(9) Dharma About Lay People for Lay People

　　A talk given at The Lay People Organization (Ju Shi Lin), Manila

　　Your Lay People Organization "Ju Shi Lin" asked me to give talks for three days. Because it is difficult to have the opportunity to listen to the Dharma, I feel very happy to give some talks. There is a saying, "When you meet a male, you should talk about something that interests the male; and when you meet a female, you talk about something that interests the female". Likewise Dharma should be expounded in concordance to the occasion. This place is the Lay People Organization, and those of you who are present here are also lay people. Thus I will use Dharma about lay people as the theme for the talk.

　　Let”s start with the Lay People Organization (Ju Shi Lin). What is a lay person (Ju Shi)

　　 What is an organisation (Lin)

　　 A lay person is a "Kulapati" in the Indian language. India has four different castes. There are the "Ksatriya" which are the royal caste, and "Brahmana" for those who perform religious ceremonies. The lowest caste are the slaves ("Sudra"). The other caste is the "Freemen" ("Vaisya") whose members work in agricultural, industrial or business sectors.

　　The "Freemen" gradually obtained their status in the Indian community. They are similar to the middle-class in the modern world. The name "Freemen" refers to the strata of lay people at that time. The teaching of the Buddha sees all sentient beings as equal and discourages stratification of beings. The term "laypeople" refers to people who live in a family in Buddhism. When Buddhism arrived in China, "laypeople" became the terminology that referred to the people who practised Buddhism at home. In the Philippines, the term "laypeople" is seldom used. In my country, China, all males and females are called lay people. Thus "laypeople" has become a general term that refers to Buddhists who practise at home.

　　"Lin" means forests which imply plural. When there are many trees in the same location we term it a forest. In the olden times, many monks and nuns stayed in the monastery and thus they called it "Chong Lin" i.e. "the thickly populated monastery". The thickly populated monastery was not a temple. It merely referred to the assembly of monks or nuns. Nowadays we call the lay people who set up the Buddhist organization as "Ju Shi Lin" i.e. "the thickly populated organisation." Thus "lin" implies an association or organization.

　　The history of the Ju Shi Lin is short. It started up in the time of about the tenth year of the Republic of China. At that time, Buddhists in Hu Ling and Hu Hang set up a Buddhist organization called The World Buddhist Ju Shi Lin. This was how the word came into being and subsequently Buddhists in other parts of the world came to use it.

　　Two Groups of Buddhists

　　Buddhists can be broadly categorized into two groups, namely the lay people and the monastic community. The assembly of monastic community is the Order of Monks and Nuns (s. Sangha). The organization for those who practice Buddhism at home is the Lay People Organization. What is the difference between these two institutions

　　In terms of faith, they both take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. From the perspective of attainment and enlightenment, there is not much difference. According to the Sravakayana, lay people can attain the third Supramundane Fruitions (s. phala) i.e. the Non-Returner (s. Anagamin), whereas the Sangha can attain the fourth Fruition i.e. the Holy One (s. Arahat). The difference is only one stage.

　　On the other hand, according to the Mahayana tradition, many Bodhisattvas are lay people. Among the great Bodhisattvas such as Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Avalokitesvara and Kshitigarbha, only Kshitigarbha presents himself as a member of the Sangha. The other…

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