So we'll continue today's session with “where do we begin learning Buddhism?”
The teachings that were given by
Shakyamuni Buddha can be categorized
into 84,000 methods of cultivation
and
among so many methods
that were given by him,
how do we choose among so many choices?
Every method given by Buddha is correct
but which one is the one suitable for us?
This is a very important point for us,
something we need to be concerned
about when we're learning.
So when we are learning Buddhism,
we go to a temple and burn incense
to offer to the Buddha
or offer flowers to the Triple Gem.
Some people might think
that's it for Buddhism,
that's all that Buddhism is about.
However, if you actually
want to learn Buddhism,
where do we start,
where do we begin?
We must be clear and we must be
aware of that, otherwise we will
waste our time when we learn,
otherwise we will spend years
reaping nothing in return,
learning nothing in return.
In the past, our patriarchs have said
that everyone who chants Amituofo,
practices this method,
will be able to
reach the Pure Land,
no one will be left behind.
But why, in reality,
are so many people who chant
Amituofo not getting there?
It is because we have habits
that stop us from getting there.
What is the cause?
What are the habits that stop us from
getting to the Pure Land? That's
what we need to discuss today.
If we're not clear
what obstacle lies in front of us,
how do we get blessings,
actual blessings,
actual help from
Buddha and Bodhisattvas?
If we do not understand how to begin
learning Buddhism, unfortunately,
it becomes a religion instead.
So that's what we will discuss today.
Where do we begin in learning
Buddhism, where do we enter?
Which door
do we enter
in this vast ocean?
In Chinese Mahayana Buddhism,
we usually use Four Great Bodhisattvas
as a method to educate everyone.
In China, there are four very famous
Buddhist mountains (that correspond
to these Four Great Bodhisattvas).
In Jiu Hua 九華山(mountain), there's
Ksitigarbha DiZang Bodhisattva,
in Pu Tuo 普陀山(mountain),
there’s Guan Yin
in E Mei 峨眉山(mountain), there’s
Pu Xian (Samantabhadra Bodhisattva )
and in WuTai 五臺山(mountain),
there’s Manjushri Bodhisattva.
These are the Four Great Bodhisattvas
and mountains that are commonly
used in the education of Buddhism.
So what do they represent?
We must be clear
what they represent,
what do these
Four Great Bodhisattvas
symbolize?
They show when we learn Buddhism,
we need to have an order of learning,
we need to have a sequence,
we need to follow certain steps,
a sequence when we learn Buddhism,
step one, step two, step three, step four,
one by one,
step by step.
Why? It is because
it depends on our capability,
like you're born with a certain capability.
Some people who are, what we call
genius, can immediately reach
the highest level in Buddhism,
but for us on the common level,
we need to follow the steps, one by one,
so that we can learn it,
we can actually learn them.
So of these Four Great Bodhisattvas,
among all four of them,
with whom do we start?
It's a very important question.
What do they represent?
The spirit, as in what value
do they represent?
Each of them represents
one of the four core values
when we're learning Buddhism
that we need to master,
we need to grasp.
As a Buddhist
we need to master
and hold on to these values.
What are these Four Values that we should
learn from Bodhisattvas? We will talk
about that in detail later.
For example, what does Bodhisattva
Ksitigarbha or in Chinese Dizang
Earth Treasure represent?
What level of attainment, other than order
of learning, the second one is the
level of attainment in Buddhism.
What is the level of attainment?
That means the level of wisdom, the scale,
the depth, the horizon of their wisdom,
which level do they represent?
Number three is to improve your capability,
your skills, your wisdom to see through
to the realities in this world,
we call it the Saha World
or the world that is messy, full of
false views, false thoughts and all that.
How do you see through it,
knowing right and wrong?
How do you solve it?
It all relies on the level of your attainment.
If our level of attainment did not increase,
how do we have wisdom?
Higher wisdom means our level of attainment
is better and we can get better
at handling the world.
These Four Great Bodhisattvas
represent that so we need
to learn about that.
All of these
Four Great Bodhisattvas
represent different aspects,
different spirits,
stages of learning Buddhism.
What does Manjushri Bodhisattva
or the Universal Worthy
Bodhisattva represent?
They all represent different values
but their goal, their principle,
all encompass one another,
we call it well-roundedness.
