(This passage is taken from the book "The Ten Dharma Realms are
not beyond a single thought")
The Dharma Realm of Asuras
Asuras have a
violent nature,
Laden with blessings, lacking power.
Absolutely determined to fight,
They bob along in karma's tow.
Sometimes this realm is included in the Three Good
Realms— gods, humans, and asuras. At other times they are
classified as one of the Four Evil Realms—hell-beings, hungry
ghosts, animals, and asuras.
There are asuras in the animal realm, in the human
realm, in the heavens, and among the hungry ghosts. Although the
asuras are an individual Dharma Realm by themselves, they appear in
the otherrealms as well. In general, regardless of what realm they
are in, they like to pick fights, and they have bad tempers. They
enjoy bossing others around and like to be supervisors, but they
can't stand supervision. They won't be controlled by others. These
are the characteristics of asuras.
If you haven't noticed the asuras, I can tell you more
about them. Among people, asuras can be good or bad. The good
asuras include military officials and troops, and bad asuras are
bandits, thieves, robbers, thugs, murderers, and the like. We can
see these asuras in the world of men.
There are also asuras in the heavens. Heavenly asuras
wage battles against the heavenly troops of Shakra. From morning to
night, they attempt to overthrow Shakra so that they can seize his
jeweled throne and become the heavenly king. But no matter what
strategy they use, they are always defeated, because they are
"laden with blessings, lacking power." They have accumulated the
blessings that earn them rebirth in the heavens, but they have no
authority there. For that reason, they are invariably defeated in
their battles with the heavenly troops.
Are there asuras in the animal realm? Yes. Tigers, for
instance, are asuras among the animals. Lions and wolves are also
asuras among the animals. These asuras bully the other animals.
Wolves, tigers, and lions kill other animals for food. They prey on
other animals because they have the nature of asuras. Snakes and
eagles are also asuras.
In general, asuras are utterly unreasonable and have
huge tempers. They are constantly blowing their tops. Too much
temper!
There are also asuras in the hungry ghost realm, and
they go around bullying other ghosts. The realm of hungry ghosts
has kind ghosts and evil ghosts. Evil ghosts are utterly
unreasonable. Ghosts are not reasonable to begin with, but these
asura ghosts are even more unreasonable. And so the verse says:
Asuras have a violent nature. They have explosive tempers.
Laden with blessings,
lacking power. They have heavenly blessings, but lack
heavenly authority. They fight for power and advantages, but fail
to obtain them. Absolutely
determined to fight: they love to fight and wage war. The
modern world is a world of asuras—everyone is fighting and
struggling, trying to knock each other down.
Asuras are so belligerent that they can keep fighting
for one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, five hundred, or even
a thousand years. They could fight for a thousand years without
getting tired of it!
This is the Age Strong in Fighting and also the
Dharma-Ending Age. Nevertheless, we don't want it to be the
Dharma-Ending Age; we want the Proper Dharma to prevail. We should
vow that wherever we go, the Proper Dharma will prevail. If we do
that, every place we go will become a place of genuine Dharma. If
everyone fulfilled this vow, the Dharma-Ending Age would become the
Proper Dharma Age. We can turn the situation around.
They bob along in
karma's tow. Asuras may be born in the heavens, in the human
realm, or in the realms of animals and hungry ghosts. Dragged by
the force of their karma, they become deluded, create more karma,
and undergo the retribution. The force of their karma pulls them to
undergo retribution in various realms. Cultivators should take care
not to be belligerent and hot-tempered. Then they won't get dragged
into the asura realm.
Five of the nine Dharma Realms have asuras. In the
animal realm, there are asuras among creatures that fly in the air,
those on the land, and those in the water. Crocodiles are an
instance of asuras in the water. Wild stallions are asuras among
horses. They bring trouble and disturbance to the herd. Most bulls
are asuras, too. They butt their two horns against things to show
their tough asura disposition. Bulls are asuras by nature. Dogs
have even more of an asura nature, so people who own dogs are in
close association with asuras. If you hang around asuras, you
become closer to them. And getting close to them is dangerous; you
might just fall into the realm of asuras. Everyone should pay
attention to this and not run into the realm of asuras!
(The passage below is from the Shurangama
Sutra)
H7 Destiny of asuras.
I1 A general introduction to their name and number.
Sutra:
“Furthermore, Ananda, there are four categories of asuras in the
Triple Realm.
Commentary:
“Furthermore, Ananda, there are four categories of asuras.” “Asura”
is also a Sanskrit word. Sometimes it’s translated as “non-gods.”
That’s because some asuras have the blessings of the heavens but
not the virtue of the gods. Another translation is “not upright in
appearance”; however, only the male asuras are that way. The asura
women are extremely beautiful. Asuras are found among beings of the
four kinds of birth: womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born, and born
by transformation. Each of these will now be discussed.
