Amituofo, good evening everyone. Today we will continue to conduct the lessons, continue a simple introduction on how we understand Buddhism better. Shakyamuni Buddha gave Dharma talks for 49 years. He has given as many as 84,000 methods of practicing Buddhism. So where do we start practicing Buddhism? That's a very important point. Where do we start with all these vast teachings for us as Pure Land cultivators? Whether or not we can go to the Pure Land, we need to understand where do we find the roots? Where do we get our foundation steady? Once our foundation is strong, we can grow and develop into the goal that we want to attain. As a Buddhist, our first step is to learn about Buddha. If we don't understand Buddha himself, his teachings and his intentions, we will not only be confused but will also have a strong misunderstanding that will affect the progress of our learning. It may look simple, sound simple, but to act on it is not an easy feat. So hopefully, we can use this short period of time that we have here to talk about this. So what's our duty as a Buddhist? So how did our teacher Shakyamuni Buddha teach us 2500 years ago? How did he teach his students, his disciples so that, at that moment, all of his students attained certain level of Arhat and all that? Last week, we started talking about how to understand Buddha. What does Buddha represent through his name, through his actions, because there are strong misunderstandings towards the Buddhist community and Buddhism in general. And we have talked about that last week, clear on that one last week. We also learned how Buddha has attained enlightenment after all the trials that he had gone through, all the seeking he had gone through. And found out this phrase, this is his report, you know, thesis, and that he experienced and observed, we all have innate wisdom, perfect, well rounded, but we have lost it. So last week, we left off here. Why? From a person, from a being who has the ability to overcome life and death, ability to be free from the bonds of this suffering, Samsara in Sanskrit. But why do we fall into this current state bound by all the external circumstances not able to overcome life and death? For example, closer to us, as a human, we are not always guaranteed to be a human, because it's easier to fall into the lower three realms then going to the higher three realms, human, heaven and asura, it is harder to get there. It is easier to go to the Naraka, which is the hell, the hungry ghost and the animal realms. So, Buddha taught us: we lost our potential, we lost our capabilities, we lost our wisdom, by now we have lost it. So, today we become like this. You are a Buddha; however, you lost it, how do we lose it? Outside environment, our five stimuli, six senses. Buddha, in the first three weeks of his enlightenment, under the Bodhi tree has already said this statement: All beings, not just sentient, all beings have Buddha Nature, just like the Buddha, full fortune and full wisdom. So, the current situation that befalls us is that we are temporarily lost. It is a long temporary, but it's still temporary. We didn't lose it forever but we kind of like dropped it somewhere and forgot where it was. Because we are lost, hence, we commit a lot of Karma, they're not wholesome. And hence, all the effects come back to us in this form that we feel today. Look at Shakyamuni Buddha through the sutras, through the Master’s talks. Everyday he lived without a shelter over his head, he lived under the trees in India. He only ate one meal per day before noon. But he lived a much happier life than the rest of the world combined, where the riches and wealth cannot move him. Why? Because he's not moved by the outside circumstances. He's in control of his life, destiny. His spiritual life is full. So what should we do if we want to return to our full wisdom, full fortune? Wisdom. What kind of wisdom is that? First of all, the wisdom that can get us through our current circumstances and in the future will get us through life and death. And even better get us through to the Pure Land. So now we have this fortune to encounter Buddhism. We all have encountered it now. Right? There's no doubt about that. The question is how do we make use of this opportunity? We know we are lost but we are not lost forever. There's two terms, one is lost, one is destroyed. It's not destroyed, it is lost. This is like Lost and Found. Right? So how do we find it back? By saying lost, we must clarify that lost means you temporarily dropped it somewhere. That means you have all of this wisdom, all of this great fortune, good..., good wealth and all of that, full wisdom like Buddha's, you have that, but you're not tapping into it, it is hidden underneath. So, under what? Under delusions, only when you break through these delusions that cloud and cover up our wisdom, only then will we fully untap our potential. So the question for today