For example, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva,
whatever value he represents,
whatever virtues he has,
Bodhisattva Guan Yin has it,
Bodhisattva Manjushri has it,
Bodhisattva Universal Worthy has it.
Four is one, one is four. Each one of them
has a very specialized virtue but each
of the others have the same virtues,
they are
just trying to stand out
to help us.
It doesn't matter
which of the Four Great Bodhisattvas
you choose.
Among the four of them, we do need to
know the order of learning, where do
we start and then where do we end.
There's a reason
why there are four of them.
You cannot jump the queue.
you can't be like:
I like Guan Yin Bodhisattva,
I will just
learn straight from her,
nothing's wrong with that.
Manjushri Bodhisattva represents wisdom,
I will learn straight from him,
nothing's wrong with that.
However, why we have
this order of learning is we might
waste our energy if we skip steps.
Every Bodhisattva is actually
well-rounded and perfect.
That means they have everything,
they encompass everything
but what they represent is
the order of learning for us.
Each of them is trying to tell us,
trying to teach us to reach
the same perfection,
the same well-roundedness,
to get to the highest level of attainment,
if we follow, we will get there.
So today among the values that each of
the Four Great Bodhisattvas represent,
you cannot (skip one),
if you lack one out of the four,
your attainment is not perfect, that
means you cannot reach Buddhahood.
You cannot
leave one behind
because people of the world,
what they lack the most are the values
these Four Great Bodhisattvas
represent. It's very interesting.
Us Buddhists want to be wise,
so we chant Amituofo but
without Manjushri Bodhisattva,
we cannot,
also if you want to be as wise as
Manjushri Bodhisattva, without the
foundation of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva,
you can't get to that level or
if you want to be as compassionate
as Guanyin Bodhisattva
or Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva,
but without wisdom,
your compassion will not be perfect,
you will not use it in the right way.
Like when you walk, it requires
two legs to walk properly.
If you lack one leg,
you can't walk properly.
So, now we know these
Four Great Bodhisattvas
are equally important in our life.
They all represent something
we need to have a happy life,
they all have high wisdom.
Since we now understand that they are
well-rounded, they are perfect,
so where do we begin?
The order of learning is: The first one is
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva or Dizang,
direct translation: Earth Treasure.
We begin with him.
When we learn Buddhism,
we start from there.
If you ask Buddha:
Where do I begin, Buddha,
in learning your Dharma?
He will point out: Learn the spirit
of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.
Why?
It is because
this Bodhisattva has
infinite wisdom, merits and skills.
Of all the Buddhas from all directions,
from the past, present and future,
why do we begin with him
among so many choices to learn from?
Why do we begin with him
among everyone?
Like for us, Pure Land practitioners,
if we depart from Ksitigarbha
Bodhisattva’s spirit, value,
you cannot go to the Pure Land.
Without this foundation,
there's no Pure Land for us.
Buddha told us:
we begin with Him,
from what spirit he represents,
they are not just there
for us to offer
incense and flowers.
What do they represent?
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva represents
our root, our heart,
the ground that we stand on,
no matter what method
you practice,
without Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha's
value in you, the basic (value)
that he represents,
like the character,
if your character doesn't
have that value as a basis,
you could not
reach the highest attainment
which is Buddhahood:
Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi,
(Unsurpassed) Equally
Perfect Enlightenment.
It is because without this foundation,
you cannot achieve anything
in Buddhism.
No matter how well you chant Amituofo,
how frequently you chant Amituofo or
any other methods of Buddhism,
without his value
imbued in your character,
your action, speech, thought,
you can't have a guarantee
to (be born in) the Pure Land.
That's why he represents (the root).
Without a root,
how can a tree have fruits?
Without roots, where are the stems?
Where are the branches? Where are
the fruits? Where are the flowers?
How do we live in this world
without our parents,
how do we survive?
They gave us this (life), like our parents
provide us with everything: food,
shelter, love, family love and all that.
Without these,
how do we grow properly?
So they are like the roots.
The case is when we are very very
successful in our business with a
lot of money, with a lot of results,
however (if you) compare your achievements
in this society to your own parents
towards you, it is not comparable.
Their spirit and kindness is immeasurable.
So this is why we say Ksitigarbha
Bodhisattva represents the root.
If you
want to learn Buddhism,
you need to begin with filial piety,
how to be filial and
(show our) love and
respect towards our parents.
That's the first step
and that's what he's trying
to tell us through his example.