I2 A specific explanation of those included in this destiny.
J1 Egg-born ghosts.
Sutra:
“Those in the path of ghosts who use their strength to protect the
Dharma and who can ride their spiritual Destiny of Asuras
penetrations to enter into emptiness are asuras born from eggs;
they belong to the destiny of ghosts.
Commentary:
“Those in the path of ghosts who use their strength to protect the
Dharma and who can ride their spiritual penetrations to enter into
emptiness are asuras born from eggs.” Some ghosts are good and act
as Dharma protectors. Kuan Ti Kung is an example. He is a great and
powerful ghost. These kinds of ghosts protect and support the
Triple Jewel. They can use their spiritual powers to go into
emptiness. These asuras “they belong to the destiny of
ghosts.”
J2 Womb-born people.
Sutra:
“Those who have fallen in virtue and have been dismissed from the
heavens dwell in places near the sun and moon. They are asuras born
from wombs and belong to the destiny of humans.
Commentary:
“Those who have fallen in virtue and have been dismissed from the
heavens dwell in places near the sun and moon.” They started out in
the heavens, but they didn’t have the virtue to remain there. They
fell and were thrown out into empty space. They take
up residence in places close to the sun and moon. “They are asuras
born from wombs and belong to the destiny of humans.”
J3 Transformation-born gods.
Sutra:
“There are asura kings who uphold the world with a penetrating
power and fearlessness. They fight for position with the Brahma
Lord, the God Shakra, and the Four Heavenly Kings. These asuras
come into being by transformation and belong to the destiny of
gods.
Commentary:
There is another category of “asura kings who uphold the world with
a penetrating power and fearlessness. Their strength is enormous.
They can shake the entire world system. If they grasp the peak of
Mt. Sumeru with their hand and push, they can topple the mountain
right down. That’s the kind of strength they have. With such great
spiritual powers, they think they’d like to be the Great Brahma
King or the Lord Shakra. So they fight for power and authority.
“They fight for position with the Brahma Lord, the God Shakra, and
the Four Heavenly Kings. These asuras come into being by
transformation and belong to the destiny of gods.” They use their
spiritual powers to undergo this transformation. The Lord of the
asuras had a beautiful daughter who became the reason why he went
to war with the God Shakra. She was an exquisite young goddess, and
when Shakra laid eyes on her he went to the Lord of the asuras to
ask for her hand. The asura father consented. It turned out,
however, that the asura woman was extremely jealous and selfish.
The Lord Shakra liked to listen to the Buddhadharma and would go
regularly to hear the Dharma Masters lecture on the sutras. The
asura woman noticed his absence and became jealous. She thought,
“Now that he’s married me, he doesn’t love me anymore. I bet he’s
going out and having an affair.” Possessed by such jealous thoughts
as this, she secretly followed the Lord God one day to find out
where he went. When the Lord entered the Dharma assembly and took
his place, his wife observed that there were a lot of women in the
gathering. This fired her jealousy even more, and with that she
became visible. When Shakra saw her he asked, “What are you doing
here?” “You come here to get friendly with women and don’t invite
me along:” she replied in a jealous fit. Shakra slapped her face,
and she began to cry and ran home to the asura King to tell her
tale. “The God Shakra is breaking the rules and always going out to
find women,” she reported. “When I followed him, he hit me.” Of
course, when the asura King heard that, he was outraged. “We’re
going to war: We’ll overthrow him and usurp the throne:” He sent
out the entire company of asura soldiers and generals to join
battle against Shakra. Well, guess what; the combined military
might of Shakra, Brahma, and the Four Heavenly Kings could not
overcome the asura troops. It was a stalemate. Finally Shakra had
to go to the Buddha to ask for help. “What’s to be done?” he said.
“I can’t beat these asuras.” Shakyamuni Buddha replied, “Go back
and tell all your officers and enlisted men to recite the phrase
‘Mahaprajnaparamita,’ and I guarantee that everything will turn out
all right.” Shakra did as he was told, and the asuras gave up
without further fight. That’s how Shakra finally won. But these
kinds of asuras are always fighting for position and
authority.
J4 Moisture-born animals.
Sutra:
“Ananda, there is another, baser category of asuras. They have
thoughts of the great seas and live submerged in underwater caves.
During the day they roam in emptiness; at night they return to
their watery realm. These asuras come into being because of
moisture and belong to the destiny of animals.
Commentary:
“Ananda, there is another, baser category of asuras. They have
thoughts of the great seas and live submerged in underwater caves.”
These asuras belong to the animal realm. Dragons and the like are
examples. Since they think so much about the sea, they end up
living in it. “During the day they roam in emptiness; at night they
return to their watery realm.” They go back to their underwater
caves in the evening. “These asuras come into being because of
moisture and belong to the destiny of animals.”