is how do we find it back? How do we break through this cloud of delusion? Remember, the reason we have afflictions, we call it suffering, we call it unpleasantness and unhappiness are these delusions. It's like a drunk person, right? He's drunk. She's drunk. Have you seen someone who's drunk? What happens when they're drunk? What's their behavior? When I was a young boy, I had a neighbor, an old man who was often drunk. He scolded and hit people when he was drunk. So he lost control of himself. When you asked him after he woke up, he'd know nothing of what he did during his drunken state. Just like this drunken man, we are drunk by all of these delusions. It doesn't mean that you lost yourself, you just covered it up, it’s just hidden. So, Buddha Nature, which is our true self, we are Buddha, is lost, it’s temporarily covered up, because we are drunk. So by removing these delusions, we come back, go back to our own home, back to our self, true self, to go back from delusional, into fully awakened, it's all journey. That we must discuss and (re)discover ourselves. Buddha does not teach anything else but this one (thing), he only taught this one thing, all the methods he taught were all aimed at this one (lesson), removing the delusion and returning back to our Buddha Nature, which is our true self. So in the Mahayana sutras, Buddha came to this world, to many worlds, to many universes, to the (multiverse). What was his goal? And first, he put a statement out there: I do not and did not and will not transcend any beings to enlightenment. I did not, I do not. Why? Because the person who becomes a Buddha, does it by themselves. They have to be willing to remove delusions by themselves. When someone asks me: How do I have a happy life, live a happy life, attain a happy life? (I say): You can't find it from the outside. That's the first step: Look within. Only when you look inside yourself, deep into yourself, can you understand the factors you need to have, to become happy, So does attaining Buddhahood. (to attain Buddhahood). So what role does Buddha play in this? How does Buddha help in this? He tells us the truth. He gives us the tools. Or he said 2500 years ago or 3000 years ago of the universe, how it came into being with all this formation and unformation. More important is our life, life cycle. Everyone has birth, aging, sickness, and death. When there's birth, there's death. When there's life, there's death. Hence, impermanence is established. How do we overcome this? Are we aware of this in the first place? Fully? If we go through this process, and all the temptations and all the confusions (delusions). We need to go through this and truly uncover it and let it go, only then can we become a Buddha. That means back to nirvana. However, it's not easy to do it straight away. On paper, it's easy. That is true. There's just one thing, you let go of delusions, that's it, done. But in practice, are we willing to let it go? In theory, in its essence, there's only this one thing, are we willing to let go? Are we willing to let go of our delusions? Because once we have delusions, attachments, discriminations and wandering thoughts, we start to have afflictions and become slaves to our desires, why? What does slave mean? A lot of people, (wonder) why are they suffering. It is because all of them become the slaves to their desire, slaves to the fame, slaves to the wealth, slaves to the relationship, romantic relationships. They all get tied up, bound by these temptations. They can't control themselves. Once you understand this, a person who can truly see through all of this phenomena, its bottom, its reality, will they be willing to be born to this, put themselves in the slavery situation? No. One who's aware of this, they not only will not jump and become bounded, they will also help to transform the environment back to its original nature. For example, if someone gossips behind your back or in front of you, or criticizes you to your face most of us will get angry and allow our temper to flare. That's the common case. A person who is awakened, was off, who has let go of the delusion, is not moved by that. So if you want to benefit from practicing Buddhism, hence, you want to get the benefit of living a happy life, you must pay a price for it. What is the price? There's always a price, it is that you must put in the effort, you must put in your patience, you must put in your time, this is the price in order to cultivate what you want. Someone asked me: Why do I have a life of misery? Why do I have a miserable life? I told him: Because you're not allowing yourself to live a happy life. Because you're making yourself miserable. For example, there was a couple, husband and wife, they had been married for four years and his wife kept grudging on (nagging) him. Before they were married, they loved each other so much, they made a lot of effort to build their family