Simple Explanations

From the records of history, we know that Shakyamuni Buddha advocated transmitting his teachings in the languages of the people. He was not in favor of the body of his teachings being preserved in the lofty languages used by other religions of the time. He wanted ordinary people with an average education to be able to understand his teachings. In that same spirit, the Venerable Master, in explaining the Sutras and speaking the Dharma, carefully kept his language simple.

The Master's published commentaries on texts from the Buddhist canon were called "simple explanations" [in the Chinese] because he hoped that the most ordinary person could understand his explanations. Another reason was that the translators who interpreted his lectures were not proficient enough in Chinese to understand a more difficult explanation. As Westerners with little understanding of the Buddhadharma, they needed special help in understanding the Buddhist terminology and the Chinese vocabulary. Thus, the Venerable Master's simple commentaries were aimed at universally rescuing living beings, teaching and transforming on a vast scale, and guiding the translators so they could translate the texts correctly. The commentaries also provided the translators with a basic knowledge of the Buddhadharma, according to which they could practice and develop a solid foundation.

There are some intellectuals who consider the Venerable Master's commentaries too simple and too shallow. They think the Master's words are not sophisticated and erudite enough. The Master himself often said, "I only had two and a half years of formal schooling." If you try to edit the Venerable Master's words, however, you will discover that despite their simplicity, these words convey extremely genuine and profound ideas. The Master's sentences are so well-structured that to edit them would only destroy their original phrasing. His erudition in the Chinese classics and his knowledge of medicine, divination, astrology, physiognomy, and so forth surpass that of university professors. In explaining the doctrines of the Sutras, the Venerable Master's use of language is dynamic and profoundly moving. An uneducated person would not be capable of this. Generally speaking, English sentences are much more structured grammatically than Chinese sentences. Yet many people, in translating the Venerable Master's lectures, have found that the Master's sentences are very well-structured and easy to translate. In fact, the Master often ingeniously used English grammatical structure in his Chinese, making it easier for disciples who were not proficient in Chinese to learn and to translate.