To Respect all Buddhas

Of Samantabhadra’s Ten Great Vows, the first is to respect all Buddhas. This is to cultivate respect. To whom do “all Buddhas” refer? They refer to all beings, not just those who have attained Buddhahood. There are past Buddhas, present Buddhas, and future Buddhas. Future Buddhas refer to all beings. Not only sentient beings, but plants and minerals are also Buddhas-to-be.

This is the level [of teaching] in the Avatamsaka Sutra, which says “Sentient and non-sentient beings all have the same Buddha-wisdom.” Not only sentient beings—that is, animals—but plants and minerals can also attain Buddhahood. Therefore, we have to be sincere and respectful to people, to things, and to objects. This is the practice of Samantabhadra.

If you still have any discriminations or wandering thoughts, then you do not have sincerity and respect. Cultivating the Six Perfections with sincerity, purity, and

nondiscrimination is indeed cultivating the Ten Great Vows. If we still have [some degree of] discrimination and attachment, then we are cultivating the Six Perfections, not the Ten Great Vows.

So the difference between the Ten Great Vows and the Six Perfections is the degree of purity. In cultivating the Ten Great Vows, the practitioner’s mind is truly pure and nondiscriminatory.

~ Ven. Master Chin Kung