Buddhism As Education

Ancient sages said that a wise and virtuous person knows that everything including "one sip and one bite" is destined. However, foolish people relentlessly pursue things that are already destined to be their. There is no need to be overly serious or to criticize everything. As we have learned in the Diamond Sutra, "All phenomena are illusory, like dreams, mirages, bubbles, shadows". Nothing is real. As the ancient sages also said, all phenomena are as fleeting as clouds. There is nothing worthy of anger or dispute. There is no point of dwelling on things for this will hinder our cultivation of purity of mind. In Venerable Ouyi's commentary on the Amitabha Sutra, we read "One let go of the phenomena one sees and keeps in mind and never reminisces about them". Letting go refers to how we are to react to our external environments. Outside stimuli often tempt us. But, ideally, when we see or hear these stimuli, we should not be attached to them....

Men are disturbed not by external things, but by beliefs and imaginations they conjure up in their minds with regard to the form of their future lives. For example, death is not by itself that dreadful: the dread or terror exists only in our minds. It is not often that we are brave enough to come facing with the thought of our own mortality. Insistence upon the truth of suffering may seem horrible and unacceptable to the mind which is unable to face realities, but it surely helps to reduce or eliminate the dread of fear realities by knowing how to actually face death. Once life is launched, like a bullet, it rushes to its destination i.e. death. Realising thus, we must bravely face that natural occurrence. To be considered free in life, we must also be free from fearing death. Fear only comes to those who are not able to comprehend the laws of Nature. "Wherever fear appears, it appears in the fool, not in the wise man", says the Buddha in the Anguttara Nikaya. Fears ar...

As it is extremely important to cleanse away the stains of black karmic debts and downfalls (from broken vows) tarnishing the three gateways (of your body, speech and mind), and especially (to remove) your karmic obstacles (which would prevent such rebirth), you should cherish continually devoting yourself to (applying) the complete set of four opponent powers (which can purge you of them). With respect to refraining from negative actions in the future, you can determine to maintain an ethical discipline that will protect you from committing negative acts in future, but what about the negative actions you have already committed? The only way to deal with these is to purify them. There is a Tibetan saying, "If there is one good thing about negativities, it is that they can be purified." However, there are different degrees of purification. One possibility is to completely eliminate the potency of a karmic act such that it can never ripen at all. Another is to diminish t...

Upon taking refuge in the Three Jewels, your main responsibility is to observe the law of karma and abstain from the ten negative actions. Moreover, your success in doing so depends on your considering thoroughly which are the black or white karmic actions together with their results and then living accordingly to the guides of what is to be adopted or rejected. There are different kinds of karmic actions ad various ways of categorising them. Since we all share the same fundamental nature, which is the natural aspiration to be happy and not to suffer, actions leading to happiness are generally considered to be positive or virtuous, while actions leading to pain and suffering are generally considered to be negative or non-virtuous. Therefore, it is in their causal relationship to happiness and suffering that the distinction between positive and negative or virtuous and non-virtuous actions is made. With respect to the medium through which these positive and negative actions are c...

According to the Buddhist tradition, the subtlest workings of karma are evident only to the omniscient minds of the Buddhas; ordinary beings have no way of understanding karma as its deepest levels. Therefore, in order to be deeply convinced of the truth of the law of karma, you need to have a deep conviction in the validity and efficacy of the Three Jewels of Refuge; the basis of your spiritual practice must be strong faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This faith is not developed from the words of the Buddha alone but, as we have seen, on the basis of your own critical analysis. If you look at the Buddha's teachings, you can discern two basic objectives: the secondary, temporary objective is to help sentient beings gain upper rebirths, but the primary, ultimate objective is to lead them to complete liberation from samsara. When you examine the Buddha's teachings on the complex issue of negative emotions and how to counter them, you can see that these matter are evident...

If we examine the nature of reality deeper, we will find that within this complex world, there are things and events that have a certain degree of permanence, at least from the point of view of their continuum. Examples of this include the continuity of consciousness and the mind's essential nature of luminosity and clarity. There is nothing that can threaten the continuity of consciousness or the essential nature of mind. Then, there are certain types of experiences and events in the world that appear evident at a particular point but cease to exist after contact with opposing forces, such as phenomena can be understood to be adventitious or circumstantial. It is on the basis of these two categories of phenomena that the teachings of the Four Noble Truths such as the truths of suffering and its origin become relevant. When we further examine this dynamic, complex and diverse world that we experience, we find that phenomena can also be categories in three ways: 1. The Worl...