and after marriage, because of many little things, they argued and argued and argued, all of their hard work was gone, for nothing. As a practitioner of Buddhism, we know that to let go is to complete things, the family or goal. The first thing is to communicate, a lot of things (go wrong) because we can't be patient with a word that doesn't sound right, or a look that does not look right. We just (need to) communicate, build a bridge. So this is an act of awakening. As long as you're willing, it's not impossible. It's just your will. Are you willing to do it? For example, Shakyamuni Buddha himself, after finding so many teachers, attempted to fast, and fasted for so long He couldn’t find it. But he had the will to find a way to transcend life and death and he sat under the Bodhi tree for 30 days and he attained it (Buddhahood). Buddhism is a mentorship. Mentor refers to a teacher. So in summary, Buddhism is an education and Buddhism is about mentorship, Master and disciples. The teacher only teaches the way, the student has to put in the effort to walk the way that was pointed out, no one can help you. (No one can do it for you). Buddha made it very clear in his sutras how you can overcome sufferings, small sufferings, big sufferings, whether you can become successful, that means you are awakened. To use ourselves as an example, as a Pure Land practitioner, whether we can go to Pure Land does not rely on Buddha, as in Shakyamuni Buddha or even Amitabha Buddha, because they already laid out the groundwork for us. Amitabha Buddha already said as soon as you chant my name wholeheartedly in your very last breath, you will go there. So it's up to you now. The problem is not on the outside, not on the Buddhas, it is on us. The teacher has done the job. The student must walk the walk. That walk cannot be done by your teacher. It has to be done by yourself. That's true, the teacher cannot help beyond clarifying, telling you how to go. What mentors can help is to clarify the theories, the methods, the truth behind your life, the truth of your life. How do we overcome it? They also use their own experience as your point of reference, so that you have something to compare to and say, okay, I can do this. And the goal is to correct our delusions and erroneous viewpoints and to put our navigation, our GPS in the right direction because he has been there. Right? We're walking in his path towards enlightenment. Our job is to walk. So there's no superstition in all of this. It must be verified, it must be practiced. We all know this. To be honest, we all know this. It's just: are we willing to walk the walk? Are we willing to do it and go through the failures and successes of the process? Just like Buddha’s mother asked Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha: Why do humans go to hell? Why does hell exist at all? No one's constructing it, the people who go there, they are deluded, with heavy delusion. The one with a clear mind will not go there. The reason they were there is because they created that place for themselves, through delusion. Hence, Buddhism is about mentorship, it is about guiding people towards enlightenment, towards liberation from life and death, from suffering to bliss. And we must believe these theorys, teachings, so that we can use them. As a Buddhist, we also need to have the right way to regard the Buddha. Who is Buddha in relation to us? He is our teacher, our mentor. When a mentor, like Buddha, has told us what to do and what not to do, it is out of experience, it is out of observations. We must avoid the things that he says to avoid, and do the things he says to do. How did all of the great Venerables, including Master Ching Kung, improve so quickly? How did they achieve this level of cultivation? Because they are honest and they follow the teachings. Why are we slow? Why are we still lagging behind? Because we are not honest. Because we are slacking a little bit, a lot. So, also, at home, when we look at Buddha, we always have an image of the Buddha, we make offerings to the image of the Buddha. Everyday, I have the image of Shakyamuni Buddha, that I put in my room, and before I sleep, I look at this image of Amitabha Buddha, the Bodhisattvas and all the Arhats around him in the Pure Land and I always think about how do I get there, how to be a part of them. So in your home, chances are, you will have Buddha's image or a statue, right? How do you view the statue? What do you regard the statue as? There are cases where people think of it, like a god, like a God of Fortune, God of Sending Me Children, God of Fertility, God of Wealth, or God of Protectors, protecting my family from evil spirits. Sometimes, I also have cases where lay Buddhists come to my area and invite me to a temple. Some ask me: Do you have any Buddha images and can I have one of these images? I say: I have some, but why do you need it? (The answer is:) I want to