Amituofo!
Good evening everyone. Today we will continue a simple introduction on how we can better understand Buddhism. Shakyamuni Buddha gave Dharma talks for 49 years. He taught 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 start to get our foundation steady? Once our foundation is strong, we can grow and develop 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 2500 years ago? How did he teach his students, his disciples so that, at that moment, all of his students attained the higher levels of Arhat and Bodhisattva? Last week, we talked about how to understand Buddha like what Buddha represents through his name and through his actions. This had to be clarified because there are strong misunderstandings towards the Buddhist community and Buddhism in general. We also learned how Buddha has attained enlightenment after all the trials that he had gone through, all the seeking he had gone through. Buddha summed up everything that he experienced and observed by saying: You have an innate wisdom, one that is perfect and well rounded, but unfortunately, you 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, did we fall into this current state bound by external circumstances and 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 realm, the hungry ghost and the animal realms. So, Buddha told us: we lost our potential, we lost our capabilities, we lost our wisdom. And because we have lost it, today we have become like this, ordinary beings. We are Buddhas; however, we lost it, how did we lose it? Because we are bound to the outside environment, our five stimuli and our six senses. Buddha, after his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree said this statement : All things, not just sentient beings, all things have Buddha Nature, just like the Buddha, with 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, we commit a lot of Karma, that is not wholesome, hence all the effects come back to us in this form that we feel today. Looking at Shakyamuni Buddha’s life through the sutras, through the Master’s talks, he lived everyday without a shelter over his head, he lived under the trees in India and 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 desires did not move him. Why? Because he was not moved by the outside circumstances. He was in control of his life, his destiny. His spiritual life was full. So what should we do if we want to return to our full wisdom, our full fortune? What kind of wisdom is that? The kind of 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 the great 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 are two terms, one is lost, one is destroyed. It's not destroyed, it is lost. It 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 like Buddha, you have that, but you're not tapping into it, it is hidden underneath. So, under what? Under delusions, only when we break through these delusions that cloud and cover up our wisdom, only then will we fully tap into our full potential. So the question for today is how do we find it back? How do we break through this cloud of delusions? 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 knew 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 go back, go back to our own home, back to our true self. To go back from delusion to fully awakened is a journey that we must discuss to (re)discover ourselves. Buddha did 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. The Sutras in Mahayana Buddhism have a saying like this: Buddha does not transcend any beings to enlightenment. If that is the case, how do beings become a Buddha? By themselves. We have to be willing to remove delusions by ourselves. 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 know , to become happy, to attain Buddhahood. So what role did Buddha play in this? How did Buddha help us in this? He told us the truth. He gave us the tools. He told us 2500 years ago about the universe, how it came into being but more importantly Buddha’s role was to help sentient beings to uncover the truth of life for us, so that we are aware of it. 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 fully aware of this in the first place? How do we become fully aware? By letting go of our delusions, we attain Buddhahood! If we go through this process, with all of 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 becoming a slave mean? A lot of people wonder why they are suffering. It is because all of them become slaves to their desires, slaves to fame, slaves to wealth, slaves to relationships, romantic relationships. They get all 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, to its bottom, to 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 into it 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, who has let go of the delusion, is not moved by these things. So if you want to benefit from practicing Buddhism, if 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, a husband and wife, they had been married for four years and his wife kept 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, our family, our 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 for 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 searching 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 path of mentorship. Mentor refers to a teacher who can guide us. 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 do it for you. Buddha made it very clear in his sutras how you can overcome suffering, minor sufferings, major sufferings and how you can become successful, that means become 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, even though 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 success of a disciple relies on themselves. A mentor cannot help the disciple to put in the effort to master the lessons learnt. That's true, the teacher cannot help beyond clarifying, telling you how to go. We must understand how mentors can help is to clarify the theories, the methods, the truth behind (the events in) your life, the truth of your life and how we overcome it. They also use their own experience as a point of reference, so that you have something to compare to and say, okay, I can do this. 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 Buddhism. All that was taught by Buddha must be verified and it must be practiced in our life. The goal is to correct our delusions or erroneous viewpoints. 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 teachings so that we can use them. As a Buddhist, we also need to have the right view regarding the Buddha. Who is Buddha in relation to us? He is our teacher, our mentor. As a Buddhist, we must regard Buddha as 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 observation. We must avoid the things that he said to avoid, and do the things he said 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, we have an image of the Buddha and we make offerings to the image of the Buddha. I have the image of Shakyamuni Buddha in my room, and everyday before I sleep, I look at this image of Amitabha Buddha and all of the Bodhisattvas and 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 have a Buddha 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 Fertility, God of Wealth, or God of Protectors, protecting my family from evil spirits. Sometimes, there are cases where lay Buddhists come to me 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? Could you give it some blessings? I do that, but when I asked 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, 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. 