Being human, we also need to learn
how to be respectful towards
our teachers.
These are
very important factors
and we will explain them in detail.
The 49 years
of Buddha’s speeches
all follow this core value.
49 years
of his speeches were
all about this foundation.
You can say it is an annotation of the
Original Vows of Ksitigarbha
Bodhisattva Sutra《地藏菩薩本願經》.
Look at the era nowadays, if we look at
our friends, people around us,
observe carefully,
friends, relatives, people in this era,
especially right now, in this time,
including ourselves,
why is our affliction so heavy?
Why do we find trouble in chanting
Amituofo? Have we grown our wisdom?
So number one is
(we are) severely afflicted.
After chanting for so many years, we still
feel restless in the face of all of the turbulent
times in society and our family as well.
The cause of all these problems is that
we have forgotten our roots.
We've forgotten our foundation
to our correct well-being and character,
this is another way to say:
you forgot your roots.
It's a way to remind you.
This is very easy to do, people
easily forget where they came from.
I'd like to share
a story from 10 years ago.
There was a
young person who
came to my temple to find me.
He wanted to debate me.
Do I have to respond to him?
No. I don't have to,
because it's a waste of time.
He told me, after telling me so
many things, one of them was:
Buddhism, it's all about filial piety,
because you guys talk a lot about that.
What era is this?! What time is this?!
This is an era of technology!
Why do we need filial piety?
If you don't follow the flow of the era,
change according to the era,
we’ll be rejected, what he
meant was that we are outdated,
the values are outdated,
so this is a very severe view.
It’s quite common.
What he meant was
that in the future you won't
even need to have parents,
you can use In vitro fertilization,
that means a scientist is required
to help fertilize.
But I didn't respond.
When I heard that, I had
a thought upon hearing his view.
I knew why
society had gotten messy,
chaotic and turbulent.
It is because
when there is interaction between
parents and children,
there's a lot of young people who are
not patient with their parents
and they easily get angry
and talk back in a very rude way.
Why do we have such a turbulent society?
It is because of people like this.
A lot of
these kinds of people
forget where they come from,
that why they are here today because of
people who gave everything they have
for them, they forgot them.
Everyone forgets about their roots,
the society is a mess, in a mess. So
that's why I advise all the elder people,
those who are parents,
to take care of yourself,
you can't rely on your children anymore
because if you have too much hope
(you might be disappointed).
There's a common Chinese saying
that you have children to help you to
overcome the pain of aging.
So right now, in this era, it's hard,
you can't rely on them because of
these false views. The first thing
is society , everything is busier,
everything is
on a more tight schedule.
They don't have time to take care of their
own (parents), not even their own children,
let alone their own parents.
This is one of
the pathetic parts
about people nowadays.
This is why there is such
a booming industry in retirement,
because of this reality nowadays.
So young people, I urge all of you, all of us,
no matter how successful, how high, what
peak you have achieved in your field,
never forget the love your parents gave
to you, never forget those who give
everything they have to you,
their love to you,
their care to you.
That's what matters, truly,
because if we can't even get this point
correct, there's no point to come to
Buddhism and learn from Buddha.
You have no roots,
no land,
you can’t build anything.
This is why we need to start from
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.
This is why.
If you want to be successful in cultivating
Buddhism, achieving Buddhahood,
begin from here.
Number one Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva
represents filial piety, love and
respect towards our elders.
The first thing that defines
humanity is repaying kindness.
The second thing is being aware,
appreciating
the kindness we actually
receive from people around us,
starting from our parents
and from everyone else.
It's not given from God,
it's not from a heavenly being up above,
it's by people, your society that gives
you everything they have.
So repay
the kindness for those
who actually give it to you.
So number one, among
the Four Kindnesses above
when we do the Dedication of Merits,
the first one is parents, the second
is the teacher or the Triple Gem,
Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
The third is the country,
the fourth is the society,
all the sentient beings.
Number three is promoting virtues,
the merits of cultivating virtues.
If you look at modern people,
when you look at society nowadays,
you can see a common problem:
people lacking virtues, lacking decency.
We use a simple word,
decency.
If
you look around them,
no matter what they do,
there's
a lot of those
driven purely by self-interest,
purely driven by desires because of that
they're willing to let go of any semblance
of dignity as a human
and do something
that is basically disgusting.
So I have a story. I have a friend,
I have a movie given to me
by my friend, my classmate.
