Review 2
Special thanks to:
1)Ven. Master Xue Wu for his lectures
2)Dylan Lee for his live translation
3)Dear James for his hard work
4)And all the other laborers involved
Understanding Buddhism
To have a better understanding of Buddhism, we must know about the founder of Buddhism. We all know the founder of Buddhism is Shakyamuni Buddha. For him to become our teacher in this life, we must first understand what his goal is. His goal of coming to this world from the Tushita Heaven to India 2500 years ago was to lay out the Dharma that we hear now. Why did Buddha come to this world? If we do not understand Buddhism properly, then we would not be interested. It's hard to have confidence in Buddhism if you don't understand it, because in this world, there are many religions that are very complex. So we must have a proper understanding, only then can we have confidence and interest in Buddhism. This is a very important lesson. Otherwise we would bring a heavy misunderstanding to ourselves or the world, like thinking Buddhism is superstitious. This is the first thing we need to know.
Shakyamuni Buddha gave Dharma Talks for 49 years. He taught for 49 years. Buddha actually is also referred to as the teacher of heaven and the human realms. However, if you look at his life, he only had one attitude toward all beings, one attitude. He served all beings without asking for anything in return and it's not just about the earthly beings like us, it's also about the beings from the whole universe. Not just our little earth, but everywhere, every species.
No matter what your religion was, no matter what your faith was, as long as you were willing to learn from Shakyamuni Buddha then he was very happy to share (his teachings) with you. If you look at his history, his life, no matter if the circumstances were favorable or adverse, he persisted in sharing the Dharma. No matter what happened, no matter whether people treated him with respect or disdain, he treated them equally. He held no grudges, he had no regrets. 539
Sometimes we bear quite a lot of burden, mentally and physically, compared to what Buddha has shown to us how to be. No matter what we're facing, we will feel pain to some degree, in some form. Whatever Buddha did, his attitude towards life was always full of bliss, peace, and joy. There was no pain in his demeanor, in his state of mind. That's the difference between Shakyamuni Buddha and us. 623
So what is Buddhism? Buddhism is Shakyamuni Buddha's most well-rounded and encompassing education towards all beings. We must understand this phrase. Besides Buddha teaching us about morality, what's right and wrong, what we should do, Karma and cause and effect, he also taught us how to live a happy life, a fulfilling life. He also taught us the truth of the universe. For example, how did the universe come into being? How did life begin in this universe? Where did I come from? He didn't just perfectly answer everything logically in all aspects but he also helped show us how to become like him with all that knowledge, all that wisdom and not in a future lifetime but in this lifetime. This is the contribution of Buddha and Buddhism to this world. He made it clear to us why things are happening to us, where we come from and where we are going. A lot of sutras in Buddhism go beyond teaching material for science and philosophy. There's no other, what we call, religion that has been able to explain it in so much detail, so systematically, so encompassing from all dimensions of existence. So what is Buddhism?837
Just now we were actually reminding everyone what we have learned (This is just a revisiting of what we learned previously.) Buddhism, as you can see in the quote, is not a religion, it's not confined to philosophy, it's not confined to science, but it encompasses all of these and more. So what does Buddhism teach us? Where do we start? If we do not master this basic understanding of the nature of Buddhist education then we can't get interested (in it) and we can't use it in our life, nor can we understand what makes it unique and be respectful to it. This is most important.945
(Moral) Education is what we need in this life. Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Master Chin Kung has mentioned him a lot, said we can not live without Buddhism and prosper in the modern world, in this complex, multi-dimensional world. Who said these words, who gave this bold statement? Dr. Toynbee, his full name is Arnold Joseph Toynbee. He was British. His statement was quite bold for the time, quite visionary. In order to solve the social problems of the 21st century, modern times, there's only two teachings that can help: Mahayana Buddhism and Confucianism. He didn't mention any religions. He only talked about these two schools of teachings. Kong is Confucius, Meng is Mensius who learned from Confucius through his books. Confucianism is the core of the Chinese civilization as well as the East Asian civilization.1120
So now we are currently facing a crisis on a scale that we have never faced before in the history of mankind because it's a globalized world. Mr Toynbee’s background was that he went through World War II and because he had witnessed such a deadly conflict of human history, wanted to know what caused such a huge conflict in the human world. He researched the physical side of it like science, he looked at philosophies and humanities which are like history and throughout his lifetime he put all of his work into investigating and studying history and human civilizations such as Greek, Chinese, Egyptian etc. I wish I could speak English because I wish I could read his original work because he had a lot of very interesting (ideas). I hope, especially the Youth Group, those young people who can comprehend English, have a look at his work. One of his books is about the history of civilizations.1247
We can not survive or function without a proper society. We can't run away from it, we have to solve it. In the future, you might build a nice family or have your own way of living your life but reading his work will help put it in perspective. His insight is not ordinary, but quite in-depth.