Buddhism discusses what are known as the two truths - the truths of conventional and ultimate reality. The concept of two levels of reality is not unique to Buddhism. It is a common epistemological approach in many of the ancient Indian schools. Followers of non-Buddhist Samkhya school, for example, explain reality in terms of twenty five categories of phenomena. The self [Sanskrit: purusha; Tibetan: kye-bu] and the primal substance [Sanskrit: prakriti; Tibetan: rang-zhin] are said to be ultimate truths, while the remaining twenty three categories of phenomena are said to be manifestations or expressions of this underlying reality. However, what is unique in Mahayana particularly in the Madhyamaka or Middle Way School is that conventional and ultimate truths are not seen as two unrelated, independent entities but as different perspectives of one and the same world. According to the Middle Way School of Buddhism, the ultimate truth or the ultimate nature of reality is the emptine...

All this suggest the importance of having a deeper knowledge of the nature of the mind and its various aspects and functions in general and the nature and complexity of emotion in particular. Also since we realize that many of our problems arise from a fundamentally flawed way of perceiving and relating to the world, it becomes important for us to be able to examine whether or not our perception accords with the true nature of reality. Understanding the true nature of reality is crucial as it is our perception of reality that lies at the heart of how we relate to the world. However, reality here means not just the immediate facts of our experience and environment but the entire expanse of reality because many of our thoughts and emotions arise not only as a result of the immediate physical environment but also out of abstract ideas. Therefore, in the Buddha's teaching, we find a great deal of discussion on the nature of reality in terms of eighteen constituents, the twelve s...

The Buddha taught that those who wish to know must realise the truth for themselves. Then it makes no difference whether others criticise or praise you., whatever you say, you will be undisturbed. If a person has no trust in himself, when someone calls him bad, he will feel he is bad accordingly. What a waste of time! If people call you bad, you must examine yourself. If they are not correct, then just ignore them. Then, if they are correct, you will have to learn from them. In either case, why do you have to get angry over it? If you can see things this way, you will definitely be in peace. There will be nothing wrong, there will be only Dharma. If you really use the tools the Buddha had given to us, you will never envy others. Whereas, lazy people want to just listen and believe, you will be self-sufficient, able to earn your living by your own efforts. To practice using only the resources of your own is troublesome because they are your own. You once thought practice was diff...

The following attitudes are essential to success in practice. Most of them have been presented before, but we are bringing them together again here as a series of rules for application. 1. Do not expect anything. Just sit back and see what happens. Treat the whole thing as an experiment, take an active interest in the test itself. But do no get distracted by your expectations about the results for that matter, do not be anxious for any results whatsoever. Let the meditation move along at its own speed and in its own direction. Let the meditation teach you what it wants you to learn. Meditative awareness seeks to see reality exactly as it is. Whether that corresponds to our expectations or not, it requires a temporary suspension of all our preconceptions and ideas. We must store away our images, opinions and interpretations someplace out of the way for a duration. Otherwise, we will stumble over them. 2. Do not strain. Do not force anything or make grand exaggerated efforts. Me...

Within the last century, western science and physics have made a startling discovery. We are part of the world we view. The very process of our observation changes the things that we observe. For example, an electron is an extremely tiny item. It cannot be viewed without instrumentation and that apparatus dictates what the observer will see. If you look at an electron in one way, it appears to be a particle, a hard little ball that bounces around in nice straight paths. When you view it in another way, an electron appears to be a wave form, with nothing solid about it. It glows and wiggles all over the place around it. An electron is an event more than a thing. And the observer participates in that event by the very process of his or her observation. There's no way to avoid this interaction. Eastern science has recognized this basic principle for a very long time ago. The mind is a set of events and the observer participates in those events every time he or she looks inward....

When you take a good look at it, this world of ours is just that much; it exists just as it is. ruled by birth, ageing, sickness and finally, death, it is only that much. Great or little is only that much. The wheel of life and death is only that much. Then, why are we still attached, caught up and not removed? Playing around with the objects of life gives us some enjoyment, yet this enjoyment is also just that much. Whatever is pleasurable, delicious, exciting, good, is just that much, it has its limitation, it is not as if it is anything outstanding. The Buddha taught that everything is just that much, of equal value. We should contemplate this point. Just look at the Western monks who have come here to practice. They have much pleasure and comfort in their lives, but it was only that much, trying to make more of it just drove them crazy. They became world travellers, let everything go, it was still only that much. Then they came here to the forest to learn to give it all up, ...

Those just beginning often wonder what practice is. Practice occurs when you try opposing the defilements, not feeding old habits. where friction and difficulty arise, that is the place to work. When you pick mushrooms to eat, you do not do so blindly, you have to know which kind and what. So too with our practice, we must know the dangers, the snakes bite of defilements, in order to free ourselves from them. The defilements - greed, hatred and delusion are at the root of our suffering and our selfishness. We must learn to overcome them, to conquer and go beyond their control, to become masters of our minds. Of course it seems hard. It is like having the Buddha tell you to split up a friend you have known since childhood. The defilements are like a tiger. We should imprison the tiger in a good strong cage made of mindfulness, energy, patience and endurance. Then we can let it starve to death by not feeding its habitual desires. We do not have to take a knife and butcher it. ...