put it in my car. Why, (I ask)? (They say) it is because it can protect us, keep us safe. (They then ask:) Could you bless this Buddha Image card, you know..., the card of Buddha's image, could you give it some blessings? I do that, but when I ask them, what's the purpose? What's the real purpose of having a Buddha's image? They can't answer it. Most people will answer every Chu Yi(初一), the first day of the lunar calendar or the 15th day of the lunar calendar, we just put some offerings, like fruit and incense as a ritual. There was another lay Buddhist who just bought a house. You have a house, right? They invited a statue of Buddha there and then they asked me: What should I offer to the Buddha statue? I told him you don't need to do much, don't need to offer much, just a glass of clean water. Why, he asked? I said: pure heart, remind yourself to have a pure heart like this glass of water. There was a case where there is a Buddha's birthday or there's an event in the temple where we offer water to the Buddha, right? But what did they think of that? They say you must leave the cup open because Buddha wants to drink it during the event, during the ceremony. So this happens a lot, this is very common among the Buddhist community. It became a religion, Buddha became a deity, a God to worship which is not the point of Buddhism. Some people are even worse, they treat it as like, a bribery, bribing Buddha into giving me more fortune. So, nowadays, we hear people say Buddhism is a religion, even worse it is a superstition. We cannot deny it. We truly cannot deny it. Why? Because Buddhism of today has become a religion, in that sense, it's very unfortunate. It has become a superstitious practice. It's very unfortunate to the Buddhist Community and to the founder, Shakyamuni Buddha. If you observe modern society, the Buddhist practitioners, how many people practice Buddhism? A lot, right? But how many people truly treat Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as teachers rather than gods? Very few. Most treat them as a sort of deity. And this way has departed too far, too far (away) from the original Buddhism. Just like my neighbors, there's a lot of them who pray to Guan Yu(關羽), he's deified as Guan Gong(關公), Master Guan a very famous historical figure from the Three Kingdoms in China. So a lot of people pray to Him for protection from the evils, from misfortunes. There was a case ... This old lady kept asking, I offer you so much wine, so much good stuff, why do you not protect my children, my grandchildren? This is also very common. I have also encountered a lot of Buddhists who brought many fruits to the Buddha temple in front of Bodhisattva Guan Yin, Avalokitesvara. They are not just purely offering out of respect, they are like trading, negotiating, like a business. If I give you this much fruit, you must protect me from evil or anything (bad). So, my Mom is very sharp in this intent. A lot of people there was like a lotto for a racing car and they prayed to Guan Gong, Master Guan, for blessing them to win the jackpot. My mom was very sharp and told them the horse only runs with 80 horsepower, but the car has 500 horsepower, so Guan Gong cannot protect you in this regard, it’s a satire. The problem is, we haven't done the job ourselves, Cause and Effect, Cause and Effect. If we understand the spirit of Buddhism, the most core Buddhism, the core meaning and if we act it out, live the teaching in every breath of our existence, people will understand truly what Buddhism is really about. Why? Because it will truly bring you safety, not just safety, happiness. True happiness from inside, a life of stability, good relationships, including our practice of chanting Amitabha Buddha's name. How do we make our family and people around us truly understand the meaning of practicing Pure Land (Buddhism), we need to do it ourselves. We need to live by example, what Amitabha Buddha is in our life. So this is why we (make) offerings to Buddha. There are two meanings of why we place offerings to the image of Buddha, why we still continue this practice, there are two of them. Number one is to repay our gratitude. It doesn't matter to which Buddha or Bodhisattva, the whole point of us putting the image in the most respectful (place) of our house is to remind ourselves of their teachings, of what they have contributed to us, to society, to all of us, all beings. But throughout 49 years of education by Buddha towards the world, what has he left to us? What's his contribution, what has he gone through? What did he have to face and encounter to provide us these teachings that enlighten us, that allow us to enlighten ourselves and our families, to give us the truth, so that we can awaken and no longer live confusingly in blindness, in darkness. Such meaningful teachings that transcend time, race and religion, can help you not only in this life but many lives, not only