He also made the statement, “A moral education is needed for today's world”. Why? Why did he say this sentence? If it's not serious, he wouldn’t make a statement like this in his most successful work. He said that Confucius Teachings and Mahayana Buddhism Teaching can solve our problems and then he added that moral education is also important for today's world. He didn't mention any religion. He's been studying religions, he's been studying civilizations throughout his life but why did he choose Mahayana Buddhism? Because throughout his study and his own experience in World War II, he has seen that society has gone down a very misleading path. Where did it go wrong? We must understand. Why did we walk down the wrong path? If a person walks down the wrong path, what kind of dangers would it cause? If a system of education's goal of educating is aiming in the wrong direction that misleads people, what are the consequences of it?
Why is it misleading? It teaches about fame and financial incentives, that's number one. Education is aimed at getting these things. 1555
It's very common to have the mindset of I will only be your friend if I can gain something from it.
Master Chin Kung often talked about maximizing self-interest. How do I gain the most from this education for myself? It's always me, me, me. It's all about me. That kind of mindset is very prevalent in modern society and it causes harm towards people around us. As we have mentioned, self-centered thinking consists of maximizing greed, anger and ignorance of reality. It also indulges all of our senses (the five desires and the six stimuli). It's a misleading path, because we are just chasing the outside world. (The consequences are the increasing instability and chaos in society.)
17:42 A more common example is our environment. The environmental scientists have mentioned that if we keep exhausting the resources of the earth and creating trash because of our consumption, what's going to happen to the world? More trash. A warmer climate because of the emissions in order to produce the goods that we consume. The world will be destroyed eventually, because it will rise to a very warm temperature. We can't live, we can't survive, it will get to a stage where humanity can no longer stay on earth. If the earth is sick, that means no food or less food, less nutrition. It won't be able to operate normally because the balance is upset.
18:48 Can humans live in this kind of environment? No! Everything will be gone, mankind as well other than nature. If we do not change our patterns of thinking and behaviors as a whole, how can we ever hope for a better outcome in the world?
19:14 How many humans are there in the world today? 7.8 billion, by the end of the decade, we will reach 8 billion people. Among this population of humankind, how many people among us practice religion, practice faith? There are lots of religions in the world. How many of humankind are actually practicing it? 95% practice faith. With this amount of people who have faith in religions, why do we have this chaos still happening? So people should wonder what religion is trying to teach? Is it really working? It's supposed to bring a universal brotherhood, it is supposed to purify us and at least give us a moral upbringing, but why is the world still going down this dangerous path of destruction, environmentally and humanity as well.
21:30 This is what Dr. Toynbee mentioned in one of his works, that religion has diverted away from its core purpose. Everyone focuses on the exteriors of religions, on the ceremonial part of it, on the flashy part of it.
22:01 (When people are questioned,) what do you believe in? (They might say:) “I believe in God, I believe in Christianity, I believe in Buddhism” But when you ask them, why do you believe it? Some people can't even answer. Why do you believe in Catholicism? It’s like as long as I believe in God, I will go to heaven. That's it? Is it just that? In our case, why do you believe in Buddhism? I chant Amituofo, I will go to the Pure Land. Is it that simple?
22:49 But think about it, if we chant Amituofo with that mindset, do we actually have Amituofo in our heart or do we chant just for the sake of chanting? Or reading a sutra, if we just simply read a sutra, do we learn the spirit, do we get something out of the sutra, did we learn something from the sutra. It's the attitude.
23:16 That's the reason why the modern world has such a strong antipathy or even opposing view of religion because everything is becoming superficial including chanting Amituofo. If we chant without our heart being sincere and pure, no matter how long we chant Amituofo, it's not going to work, it's not fulfilled with Amituofo Buddha's (spirit).
24:03 Let's not talk about the big picture but just among individuals and communities, is the world safer? Do we feel safe living in modern society? Back in my childhood, I had a very safe neighborhood where one did not have to lock the door. One could just leave it open, no one would come in and steal stuff. Humans had that warmth amongst them, everything was more simple and happier back then, less guarded, less fear.
24:43 On the other hand, in modern day Australia, you lock your door before you go out. There are cases where they protect the thieves rather than the victims. There's a law that when a thief breaks into your house and even if they steal your stuff you are not supposed to hit them, you are not supposed to commit violence against them or defend yourself. There is a joke about a Dharma friend who had a thief come to their home and steal things and then say: if the old doesn't go, the new doesn't come. What else can we do?
25:53 In summary, people are getting more fearful, more guarded against one another and more suspicious of one another. Even within families there are those that doubt each other's integrity. So even families have this happen, much less the country or the world. There is no reason why the world is not unstable, the world is not in chaos. There's no reason because everyone's guarded against each other, not trusting each other. What is the world made of, what are countries made of? They are made of families. What is the core of the family? The husband and wife, father and mother. If the family moral education is not there, it passes down to the children. If they live in a very unstable family that includes arguing, divorce and even domestic violence, how can they be a good person? This is happening more and more these days. Is that not strong enough proof that modern day education has already gone down a misleading path.