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in the sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain, without rain, the trees cannot grow, without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. "Interbeing" is the word that is not in the dictionary yet but if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be", we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are. If we look into the sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we ...

Penetration means to enter something, not just to stand outside of it. when we want to understand something, we cannot just stand outside and observe it. We have to enter deeply into it and be one with it in order to really understand it. If we want to understand a person, we have to feel their feelings, suffer their sufferings and enjoy their joy. Penetration is an excellent word. The word "comprehend" is made up of the Latin roots "com", which means "together in mind" and "prehendere" which means "to grasp it or pick it up". To comprehend something means to pick it up and be one with it. there is no other way to understand something. If we only look at the sheet of paper as an observer, standing outside, we cannot understand it completely. We have to penetrate it. we have to be a loud, be the sunshine and be the logger. If we can enter it and be everything that is in it, our understanding of the sheet of paper will be perfect...

You must recall the words "salvation" or "liberation" used in all religions. The final goal of all religions is salvation or emancipation, or whatever word most suitable in each language. But all these words have the same meaning, getting saved. All religions teach salvation. Then, from what are we saved? We are saved from spiritual prison. The thing that all of you want and need - even right at this moment - is the thing called "freedom" or "liberty", which is simply escape from prison. Whether a physical, material prison or a mental, spiritual prison, the meaning is the same. In all cases, we want freedom. Those who lack of wisdom can see and fear only physical, material prisons. But those who have wisdom to look deeper will see how much more terrifying and dangerous the spiritual prison is. Really, we can see that hardly anybody is locked up in ordinary jails, while everyone in the world is caught in the spiritual prison. For instance...

Does the mind have a form or is it formless? Can it be identified with the chemical mechanism of the brain or is there something more to it than that? What are its causes? Is it hereditary? These are some of the questions that we are going to probe in the course of our investigation here. In Buddhist writings, the mind is defined as a phenomenon which is formless and possesses the dual nature of clarity and knowing. The first characteristic (clarity) speaks of its quality of being luminous and clear; clear in the sense that its fundamental nature could never be defiled or polluted by negative influence. Emotions, such as desire, hatred and anger contaminate the mind and hold constant sway over it as our own personal experiences testify; the pollution is, however, only at a superficial level, for they do not penetrate into the core of the mind. In other words, these negative emotions are not part of the intrinsic nature of the mind. Irrespective of how forceful one's experi...

Things are entirely what they appear to be and behind them... there is nothing. Before us is everything but behind everything is nothing substantial (as all is constant change). But everything here is indeed here! And the "nothing" that is behind them is here at the same place and time too. Everything is same in the sense that all are equally empty. However, everything is distinctly different as they manifest in countless forms. "Everything" also refers to all of one's possession, family, health, wealth, fame, etc. As in the river analogy, the river is both here and not here in the same place and time. This applies to everything. The whole wide world that we know is "real yet unreal" at the same time. It is the ultimate "magic trick" that the unenlightened fails to see and be amazed at. Benefits of Realizing Emptiness Our ignorance is seeing the illusory as being too real where we see the constantly changing as unchanging and become attached ...

Emptiness does not mean physical or mental nothingness - it is the law of total openness and infinite possibilities. Emptiness is like the vast clear sky that allows clouds, birds, planes, etc to come in and go by, allowing infinite phenomena to occur within it. Emptiness is this infinitely more than everything that the unenlightened can perceive. It is because of emptiness that everything including ourselves can continually change for the better. Anything can transform into something else when the right combination of causes and conditions is present. Similarly, anyone can become enlightened if one cultivates spiritually. Emptiness is thus teaching full of hope. Emptiness of Mind and Matter Emptiness applies to all physical entities. Much more subtly, it applies to all mental entities (mindstates). All physical entities upon closer inspection are unceasing fluctuations of molecules, of atoms, of electrons, neutrons and protons, of particles, of sub-atomic particles of ... energy. All ...

The above two aspects of Emptiness should be realized together as they balance to show the Middle Way beyond all extremes. Realizing the first aspect of Emptiness without the second can lead one to be greedy and selfish-falsely, believing that all pleasures and material things are "real" and lasting. Realizing the second aspect without the first can lead one to be pessimistic, passive or immoral, falsely believing that nothing is worth striving for as everything is hollow and meaningless. It is therefore very important to see both of these aspects together in order to function with Wisdom in a balanced way in everyday life. One should learn to perceive everything as they are while knowing the true nature of their existence. One who realizes Emptiness is able to live positively with great ease and freedom, treasuring everything without attachment. Emptiness is not Nothingness Emptiness does not mean physically or mentally nothing or nothingness - it is the law of total opennes...