth,
‘Good man, towards living beings who have evil wisdom, I give rise to thoughts of Great Kindness. Towards living beings that have wholesome karma, I give rise to thoughts of Great Compassion…
‘All those beings are without the eye of wisdom.
They are occluded by the cataract of the cognitive mind and inverted views…
‘My eyes are most pure;
They universally behold the ten direction kshetras.
I also see Buddhas within them,
Seated beneath the Bodhi tree.’
Good Wealth continues his pilgrimage as instructed, obtaining the Liberation Doors of the Night Ruling Spirits, and the Shakyan Lady Gopa in the city of Kapilavastu.

Annotation
In this section, when the Good Knowing Advisors told Good Wealth to go to the next Teacher, they did not say ‘south.’ National Master Ch’ing Liang explained the reason for it. He says,
‘There are also cases where traveling South is not specified, as for instance the visits to the Night-Ruling Spirits. This indicates they have certified to the Grounds and separated from the attachment to direction and place.’
The Night Spirit Vasanti says she will be extremely kind and compassionate to living beings with evil knowledge and bad karma. Why? Because a Bodhisattva only wishes to universally benefit all living beings. The exceedingly obstinate and wicked living beings need to be taught and transformed even more. He sees that all living beings are future Buddhas through his eyes of Great Compassion and he vows to do everything he can to awaken the Buddhas within all living beings. The main difference between a Bodhisattva and a living being lies in the measure of their hearts.

Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua commented,
‘The difference between a true cultivator and one who doesn’t cultivate is that a true cultivator is compassionate towards those who don’t cultivate. Whereas one who doesn’t cultivate is jealous of those who truly cultivate.’

Fenelon says, ‘It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become toward the defects of others.’

How can one obtain the pure and compassionate eyes of the Spirit Vasanti? Our eye faculty is something we use very often. If one knows how to use one’s eyes in a beneficial way, one can transcend the world. If one does not know how to use one’s eyes well, one will fall and keep revolving in the wheel of birth and death. If one has the gift of sight but does not know how to use it wisely, one will constantly flow out in pursuit of beautiful forms, expensive things, defiled things and be confused by them.

One should always avoid looking at improper things. One of the most powerful tools that are employed to confuse people is advertising. Advertisements and television commercials are designed to activate people’s greed; they are designed to manipulate the minds of people. When one travels about, or enters a town / city, one is constantly being bombarded by indecent things and impure sounds. When one steps out of a Wayplace, monastery or nunnery, one needs to be even more mindful and quietly recollect the Buddha so that one does not get cheated by both the sentient and insentient things that one encounters.

I recall the time when I was working in the advertising agency. After awhile I became very disillusioned and I asked my boss, ‘Don’t you think that advertising is all garbage?’ That is not a smart thing to say to one’s employer. He made an attempt to justify his work but I was not convinced. I hated what I was doing and felt that I was prostituting art and deceiving people.

H.G. Wells says,
‘Advertising is legalized lying.’ Stephen Leacock says, ‘Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.’

Hence, practitioners of the Way have to be very wary of the newspapers, magazines, billboards, shopping malls, cinemas, radio, television, and computer / internet.
One should use one’s eyes to see what is proper, to see what accords with true principle, to see one’s self-nature, to see one’s faults and transgressions. If one can be that way, then when one looks at external objects or at living beings, one will not be turned by them. With sufficient samadhi and wisdom power, one will not become disorientated by whatever one sees.

A verse says,
‘If Mount Tai were to collapse before them,
it would not make them blink.
If a ravishing beauty were to pass before them,
they would not be affected in the slightest.’

If one can master the skill of using one’s eyes, one can uphold the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra (and other sutras) and obtain eight hundred meritorious virtues of the eyes. When one’s organ of vision is pure, when one has purified one’s mind, one can then look at living beings with the eyes of Great Compassion. At that time, one can behold the Buddhas of the ten directions.

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