27:20 If you want to learn how to be a good human being, how do we do it, where do we get started? This is a good question to ask ourselves. Since we desperately need (moral) education and Buddhism is an education, we start with Buddhism.
27:52 Buddha told us we start with yourself, begin with yourself, not others, nothing else but yourself. Do we start by asking others to conform to the teaching? No, we start by asking ourselves to conform to the teaching. Only when we ask ourselves, change ourselves, reform ourselves, will we be able to influence the people around us, our dear family, friends and colleagues. If you can influence the people around you, that's a community and a community with a good influence towards other communities becomes a nation, a whole nation that influences another nation, then the world will be a better place.
28:42 So this is why the ancient Chinese Confucius scholars always say: "If you want to have world peace or peace in a nation, then you start with your family”. The family unit has to be solid, tight, trusting and warm. That is why it is so important that we start with ourselves.
29:23Today I am very happy to see people from our Amituofo Chanting Group attending this Dharma talk. It's good to gain this understanding to improve our confidence in Buddhism.
Shakyamuni Buddha showed us how to start. We start with self-education. If he could not do it, how could he influence everyone? Think about it, why are we still chanting his name as our original teacher, 2500 years later? Because he has set a very good example. Only when you are stable, only when you are steady in accordance with the teaching, the path, only then can you have the wisdom, the confidence to help others.
Buddha taught for 49 years. He expounded 84,000 methods of gaining enlightenment. It's a figure of speech, actually it was an infinite number of methods. Everything he taught about is about our heart.// 3106
31:11 We sentient beings have issues with our minds, not just with our bodies, but also with our hearts, that is why we live in such a painful, afflictive world environment.
So we do not only get sick in physical form, but in a sense mentally ill as well. Buddha did not beat around the bush, he directly said the reason, the cause, is that we all have this mental illness. The question is: Do you agree? Do you agree that you have afflictions other than physical ones? I'm talking about the mental ones, your attitude. This is the most interesting part of practicing Buddhism.
3256A lot of times, it's all about asking ourselves: Have I done it right or am I doing it wrong? Am I afflicted with a disease of the mind? So that's the point, right? But a lot of people do not acknowledge it. "I'm not sick. I'm healthy!" Why did Buddha say that we all have mental afflictions? What kind of affliction? What kind of sickness? How serious is this sickness? For example if we get the flu, we should rest. If you have some soreness or any body parts that are not healthy, take a seat and rest, or go to see your doctor and get a prescription so that you can buy the medicine from the pharmacy, so that you get better as you rest. It is the same with Buddha, he's a doctor, he knows what is happening to us, what kind of afflictions (we have), (and what kind of medicine we need).
34:12 Are you greedy? A lot of young people are like this: I want to live a comfortable life with little effort and maximum satisfaction, I want to buy a good car, I want to find someone that I can live with for the rest of my life, someone I like or I want someone handsome, I want a beautiful woman, things like this. There are always these desires; There's always this form of greed there.
Buddha taught us, with a lot of metaphors, about greed. If we don't let go of our greed, our life will be very hard and full of burdens. For example, I had a teacher when I became a monk, my first teacher, who always told me: What sentient beings need is not a lot, what they want is a lot!
35:35 Therefore that's why we live such a burdensome life. If we can reduce our desires for things or people, then our life will be much more free, more content, more blissful. If not, if it is like: today I want something like this, tomorrow I want something like that, the day after I want something even more, it will never end, Buddha said. This is an illness, my friend. Endless desires, in this world, are common. However, if we think about it, this greed has been used to the wrong end. The consequences will lead us down the wrong path. Therefore when people say: what's the consequence of greed? Birth in the three bad realms is the consequence.3644
Affliction No.2: hatred and anger, the second disease Buddha pointed out are common in everyone, anger, if not anger, then hatred and grudges. For example, we currently have an event where we all chant Amituofo and then dedicate our merits together to Master Chin Kung. But think about this, if you get angry or even have a thought of anger, you will burn away all of the merits you accumulated during your cultivation.
3739 Think about this, there was a historical figure Emperor Liang Wu, who was one of the biggest, most famous Buddha Dharma Protectors in the human realm. He helped a lot of monks propagate Buddhism. He was supposed to have very good fortune but he died in a very sad way, because of his Karma. What was his Karma? He was very arrogant, angry and had a very bad temper. Arrogantly, he asked Boddhidharma, the first teacher of the Zen School in Chinese Buddhism, "Master Bodhidharma, I have donated millions and millions to all of the temples, I have helped a lot of people to become monastics and propagate Buddhism, do I have fortunes? How big are my fortunes? How big are my merits?" Bodhidharma replied with one sentence: "You have no merits." The Emperor got very angry. So think about what he actually did, he actually helped build Buddha statues and to propagate Buddhism and should actually have had a lot of fortune. By doing those things, according to the sutras, he should actually enjoy the pleasures of the Desire Heaven, in the Desire Heaven Realm, the first lower realm of the Heavens, in the sense that he had (acquired) huge fortune, however Bodhidharma said that he had no merits (due to his arrogance.) He then became unhappy (angry) (digging his hole even deeper), because he did so many things (for Buddhism) but was told he had no merits.
