Buddhism As Education

This way of life satisfies human being’s most profound and lofty aspirations. Yet it is able to the stress and strain of everyday life, besides giving the purpose of life. It does not instil fear in people. Good begets good and bad begets bad. Every action has its reaction. These are universal laws. This way of life fully agrees with these fundamental laws and people have to abide by them and reap what they sow. People perpetrate evil deeds out of greed, anger and ignorance. Such shortcomings can only be overcome through self-realisation. The fortunes and misfortunes people experience in this world are not due to external influences but to the good and bad actions, words, deeds they themselves had previously committed. For this reasons, this teaching says, “We are the results of what we were and we will be the results of what we are”. This means, we are totally responsible for everything that we have been doing in our life. Forgiveness of sin is not acknowledged in this way of life....

All phenomena are manifested by the mind. Our environment changes according to our mind. "Environment" here means mountains, rivers, earth, trees, flowers and grass. They all can be changed by our minds and we have to remember this sentence.. If we can be persons with pure, virtuous, sincere, compassionate mind, then the mountains, rivers, earth, trees, flowers and grass will become strong and wonderful. If our mind are full of greed, anger, ignorance and arrogance and our thoughts are constantly taking advantage over others to benefit ourselves, then the outer world will turn fragile. The true nature is of the utmost purity and virtuousness, it is perfect and radiant. Habits are the bad thoughts and views that one acquired after birth. Simply put, the conflict between the true nature and acquired habits are the conflict between altruism and self benefit. Compassion, loving kindness and all virtues are innate in the true nature of all beings, while selfishness and all ...

In Buddhism, we are taught not only to love, but that our love also needs to arise from a mind of sincerity, purity and equality. We call this kind of love compassion. Compassion is a rational love. We also need to use true wisdom. Wisdom is the true mind and emotion is the illusory mind. Love that arises from emotions will change while love that arises from wisdom will change while arises from wisdom will never change. Therefore, the Buddhas do not use love but instead compassion is used. On appearance, love and compassion seem to be the same but their intentions are different. Love may change to hatred but with wisdom, love will never change. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will love us no matter what happen; whether we love or hate them, becoming jealous or slandering, harming or destroying them. Their compassion for us will never change. This is true love. Most of us will find that our six sense become polluted when they encounter external surroundings. When they are pleasing...

Cultivation may be favourable or adverse. When an adverse condition appears, one should know that it results from a bad cause planted in the past. If a person displeases one or goes against one, then one should just laugh it off as this will cancel out the karmic debt incurred in the past. If one becomes angry, one will incur another debt on top of the old debt. Instead of cancelling out the old debt, one will have even more problems. As it said, "If one owes money, one will repay with money. If one owes life, one will repay with life. Reprisal breeds reprisal. It is cyclical and never ending". This principle, "to cultivate one is to cultivate all" was explained in the Avatamsaka Sutra. It is the learning and cultivation of non-hindrance. Everything arise from our true nature. If the cultivation is in accordance with the true nature, then it can be regarded as cultivating all. If we do good deeds that are not from our true nature and because we are seeking,...

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....

Needless worrying is also an indication of karmic obstacles. The past is past, what is the use of dwelling on it? Tomorrow is yet to come. To worry bout it is to have wandering thoughts. Some people are extremely good at worrying and wondering about the past and the future. The can do so all day long. This is to make a mountain out of a molehill and this is  karmic obstacle. What kind of mind are we using now? The deluded mind, it is not a true mind. There is no hindrance in the true mind With the deluded mind, when we try to see something with our naked eyes, we cannot see it clearly. It is like looking through  distorted glasses, seeing the external environment through a layer of delusion. This delusion is the Eight Consciousnesses and Fifty-One mind objects. With the glasses heavily contaminated, we then interact with the external environment through these consciousnesses and mind objects. Therefore, the environment has changed to that of the Six dusts. When these ...

Death is the dissolution of khandhas. The khandhas are the five aggregates of perception, sensation, mental formations, consciousness and corporeality or matter. The first four are mental aggregates or nama, forming the unit of consciousness. The fifth, rupa is the material or physical aggregate. This psycho-physical combination is conventionally named an individual, person or ego. Therefore, whatever entities exist are not individual as such, but the two primary constituents of mind and matter, which are rare phenomena. We do not see the five aggregates as phenomenas but as anentity because of our deluded minds and our innate desire to treat these as a self in order to pander to our self-importance. We will be able to see things as they truly are if we only have patience and the will to do so. If we turn inwards to the recesses of our own minds ad note with just that bare attention, note objectively without projecting an ego in the process and then cultivate this practice for a...

Let us all examine how the Buddha solve this problem for two person who, through attachment, were both deeply grieved by death of their love ones. One person is Kisagotami. Her only child hd died after being attacked by a serpent. She went to the Buddha carrying the dead child in her arms to seek for help. The Buddha then asked her to bring a few mustard seeds from a family where no one had died. But she could not find such a family everywhere. Every house that she had visited was either in mourning or had mourned over a death at one time or another. Then she realised the bitter truth: that death is universal. Death strikes all and spares no one. sorrow is the heritage of everyone of us. The other person whom the Buddha advised was Patacara. Her case was even sadder. Within a short period, she lost her two children, husband, brother, parents and all her possessions. Losing her sense, she ran naked and wild in the streets until she met the Buddha. The Buddha brought her back to s...