This movie is about observations about
current society and the story is
about a good doctor.
Why is he addressed as a good doctor?
It is because in this hospital, a lot of other
doctors are lacking virtues, lacking ethics.
I think it's a documentary.
It's showing behind the scenes,
what actually happens in the hospital
and those doctors not following their ethics.
Knowing this reality, not just in one field,
in many fields,
we understand that this is truly the end like
the world that Buddha described for
a Dharma Ending Age.
So back to the point,
we need to understand
the worldly goodness of all goodness,
all kinds (of goodness),
all things that are good
in the world.
Do not depart from the foundation of filial piety,
from being respectful and loving towards
your parents and elders.
Without this foundation,
whatever good you did towards
anyone else, it's not sincere.
A lot of people like to give, for example,
to offer to a temple, I like this temple, I give
a lot of money to help them to build it up.
If this Dharma Center
likes to build something,
they will help.
However, if you look at their character,
their character in private, behind the scenes,
to those who give everything to them,
to those who are kind to this person,
he's not being very kind towards
their own loved ones.
So this person
might look like a good person,
donating all these things,
but behind the scenes,
when treating their own parents,
they are lacking a basic virtue of respect.
Shakyamuni Buddha's Dharma
for 49 years,
he gave talks for 49 years.
All of them, every detail, every sutra,
they actually all center around
the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra,
the sutra about filial piety.
They do not depart from this,
you can call it an annotation of this sutra.
So we cannot
just read through this sutra
and treat it like anything (insignificant).
We need to appreciate
the importance of this
in our cultivation.
Talking about filial piety,
what does it look like
in Chinese?
In Chinese
characters filial piety or Xiao(孝)
in pronunciation, is a symbol.
So every Chinese character is a symbol.
What does this symbol comprise of?
The symbol of elder on the top
and symbol of young on the bottom,
elder and young
when you combine them,
means elder generation and
younger generation are one.
It's what we call filial piety.
The elder is above, on top.
We're not talking about
Laozi in Taoism.
We're talking about a combination
of these two words.
It's called filial piety
and this is where this word
Xiao孝 in Chinese came from.
If we want to go further with the meaning:
Elder generations
and younger generations,
together they are one, one entity.
They cannot be separated.
You cannot be separated from
your own parents,
you cannot
separate (yourself) from
your own ancestors.
That's
the original meaning
of filial piety, Xiao孝.
That's why the patriarchs of Buddhism
told us that the elder generations have
their own elder generations,
that means the past has no beginning,
there's no origin,
there's endless beginnings;
the younger generations have their own
younger generations, there is no end
for the next generation. It will be infinite.
So
how can it be separated?
The beginning and end are one.
So no matter what the situation is, the
relationship between you and your elders,
your parents, the relationship is there,
you cannot be separated
no matter good or bad.
For example, when I met someone
in the past, he told me
he hated his father.
(He said:) I really hate him. But I told him:
No matter how much you hate him,
the fact is: he is your father.
For example, on the other hand,
your children, no matter how much
you dislike your children
or because maybe they are not being good
or something like that,
they are still your children.
This thing
cannot be separated.
In Buddhism,
filial piety has another word for it,
if you perfect filial piety,
it becomes Dharmakaya or
the Body of the Truth.
What does it mean for us?
You want to be born in the Pure Land,
you want to be liberated
from sufferings,
you want to sever
the cause of life, reincarnation.
Anything that happens in the world
born from DharmaKaya,
arises from this Body of the Truth.
What does this
Dharmakaya (break down to)?
It’s called filial piety.
For example,
Buddhas of the past, present
and future, of the ten directions,
have attained Buddhahood
that means perfection of virtues.
Some haven't reached it yet, future Buddhas,
but each of them, no matter
where they are,
when they want to begin this journey
towards Buddhahood, they begin
with filial piety, Xiao(孝).
Why? It is because Buddha will always
want to help all beings, just like being
filial towards all beings,
treating
everyone like their parents,
this is the heart of Buddha.
If you are not filial,
could you even get anywhere
in Buddhism?
Say Amitabha Buddha,
he is now already a Buddha,
even when he's a Buddha,
he is still continuing
the practice of filial piety.
To whom? To all of us, to all beings.
He keeps giving and helping
and taking care of all beings,
that's filial piety, love and respect.