3953 Then he followed with a question, he asked: "Is there a Buddha in this world?" Bodhidharma, a master of Zen Buddhism, spoke in a way beyond his comprehension saying: "There is a Buddha but there is no Buddha." The Emperor got furious, stopped caring about him, treated him coldly and did not help him propagate (Buddhism). This was one of his weaknesses, one of his afflictions.
40:27 So, we also have ignorance, so many afflictions that we don't recognize, most importantly, we are selfish, we have a degree of self-interest, everyone of us. So because of this affliction, we are helpless in our emotions, in our behavior. We get dragged away and then, when it explodes, it diverts us from the path of the Middle Way. Because of our emotional behavior going up and down, we are no longer in equilibrium, we don’t live in equilibrium any more. Confucius called this the Doctrine of Mean.
4122 Put in simple words, very few people can settle (their mind) down to see themselves clearly, away from all of the busyness, all of the desires. Very few can see the beauty of their own inner world in comparison to the external world, thinking everything I want is outside. No, in fact the most beautiful part about you is inside, inner beauty, the inner world, your heart. What should we do? Knowing this, if you want to explore your inner world, you need to have a path to go into it, you need to have a proper teaching to guide you to explore the power, the beauty of your inner world. Without the proper Dharma, the proper teachings, you can't get into that (inner world). For a modern Buddhist practitioner, we must have a clear understanding of this. 4300
Think about what Buddha is. Anyone know? (Does anyone know)? What does the word Buddha mean? Buddha is a person who discovered the truth of the universe. He is not a creator. He did not create the truth. The truth is there, you don't need to create it. This is one thing we need to know, that it is unlike most religions. Most religions are defined by having a God, an Allah, someone who created everything, a creator of all. Even in Chinese folk religion, traditional religion, they always use the term God as well to describe it. In all of human history, in all of civilization, we always had a very strong connection with God-based, God-centered teachings like Christianity that arrived in China in the late 1800’s. They have always had the Doctrine of monotheism, that there's only one God. . They attribute everything, all the difficult questions to that one God, that one person without proper logic. What Buddha said was that he did not create anything, he only discovered how the universe came into being, an observation. It's just that it's too deep and we can't see it. We can't see the beings of the universe and how all this Karma, cause and effect, happens. So this is where the truth of his teachings, we call Buddhism, came from. It's just we can't access it. It raises a lot of questions like: Does Buddha come first or does the Dharma come before the Buddha, or does the Sangha come before the Buddha?
It's just like the chicken or the egg question. The chicken comes from the egg, but where does the egg come from? From the chicken. So which one is number one, which one is number two? What's the origin point? If you ask all of these very difficult questions, it does not depart from this point, where did it come from, what's number one? What is the truth? This is a very Zen session. 4638
Today, a lay Buddhist called me to tell me about his cousin who passed away. It invoked him to ask these questions: Why do human beings have to die? Why do we have to separate from our loved ones? Why do we have to get sick? Why do we have to die? Why do we have to separate from each other? These questions are very close to our heart. 4717
Buddha explained this thoroughly in his teachings, if we can comprehend it, permeate all the clouds of doubt, then we will let go of that tension. We would not be attached. 2,500 years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha told us: humans will have sickness, age, death as they have birth. No one can change that. That's the irony of human existence. This was the truth 2,500 years ago and 2,500 years later it remains the same, no one can change these rules.
Because of this truth, this reality, is why when Amitabha Buddha started practicing, he had this strong vow to create something that surpasses these four realities, slights of our human life, which is called the Pure Land.
So when Buddha taught us all of this, were we awakened to (by) his teachings? Have we learned his insight? Therefore, my respectful dear practitioners, this is Buddha's teachings. All he taught about was this: First, we must become enlightened, fully awakened about our life, about human life, this hard and fast truth. If we can overcome these four realities and if you cultivate and attain this level we call nirvana then you have solved the first part of the problem.
4942 All of his teachings are about this. What's Buddha’s view on the cosmology of the world (the science of the origin and development of the universe)? How did he explain the truth to us, such a vast truth? How did he get started?
You will be told in the next episode, stay tuned for the next episode.
50:18 Today I have given you a very basic, simple introduction to Buddha, his goals, his visions, the direction that he wanted to lead us and wanted us to lead ourselves (in). What is the essence of Buddhist education? Where did Buddha get started? Where does Buddhist education start? We know that we start with ourselves. The benefits to a person who truly comprehends Buddhism, Buddha's teachings, is hard to describe.