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 on Buddha's birthday or an event in the temple where we offered water to the Buddha. So what did they think of that? They said 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. Buddhism has 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 like, you know, 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, how many people practice Buddhism? A lot, right? But how many people truly treat Buddha and Bodhisattvas as teachers rather than gods? Very few. Most treat Buddha as a deity to be worshipped and this way has departed too far, too far away from the original intent of 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 where an 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 Buddhist 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 was very sharp in this regard. Once, there was a lottery for a racing car. A lot of people participated and they prayed to Guan Gong, Master Guan, to bless them to win the jackpot. My mom told them the horse only runs with 80 horsepower, but the car has 500 horsepower, so Guan Gong cannot bless 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 truly understand 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 and show them. 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 which Buddha or Bodhisattva the whole point of us putting the image in the most respectful corner 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? So 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 teaching, to show gratitude towards his teaching. And it is, of course, so rare, guys, it is so rare amongst 7 billion how many people have encountered this? The fact that we have the chance to encounter and accept such comprehensive and well-rounded education in this lifetime is rare and fortunate indeed! And the chance of encountering Buddha’s Dharma is so hard as seen in this slide, is one in a million kalpas or 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. Like our great great great grandfather, we do the same for Buddha. This form of expression is called Reaffirming our roots and retracing the beginnings of our lineage. In this case of our teachings and this activity, this ritual is important because it helps to express our deep feeling of gratitude. Just like you hug your good friends, right? Same thing. Every April, every Chinese community and I think in many East Asian communities, celebrate Ching Ming. We all sweep the Tombs of our ancestors. What does Ching Ming mean? What's the meaning of doing this? 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 April to celebrate Chin Ming, to sweep the tombs. I always asked my mom, why do we have to do this? Why do we have to sweep the tombs? Because I was young, I didn't know much. I just knew that we had to repay our gratitude. My mom gave me a very simple explanation, 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 or statue of Buddha. The whole point is to do that. The question now is, have you walked the walk? How do we pay our gratitude? We do it by walking the walk. Do as much as you know how to, as much as you have learned from these teachings. This is the biggest form of gratitude. So what is number two? Learn from the best role models. When you look at a role model, you want to act like them, walk like them and talk like them. Think about our role model, Shakyamuni Buddha. He was an ordinary being like us at one point. He achieved Buddhahood by attaining full enlightenment, why can't we do the same? Why can't we too become a Buddha? 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 be. Everyone is a Buddha, hence he can invite you to become Buddha in the Pure Land, all of this is to remind us that you can become as great as he is, as well-rounded as he is, equal to him, equal. Every day, we give offerings to the image of the Buddha, and the point is to remind ourselves. Have you enlightened yourself? Have you shown your temper? 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, they gossip behind people's back or they lose their temper. So, we see the irony in 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? 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 help them to improve the best version of themselves. We are all 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, worshiping many gods, commonly regarded as a primitive religion or a lower religion. In contrast, what is regarded as a sophisticated religion or a higher religion has only one God, monotheism. Take a look at the slide shown here. There are a lot of images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They are misunderstood. They are not Gods, we're not praying to many gods, right? 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 there's a sutra called The Buddha Proclaims the Names of Buddhas Sutra. In this sutra, there are around 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 and Bodhisattvas and the meanings behind them, like Bodhisattva Guan Yin and Bodhisattva Di Zang. A lot of people love to prostrate to the image of Bodhisattva DiZang, right? Ksitigarbha. I asked 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 always had deep respect 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? Why is he a role model? He represents 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, their names have substance in them. And that substance must be known to us for our practice to continue in the proper direction. Why are there so many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas? We must understand the meaning behind this: What is the meaning behind the naming of 1000’s of Buddhas? We will talk about it next week. So, today, we had a very brief introduction of the two meanings of making offerings to the Buddha image. The 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. The second one is to learn from the best role models. We discussed how we learn by making offerings towards a certain Buddha, how we learn from the merits of the best role models. Also how I can 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 call ourselves Buddhists, practice 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 better way for us to learn, right? Back in my Dharma Place in Indonesia, I always had a Q & A afterwards. What level of competency does one need to have to go to the 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. Amituofo! Let us dedicate our merits. Repentance All the harm I have ever done, since time immemorial, Are caused by greed, anger, and ignorance, And produced through my body, speech, and will, Now I confess and amend all. Dedication May the Merits and Virtues accrued from this work Adorn the Buddha’s Pure Land, Repay the Four Kindnesses above, and Relieve the Sufferings of those in the Three Paths below. May those who see or hear of this, Aspired to Invoke the Bodhi heart And cultivate the teachings for the rest of this life, Then be born together in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
