The Fourth Practice of Virtue - Irrepressibility - Virya Paramita
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4. The Practice of Irrepressibility (Diligence)
The Flower Garland (Avatamsadka) Sutra says:
Children of the Buddha: What is the Bodhisattva Mahasattva’s practice of irrepressibility?
This is the Bodhisattva’s cultivation of the various kinds of diligence. This is the highest diligence, the greatest diligence, the superior diligence, the superlative diligence, the most wonderful diligence, the most excellent diligence, the supreme diligence, the unequalled diligence, and the omnipresent diligence. These Bodhisattvas have a spiritual nature that without the three poisons of greed, hatred and stupidity, and is without arrogance or conceit, the concealment of faults, stinginess, jealousy, flattery or deception. Ultimately the Bodhisattvas practice diligence in order to keep living beings from becoming distressed. They practice diligence to:
- Eliminate emotional troubles
- Uproot the source of all confusions
- Eradicate all forces of habit
- Know the spiritual realms of all living beings
- Know where living beings die and where they are born
- Know the emotional troubles of all living beings
- Know the desires of all living beings
- Know the sphere that is the spiritual realm of all living beings
- Know the sharp and dull spiritual qualities of all living beings
- Know the mental activities of all living beings, to know all of the spiritual realms
- Know the fundamental spiritual nature of the Buddhas
- Know the spiritual nature that is the equanimity of the Buddhas
- Know the nature of equanimity in the past, present and future
- Attain the bright light that is the wisdom of the Buddha’s teachings
- Know the single spiritual aspect of reality in all the Buddhas teachings
- Know the boundlessness of all the Buddha’s teachings
- Attain the broad and great wisdom of resolve and competence of spiritual enlightenment, and
- Attain the wisdom of discerning and explaining the words and meanings in all the Buddha’s teachings.
Children of the Buddha: With the Bodhisattva Mahasattvas having realized the practice of diligence like this, suppose that there are people say:
- “Will you be able to spend countless eons suffering a host of sufferings in the Avici Hell for each and every single living being in the countless worlds, make each one of them meet the countless Buddha that appear in the world, and through seeing the Buddhas possess contentment and then enter into the Nirvana that is without a trace, after which you may attain the supreme universal enlightenment, or not?”
The Bodhisattvas will answer, “Yes, we can.”
And then there are people that will make words like this:
- “There are limitless countless great oceans; you must drain them dry drop by drop with a single hairtip. There are limitless countless worlds that are ground into particles of dust. Upon counting each and every drop and each and every particle of dust, one will know the number of eons must incessantly suffer for living beings.”
The Bodhisattvas, upon hearing this, will not have a single thought of regret or resentment. They will only increase their jumping for joy, deeply happy and blessed to have attain such a great benefit to be able to make living beings attain liberation from suffering by means of their own spiritual power. By means of the practice of these ways and means, the Bodhisattvas will make all living beings in all worlds attain the complete Nirvana that is without a trace.
This is called the fourth practice of the Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, that of irrepressibility.