Just to ourselves, our family, our life, it improves a lot if we truly put in the effort to learn it, live it. Next week, I will explain in depth how the Buddha explained this universal truth to the world, what are the concepts he used to explain it to us, especially to the scholars like us, people who like to think like us. This will be very helpful for us to get better at walking this path. Hopefully I can see you again next week, explore this together, analyze this together, and learn how to understand Buddhism.5232
That's it for tonight. If anything I mentioned sounds wrong, please be kind and give me some feedback. Thank you very much for attending this Dharma Talk. Amituofo!
If no one's listening to my teaching, how can I improve my teaching, right? Thank you very much for giving me a chance! It's very hard to get this opportunity (of being together). Let us dedicate the merits.
Sometimes we bear quite a lot of burden, mentally and physically, compared to what Buddha has shown to us how to be. No matter what we're facing, we will feel pain to some degree, in some form. Whatever Buddha did, his attitude towards life was always full of bliss, peace, and joy. There was no pain in his demeanor, in his state of mind. That's the difference between Shakyamuni Buddha and us. 623
So what is Buddhism? Buddhism is Shakyamuni Buddha's most well-rounded and encompassing education towards all beings. We must understand this phrase. Besides Buddha teaching us about morality, what's right and wrong, what we should do, Karma and cause and effect, he also taught us how to live a happy life, a fulfilling life. He also taught us the truth of the universe. For example, how did the universe come into being? How did life begin in this universe? Where did I come from? He didn't just perfectly answer everything logically in all aspects but he also helped show us how to become like him with all that knowledge, all that wisdom and not in a future lifetime but in this lifetime. This is the contribution of Buddha and Buddhism to this world. He made it clear to us why things are happening to us, where we come from and where we are going. A lot of sutras in Buddhism go beyond teaching material for science and philosophy. There's no other, what we call, religion that has been able to explain it in so much detail, so systematically, so encompassing from all dimensions of existence. So what is Buddhism?837
Just now we were actually reminding everyone what we have learned (This is just a revisiting of what we learned previously.) Buddhism, as you can see in the quote, is not a religion, it's not confined to philosophy, it's not confined to science, but it encompasses all of these and more. So what does Buddhism teach us? Where do we start? If we do not master this basic understanding of the nature of Buddhist education then we can't get interested (in it) and we can't use it in our life, nor can we understand what makes it unique and be respectful to it. This is most important.945
(Moral) Education is what we need in this life. Dr. Arnold Toynbee, Master Chin Kung has mentioned him a lot, said we can not live without Buddhism and prosper in the modern world, in this complex, multi-dimensional world. Who said these words, who gave this bold statement? Dr. Toynbee, his full name is Arnold Joseph Toynbee. He was British. His statement was quite bold for the time, quite visionary. In order to solve the social problems of the 21st century, modern times, there's only two teachings that can help: Mahayana Buddhism and Confucianism. He didn't mention any religions. He only talked about these two schools of teachings. Kong is Confucius, Meng is Mensius who learned from Confucius through his books. Confucianism is the core of the Chinese civilization as well as the East Asian civilization.1120
So now we are currently facing a crisis on a scale that we have never faced before in the history of mankind because it's a globalized world. Mr Toynbee’s background was that he went through World War II and because he had witnessed such a deadly conflict of human history, wanted to know what caused such a huge conflict in the human world. He researched the physical side of it like science, he looked at philosophies and humanities which are like history and throughout his lifetime he put all of his work into investigating and studying history and human civilizations such as Greek, Chinese, Egyptian etc. I wish I could speak English because I wish I could read his original work because he had a lot of very interesting (ideas). I hope, especially the Youth Group, those young people who can comprehend English, have a look at his work. One of his books is about the history of civilizations.1247
We can not survive or function without a proper society. We can't run away from it, we have to solve it. In the future, you might build a nice family or have your own way of living your life but reading his work will help put it in perspective. His insight is not ordinary, but quite in-depth.
He also made the statement, “A moral education is needed for today's world”. Why? Why did he say this sentence? If it's not serious, he wouldn’t make a statement like this in his most successful work. He said that Confucius Teachings and Mahayana Buddhism Teaching can solve our problems and then he added that moral education is also important for today's world. He didn't mention any religion. He's been studying religions, he's been studying civilizations throughout his life but why did he choose Mahayana Buddhism? Because throughout his study and his own experience in World War II, he has seen that society has gone down a very misleading path. Where did it go wrong? We must understand. Why did we walk down the wrong path? If a person walks down the wrong path, what kind of dangers would it cause? If a system of education's goal of educating is aiming in the wrong direction that misleads people, what are the consequences of it?
Why is it misleading? It teaches about fame and financial incentives, that's number one. Education is aimed at getting these things. 1555
It's very common to have the mindset of I will only be your friend if I can gain something from it.