you, but many of your family (members). This is why we need to remind ourselves all the time. The first one is to remind ourselves of his teachings, to show gratitude towards his teachings. And it is, of course, so rare, guys, it is so rare amongst 7 billion how many people have encountered this. And the chance of encountering it is so hard as seen in this slide. One in 1,300 billion years. It's a long time, guys, it's very hard. So we keep it in our memory just like the Chinese and the East Asian people who offer a plaque to their ancestors. Sorry, not ancient, ancestors. Our great great great great grandfather, we do the same for Buddha. This is what we call 報本反始, which reaffirms the roots and retraces the beginnings of our lineage. In this case of our teachings and this activity, this ritual is important because it helps to express our feeling of gratitude. Just like you hug your good friends, right? Same thing. Every Chinese community and I think in East Asian communities , right? A lot. every April, we have Ching Ming, we all sweep the Tombs of our ancestors. What does Ching Ming mean? What's the meaning of doing that? Why do we sweep the tombs and clean the tombs of our ancestors? To reaffirm the roots and retrace our beginnings. Where did my lineage come from? What have they gone through to put me here, in this condition? To think of your roots, to go back to your roots. So when I was young, my parents would always bring me every Chin Ming, April, to sweep the tombs. I always asked my mom, why do we have to do this? Why do we have to sweep the tombs? My mom gave me a very simple explanation. Because I was young, I didn't know much. I just knew that we had to repay our gratitude. She told me that without your grandparents, without your great great great grandparents, there's no Mom and Dad today. And without them, where are you? So we need to be respectful and grateful towards them. So who do we pay our gratitude to? Our loved ones, our parents, our teachers who gave us wisdom and knowledge, right? Also our country, if there's no stability in our country, how can we have a good life? Also all the sentient beings, without different professions providing services, how do we have all the services available to us and give us such convenience? This is the point of paying gratitude. All of that is within one image of Buddha. The whole point is to do that. The question now is back to the Walk. Have you walked the walk? How do we pay our gratitude? We do it, we walk the walk. Do as much as you know (how to), as much as you have learned from these teachings. That is the biggest form of gratitude. So what is number two? Learn from the best role models. When you look at this role model, you want to act like them, walk like them, talk like them. In our case, our role model is Shakyamuni Buddha. He's a normal person, remember that he's just like us, many, many lives ago, just like us. He reached such a high level of achievements, beyond any worldly achievements one can attain, right? Why can't we become like him? Like Amitabha Buddha as well, he has become a Buddha. So can we. That's the point of the Pure Land, otherwise, the Pure Land cannot form. Everyone is a Buddha. Hence he can invite you to become Buddha in the Pure Land, all of these are to the remind us that you can become as great as he is, as well-rounded as he is, equal to him, equal, you guys. Every day, we give offerings to the image of the Buddha, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the point is to remind ourselves, have you enlightened yourself? Have you let your temper flare? Have you become jealous today? Are you being honest today? Are you being truly honest to yourself? Because Buddhas did not lie to themselves right? They are true to themselves. Are you more compassionate? What if someone prostrates to Buddha every single day, but once they're outside that chanting hall or their own Buddha offering place, or meditation space, they gossip behind people's back, they let their temper flare. So, we see the irony of that, right? That's the point of having this image to remind us we are not like that and we need to return (to our true nature, our full potential). It is not to promote superstitions, nor to worship an image of a God. Because if we treat him as a God, then we already twisted the meaning. Like Bodhisattva Guan Yin is very famous right? Guan Yin. Why do we make offerings to Guan Yin Bodhisattva? We need to learn from her, from him. What’s the most important example learned from the best role model, what is the model set by Bodhisattva Guan Yin? Compassion, selflessness, right? No jealousy, no divisions, full of love, full of kindness, embracing all beings (regardless of) their situation, their status, because a person with compassion will not prevent other people from achieving success, they would help them to achieve success. We do not gossip behind people's back, we’ll help