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...

The highest perfection of altruism, the ultimate altruism, is bodhicitta complemented by wisdom. Bodhicitta, the aspiration to bring about the welfare of all sentient beings and to attain buddhahood for their sake, is really the distilled essence, the squeezed juice, of all the Buddha's teachings, because ultimately the Buddha's intention is to lead all sentient beings to perfect enlightenment, complete omniscience. Since it is bodhicitta that determines whether or not our practice becomes the path to enlightenment, bodhicitta is truly the heart essence of all the teachings of the Buddha. Thus, all 84,000 discourses of the Buddha can be seen as either preliminary to the practice of bodhicitta, the actual practice of bodhicitta, or precepts and activities in which we must engage as a result of taking the bodhicitta pledge. When we come to recognise all this, we will really appreciate the preciousness of our human existence, which gives us the ability to reflect on and exp...

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...

As to what specific meditation practices you should engage with, take the topic of impermanence as an example. The significance on impermanence and death is not just to terrify yourself, there is no point in simply making yourself afraid of death. The purpose of meditating on impermanence and death is to remind us of the preciousness of the opportunities that exist for us in life as a human being. Reminding ourselves that death is inevitable, it is time unpredictable and when it happens only spiritual practice is of benefit gives us a sense of urgency and enable us to truly appreciate the value of our human existence and our potential to fulfill the highest of spiritual aspirations. If we can develop this profound appreciation, we will treat every single day as extremely precious. As spiritual practitioners, it is very important for us to constantly familiarize our thoughts and emotions with the idea of death so that it does not arrive as something unexpected. We need to accept ...

If there is a threat, we should seek refuge from it. Similarly in the context of spiritual practice, to protect ourselves from the threat of an unfavourable rebirth, we should seek refuge in the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Buddhism teaches three different levels of refuge. The first is where we seek protection from the immediate threat of the suffering of rebirth in a lower realm of existence. Inspired by the greater fear that this possibility evokes, we seek refuge in the Three Jewels in order to avoid it. This level of refuge is relevant to initial scope of practitioners, whose goal is to attain an upper rebirth. When we think of the lower realms of existence, we should not think of some place far away in the distant future. All that actually lies between the present moment and the next life is simply the continuity of our breath. The moment we stop breathing, when we breathe out an don't breathe in, the next life is right there in front of us. It is not a m...

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...

How do we know that it is possible to transform our mind? There are two basis for this. One is the fundamental law of impermanence; that all things and events are subject to transformation and change. If we examine this deeper, we will realize that at every instant, everything that exist is going through process of change. Even though, for instance, we speak of yesterday's person as existing unchanged today, we are all aware at a gross experimental level of the laws of impermanence; that for example, even the earth on which we live will one day come to an end. If things and events did not have the nature of changing from moment to moment, we would not be able to explain how transformation takes place over the time. When we reduce vast passage of time down to very brief ones, we can realize that things are actually changing from moment to moment. Modern technology helps us to see some of these changes; the development of a biological organism, for example, can be observed throu...

Do not find fault with others. If they behave wrongly, there is no need to make yourself suffer just because of that. If you point out to them what is correct and they refused to practice accordingly, leave it at that. When the Buddha studied with various teachers, he realized that their ways were lacking and incorrect, but he did not disparage them. Studying with humility ad respect, he benefited from his relationship with his teachers, yet he realized that their systems were incomplete. Still as he has yet to become enlightened, he did not criticize or attempt to teach them the otherwise. After he found enlightenment, he respectfully remembered those he had studied with and wanted to share his new found knowledge with them. Real love is wisdom. What most people think of as love is just an impermanent feeling. If you have a nice taste everyday, you will soon get tired and fed up with it all. In the same way, such love eventually turns into hatred and sorrow. Such worldly happ...

The Buddha taught that with things that come about of their own, once you have done your work, you can leave the results to nature, to the power of your accumulated karma. Yet your exertion of effort should not cease. Whether the fruit of wisdom comes quickly or slowly, you cannot force it, just as you cannot force the growth of a tree you have planted. The tree has its own pace. Your job is to dig a hole, water and fertilize it and protect it from insets. That much is your affair, a matter of faith.  But the way the tree grows is up to the tree itself. If you practice like this, you can be sure all will be well and your plant will grow. Thus, you must understand the difference between your work and the plant's work. Leave the plant's business to the plant and be responsible for your own. If the mind does not know what it needs to do, it will try to force the plant to grow and flower and give fruit in one day. This is a wrong view, a major cause of suffering. Just prac...

Millions of people follow sports. If you love to watch soccer or baseball, you probably look for one team and identify yourself with them. You may watch the games with despair and elation. Perhaps, you will give a little kick or swing to help the ball along. If you do not take sides, the fun is certainly missing. In wars, we also pick sides, usually the side that is being threatened. Peace movements are born of this feeling. We get angry, we shout, but rarely do we rise above all this to look at a conflict the way a mother would, who is watching her two children fighting. She seeks only for their reconciliation. In order to fight each other, the chicks born from the same mother hen put colours on their faces. Putting colours on our own face is to make ourselves stranger to our own brothers and sisters. We can only shoot each other when they are strangers. Real efforts for reconciliation arise when we see with the eyes of compassion and that ability comes when we clearly see that...