Master Chin Kung often talked about maximizing self-interest. How do I gain the most from this education for myself? It's always me, me, me. It's all about me. That kind of mindset is very prevalent in modern society and it causes harm towards people around us. As we have mentioned, self-centered thinking consists of maximizing greed, anger and ignorance of reality. It also indulges all of our senses (the five desires and the six stimuli). It's a misleading path, because we are just chasing the outside world. (The consequences are the increasing instability and chaos in society.)
17:42 A more common example is our environment. The environmental scientists have mentioned that if we keep exhausting the resources of the earth and creating trash because of our consumption, what's going to happen to the world? More trash. A warmer climate because of the emissions in order to produce the goods that we consume. The world will be destroyed eventually, because it will rise to a very warm temperature. We can't live, we can't survive, it will get to a stage where humanity can no longer stay on earth. If the earth is sick, that means no food or less food, less nutrition. It won't be able to operate normally because the balance is upset.
18:48 Can humans live in this kind of environment? No! Everything will be gone, mankind as well other than nature. If we do not change our patterns of thinking and behaviors as a whole, how can we ever hope for a better outcome in the world?
19:14 How many humans are there in the world today? 7.8 billion, by the end of the decade, we will reach 8 billion people. Among this population of humankind, how many people among us practice religion, practice faith? There are lots of religions in the world. How many of humankind are actually practicing it? 95% practice faith. With this amount of people who have faith in religions, why do we have this chaos still happening? So people should wonder what religion is trying to teach? Is it really working? It's supposed to bring a universal brotherhood, it is supposed to purify us and at least give us a moral upbringing, but why is the world still going down this dangerous path of destruction, environmentally and humanity as well.
21:30 This is what Dr. Toynbee mentioned in one of his works, that religion has diverted away from its core purpose. Everyone focuses on the exteriors of religions, on the ceremonial part of it, on the flashy part of it.
22:01 (When people are questioned,) what do you believe in? (They might say:) “I believe in God, I believe in Christianity, I believe in Buddhism” But when you ask them, why do you believe it? Some people can't even answer. Why do you believe in Catholicism? It’s like as long as I believe in God, I will go to heaven. That's it? Is it just that? In our case, why do you believe in Buddhism? I chant Amituofo, I will go to the Pure Land. Is it that simple?
22:49 But think about it, if we chant Amituofo with that mindset, do we actually have Amituofo in our heart or do we chant just for the sake of chanting? Or reading a sutra, if we just simply read a sutra, do we learn the spirit, do we get something out of the sutra, did we learn something from the sutra. It's the attitude.
23:16 That's the reason why the modern world has such a strong antipathy or even opposing view of religion because everything is becoming superficial including chanting Amituofo. If we chant without our heart being sincere and pure, no matter how long we chant Amituofo, it's not going to work, it's not fulfilled with Amituofo Buddha's (spirit).
24:03 Let's not talk about the big picture but just among individuals and communities, is the world safer? Do we feel safe living in modern society? Back in my childhood, I had a very safe neighborhood where one did not have to lock the door. One could just leave it open, no one would come in and steal stuff. Humans had that warmth amongst them, everything was more simple and happier back then, less guarded, less fear.
24:43 On the other hand, in modern day Australia, you lock your door before you go out. There are cases where they protect the thieves rather than the victims. There's a law that when a thief breaks into your house and even if they steal your stuff you are not supposed to hit them, you are not supposed to commit violence against them or defend yourself. There is a joke about a Dharma friend who had a thief come to their home and steal things and then say: if the old doesn't go, the new doesn't come. What else can we do?
25:53 In summary, people are getting more fearful, more guarded against one another and more suspicious of one another. Even within families there are those that doubt each other's integrity. So even families have this happen, much less the country or the world. There is no reason why the world is not unstable, the world is not in chaos. There's no reason because everyone's guarded against each other, not trusting each other. What is the world made of, what are countries made of? They are made of families. What is the core of the family? The husband and wife, father and mother. If the family moral education is not there, it passes down to the children. If they live in a very unstable family that includes arguing, divorce and even domestic violence, how can they be a good person? This is happening more and more these days. Is that not strong enough proof that modern day education has already gone down a misleading path.
27:20 If you want to learn how to be a good human being, how do we do it, where do we get started? This is a good question to ask ourselves. Since we desperately need (moral) education and Buddhism is an education, we start with Buddhism.
27:52 Buddha told us we start with yourself, begin with yourself, not others, nothing else but yourself. Do we start by asking others to conform to the teaching? No, we start by asking ourselves to conform to the teaching. Only when we ask ourselves, change ourselves, reform ourselves, will we be able to influence the people around us, our dear family, friends and colleagues. If you can influence the people around you, that's a community and a community with a good influence towards other communities becomes a nation, a whole nation that influences another nation, then the world will be a better place.