them to improve the best version of themselves. We all are very clear of our own faults, right? So, by looking at Guan Yin Bodhisattva we learn that we need to improve ourselves. We can be better than this, better than yesterday’s version. The unfortunate part of Buddhism nowadays is that it is regarded as polytheism, practicing polytheism, worshipping many gods, or even worse a primitive religion or a lower religion. In contrast, what was regarded as a sophisticated religion or higher religion has only one God, monotheism. Take a look at the slide shown here. There are a lot of images of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas. They were misunderstood. They are not Gods, we're not praying to many gods, right? Why? Why do we have so many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas appear in the image, in the murals? Because Buddha has employed many terminologies in his teachings, including his own name, Shakyamuni Buddha. According to the Tripitaka (Collection of Buddhist Sutras) there's a sutra that gives a lot of names and as many as 12,000 names of Buddha's, even more for the Bodhisattvas. Usually every year in the Dharma place where we celebrate the new year, we always have praying for the names of the Buddhas', their meaning behind Bodhisattva Guan Yin, Bodhisattva Di Zang. A lot of people love to prostrate to the image of Bodhisattva DiZang, right? Ksitigarbha. (When you) ask them why do you do that? Why do you prostrate? What's the meaning behind it? A lot of them answered, because in the underworld, in hell, there's a Yama King. Yama King is a person who reigns over the underworld, right? or Hades. So the Yama King has always had respect, deep for Bodhisattva Di Zang. So if I pray to Bodhisattva Di Zang, King Yama won't treat me badly when I die. But the point is, what does Bodhisattva Di Zang represent? What's his role model? Filial piety, love and respect towards your elders and your parents. That's what it means, by praying to Him we learn to be more loving and respectful towards our parents, our loved ones. Buddha names such as Shakyamuni Buddha, or the Medicine Buddha, or the Pure Land Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha, their (names) have substance in them. And that substance must be known to us for our practice to continue in the proper direction. So what is the meaning behind the naming of 1000s of Buddhas? What’s the meaning behind the name of Buddhas? We will talk about it next week. So, today, we just have a very brief introduction of the two meanings of making offerings to the Buddha image. First one is to repay our gratitude, and then to know what they have done for us and how we repay their kindness, in memory of them. Second one is to learn from the best role models. How do we learn by offering towards a certain Buddha we learn of the merits of their role models? How do I change myself to be a better version like them? Because as ordinary beings, as humans, we always have faults, we definitely have faults, it is inevitable. The key is how much have we changed and how have we changed everyday to be a better version (of ourselves). So that's the point of having an image in front of you. It's an error, a deep error, if we treat Buddha as a god to be worshiped. If we are still stuck in that idea of Buddha as a deity to be worshiped, to get something in return, then no matter how many years we are calling ourselves Buddhists, practicing Buddhism, we will never get the true benefit of Buddhism. So one day, since today's lesson, when people ask you, what does Buddhism mean? Why do you pray to Buddha? How will you answer? You must give me the answer. I will give you some homework so you guys can think about it. By engaging with our lessons, it's a way for us to learn better, right? Back in my Dharma Place in Indonesia I always had a Q & A afterwards, chanting Amituofo, go to the Pure Land, what level of competency does one need to have to go to Pure Land? I usually had a study group where students raised questions and then I answered them. The point is to get a clearer, fuller picture of Buddhism and of Buddha’s teachings. Once we understand Buddha's teachings, we can use them in our life and benefit from them. So today, we learned about the meaning of role models of Buddha, through his image, through his action and through his sutras. So after today's lesson, you should know the meaning behind making offerings to the statue or image of Buddha. This is a simple explanation for this part. If I have any mistaken words or meanings that you guy's got from me, hopefully you can give me some feedback so we can all improve together. I hope that next week we can continue to learn as well, to research, to get more in depth on the great benefits brought by the teachings of Buddha. Your presence here today is already a great encouragement to me. Thank you very much. Good night. Let us dedicate our merits.