28:42 So this is why the ancient Chinese Confucius scholars always say: "If you want to have world peace or peace in a nation, then you start with your family”. The family unit has to be solid, tight, trusting and warm. That is why it is so important that we start with ourselves.
29:23Today I am very happy to see people from our Amituofo Chanting Group attending this Dharma talk. It's good to gain this understanding to improve our confidence in Buddhism.
Shakyamuni Buddha showed us how to start. We start with self-education. If he could not do it, how could he influence everyone? Think about it, why are we still chanting his name as our original teacher, 2500 years later? Because he has set a very good example. Only when you are stable, only when you are steady in accordance with the teaching, the path, only then can you have the wisdom, the confidence to help others.
Buddha taught for 49 years. He expounded 84,000 methods of gaining enlightenment. It's a figure of speech, actually it was an infinite number of methods. Everything he taught about is about our heart.// 3106
31:11 We sentient beings have issues with our minds, not just with our bodies, but also with our hearts, that is why we live in such a painful, afflictive world environment.
So we do not only get sick in physical form, but in a sense mentally ill as well. Buddha did not beat around the bush, he directly said the reason, the cause, is that we all have this mental illness. The question is: Do you agree? Do you agree that you have afflictions other than physical ones? I'm talking about the mental ones, your attitude. This is the most interesting part of practicing Buddhism.
3256A lot of times, it's all about asking ourselves: Have I done it right or am I doing it wrong? Am I afflicted with a disease of the mind? So that's the point, right? But a lot of people do not acknowledge it. "I'm not sick. I'm healthy!" Why did Buddha say that we all have mental afflictions? What kind of affliction? What kind of sickness? How serious is this sickness? For example if we get the flu, we should rest. If you have some soreness or any body parts that are not healthy, take a seat and rest, or go to see your doctor and get a prescription so that you can buy the medicine from the pharmacy, so that you get better as you rest. It is the same with Buddha, he's a doctor, he knows what is happening to us, what kind of afflictions (we have), (and what kind of medicine we need).
34:12 Are you greedy? A lot of young people are like this: I want to live a comfortable life with little effort and maximum satisfaction, I want to buy a good car, I want to find someone that I can live with for the rest of my life, someone I like or I want someone handsome, I want a beautiful woman, things like this. There are always these desires; There's always this form of greed there.
Buddha taught us, with a lot of metaphors, about greed. If we don't let go of our greed, our life will be very hard and full of burdens. For example, I had a teacher when I became a monk, my first teacher, who always told me: What sentient beings need is not a lot, what they want is a lot!
35:35 Therefore that's why we live such a burdensome life. If we can reduce our desires for things or people, then our life will be much more free, more content, more blissful. If not, if it is like: today I want something like this, tomorrow I want something like that, the day after I want something even more, it will never end, Buddha said. This is an illness, my friend. Endless desires, in this world, are common. However, if we think about it, this greed has been used to the wrong end. The consequences will lead us down the wrong path. Therefore when people say: what's the consequence of greed? Birth in the three bad realms is the consequence.3644
Affliction No.2: hatred and anger, the second disease Buddha pointed out are common in everyone, anger, if not anger, then hatred and grudges. For example, we currently have an event where we all chant Amituofo and then dedicate our merits together to Master Chin Kung. But think about this, if you get angry or even have a thought of anger, you will burn away all of the merits you accumulated during your cultivation.
3739 Think about this, there was a historical figure Emperor Liang Wu, who was one of the biggest, most famous Buddha Dharma Protectors in the human realm. He helped a lot of monks propagate Buddhism. He was supposed to have very good fortune but he died in a very sad way, because of his Karma. What was his Karma? He was very arrogant, angry and had a very bad temper. Arrogantly, he asked Boddhidharma, the first teacher of the Zen School in Chinese Buddhism, "Master Bodhidharma, I have donated millions and millions to all of the temples, I have helped a lot of people to become monastics and propagate Buddhism, do I have fortunes? How big are my fortunes? How big are my merits?" Bodhidharma replied with one sentence: "You have no merits." The Emperor got very angry. So think about what he actually did, he actually helped build Buddha statues and to propagate Buddhism and should actually have had a lot of fortune. By doing those things, according to the sutras, he should actually enjoy the pleasures of the Desire Heaven, in the Desire Heaven Realm, the first lower realm of the Heavens, in the sense that he had (acquired) huge fortune, however Bodhidharma said that he had no merits (due to his arrogance.) He then became unhappy (angry) (digging his hole even deeper), because he did so many things (for Buddhism) but was told he had no merits.
3953 Then he followed with a question, he asked: "Is there a Buddha in this world?" Bodhidharma, a master of Zen Buddhism, spoke in a way beyond his comprehension saying: "There is a Buddha but there is no Buddha." The Emperor got furious, stopped caring about him, treated him coldly and did not help him propagate (Buddhism). This was one of his weaknesses, one of his afflictions.
40:27 So, we also have ignorance, so many afflictions that we don't recognize, most importantly, we are selfish, we have a degree of self-interest, everyone of us. So because of this affliction, we are helpless in our emotions, in our behavior. We get dragged away and then, when it explodes, it diverts us from the path of the Middle Way. Because of our emotional behavior going up and down, we are no longer in equilibrium, we don’t live in equilibrium any more. Confucius called this the Doctrine of Mean.
4122 Put in simple words, very few people can settle (their mind) down to see themselves clearly, away from all of the busyness, all of the desires. Very few can see the beauty of their own inner world in comparison to the external world, thinking everything I want is outside. No, in fact the most beautiful part about you is inside, inner beauty, the inner world, your heart. What should we do? Knowing this, if you want to explore your inner world, you need to have a path to go into it, you need to have a proper teaching to guide you to explore the power, the beauty of your inner world. Without the proper Dharma, the proper teachings, you can't get into that (inner world). For a modern Buddhist practitioner, we must have a clear understanding of this. 4300
Think about what Buddha is. Anyone know? (Does anyone know)? What does the word Buddha mean? Buddha is a person who discovered the truth of the universe. He is not a creator. He did not create the truth. The truth is there, you don't need to create it. This is one thing we need to know, that it is unlike most religions. Most religions are defined by having a God, an Allah, someone who created everything, a creator of all. Even in Chinese folk religion, traditional religion, they always use the term God as well to describe it. In all of human history, in all of civilization, we always had a very strong connection with God-based, God-centered teachings like Christianity that arrived in China in the late 1800’s. They have always had the Doctrine of monotheism, that there's only one God. . They attribute everything, all the difficult questions to that one God, that one person without proper logic. What Buddha said was that he did not create anything, he only discovered how the universe came into being, an observation. It's just that it's too deep and we can't see it. We can't see the beings of the universe and how all this Karma, cause and effect, happens. So this is where the truth of his teachings, we call Buddhism, came from. It's just we can't access it. It raises a lot of questions like: Does Buddha come first or does the Dharma come before the Buddha, or does the Sangha come before the Buddha?
It's just like the chicken or the egg question. The chicken comes from the egg, but where does the egg come from? From the chicken. So which one is number one, which one is number two? What's the origin point? If you ask all of these very difficult questions, it does not depart from this point, where did it come from, what's number one? What is the truth? This is a very Zen session. 4638
Today, a lay Buddhist called me to tell me about his cousin who passed away. It invoked him to ask these questions: Why do human beings have to die? Why do we have to separate from our loved ones? Why do we have to get sick? Why do we have to die? Why do we have to separate from each other? These questions are very close to our heart. 4717
Buddha explained this thoroughly in his teachings, if we can comprehend it, permeate all the clouds of doubt, then we will let go of that tension. We would not be attached. 2,500 years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha told us: humans will have sickness, age, death as they have birth. No one can change that. That's the irony of human existence. This was the truth 2,500 years ago and 2,500 years later it remains the same, no one can change these rules.
Because of this truth, this reality, is why when Amitabha Buddha started practicing, he had this strong vow to create something that surpasses these four realities, slights of our human life, which is called the Pure Land.
So when Buddha taught us all of this, were we awakened to (by) his teachings? Have we learned his insight? Therefore, my respectful dear practitioners, this is Buddha's teachings. All he taught about was this: First, we must become enlightened, fully awakened about our life, about human life, this hard and fast truth. If we can overcome these four realities and if you cultivate and attain this level we call nirvana then you have solved the first part of the problem.
4942 All of his teachings are about this. What's Buddha’s view on the cosmology of the world (the science of the origin and development of the universe)? How did he explain the truth to us, such a vast truth? How did he get started?
You will be told in the next episode, stay tuned for the next episode.
50:18 Today I have given you a very basic, simple introduction to Buddha, his goals, his visions, the direction that he wanted to lead us and wanted us to lead ourselves (in). What is the essence of Buddhist education? Where did Buddha get started? Where does Buddhist education start? We know that we start with ourselves. The benefits to a person who truly comprehends Buddhism, Buddha's teachings, is hard to describe.
Just to ourselves, our family, our life, it improves a lot if we truly put in the effort to learn it, live it. Next week, I will explain in depth how the Buddha explained this universal truth to the world, what are the concepts he used to explain it to us, especially to the scholars like us, people who like to think like us. This will be very helpful for us to get better at walking this path. Hopefully I can see you again next week, explore this together, analyze this together, and learn how to understand Buddhism.5232
That's it for tonight. If anything I mentioned sounds wrong, please be kind and give me some feedback. Thank you very much for attending this Dharma Talk. Amituofo!
If no one's listening to my teaching, how can I improve my teaching, right? Thank you very much for giving me a chance! It's very hard to get this opportunity (of being together). Let us dedicate the merits.