So we need to know
filial piety is the ship that
carries Buddha to Buddhahood.
If you're born into this world with fortunes,
into a fortunate family, where did
this merit come from? Filial piety.
So if you go back
to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra,
what is the special part about his symbol?
In the sutra,
the most unique part about him,
the excellent part about him,
is that
he started his act
of filial piety with his mother.
So the first person
he started his filial piety
towards was his mother.
For example, nowadays,
we always have Mother's Day.
No matter
what country you are (from),
you always have Mother's day.
Father's day is relatively not
as popular as Mother's day,
right? Why?
It is because of mother's virtue
towards us, the kindness they gave
to us is immeasurable,
always immeasurable.
First thing is the kindness
of giving birth to us,
carrying us into this world, so if you read
the sutra of How Hard It is to Repay
the Kindness of the Parents
Buddha has a description: No matter how you
repay their kindness, you still cannot
reach full repayment to them
and that means: a parent,
a mother especially,
how respected they should be,
like
how we should be respectful to them
because of their kindness.
In the Ksitigarbha Sutra,
there are two famous stories,
tales that represent this value.
The first one is Brahman Woman,
the second one is Bright Eyes,
the woman with bright eyes.
These are all about his past life,
where he saved his Mom, her Mom,
back then he was a lady, her Mom,
both of these ladies, their Moms committed
negative karma and were born into
the Three Lower Realms
and when they knew, when this past life of
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva knew that
his mother was suffering,
(s)he immediately used a lot of energy
trying to get them back to
the Three Higher Realms
It was very touching
and very sincere.
Like Brahman Woman, in order to save
her Mom to be reborn into the better
realms, she was willing to sacrifice her life.
Other than that, she also helped
the Triple Gem, built the Buddha tower
and helped the poor.
All of these merits were dedicated to her
Mom so that her Mom could be
reborn into a better realm.
All she
could think about was to
repay the kindness of her Mom
and knowing that her Mom fell
into the lower realms, was feeling urgent,
like very, very desperate to help her.
Same goes for the Bright Eyes.
To find people like that right now,
in our society, is rare, it's very rare.
Therefore,
we need to rely on ourselves.
It's very rare to find people like this.
In the end,
the lesson we need to bring home
is that we need to rely on ourselves.
Break all the evil deeds
and do all the good deeds,
so that at the very least, even if you do not
manage to go to the Pure Land, you're
not falling into the three lower realms.
Who wants to go there,
who wants to be an animal,
a ghost or a hell being?
Let's not talk about the three lower realms,
even now, here, who wants to take
suffering upon themselves?
So in order to
repay the kindness of
our mother,
not only do we need to refrain from
wrongdoing, we also need to prevent any
wrong thoughts from arising in our mind,
that your mind has to be right, righteous,
clear, only then are you able to
repay their kindness.
With this
filial piety in our mind,
we have restraint in our conduct,
we do not dare
do something that hurts their heart
and causes them to be sad.
So what Buddha is trying to teach us in this
is the power of filial piety, the power of
love towards your parents, Mom.
It stops you from doing something extreme,
something bad. It helps you to
have restraint.
If we go beyond that,
how powerful is the virtue
of filial piety?
Buddha has mentioned once in the sutra:
the drawing falls behind one's
diligent pursuit of Bodhi.
That means if you want to
get full enlightenment,
it's filial piety.
This is how powerful it is.
It usually takes a long time
for normal people to be Buddha,
but if you look at Amitabha Buddha,
it only took him five kalpas,
instead of infinite or three Big Kalpas
that means it shortened the time,
because Amitabha always
think about all beings,
he wants to build a Pure Land so that
everyone can suffer less and
quickly go to the Pure Land
and this filial piety, this heart of love and
respect towards all beings drives him
to speed up his enlightenment.
Also as you
perfect this virtue towards
your parents, towards every being,
so does it drive your progression
towards the perfection of
Bodhi which is Buddhahood.
For example, why do normal people
nowadays all work so hard
to make more money?
Why? It is because they were driven by
incentives, monetary incentives
or other forms of incentives,
without incentives,
they would not work so hard,
to want money in the form of prestige,
especially money.
Like, if I want to do business,
my goal is to earn money.
Same for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
but the target of their incentive
is filial piety,
because the urge
to relieve the sufferings
of all beings
is driven to speed up their enlightenment
so that they can quickly help them,
that's the intention.
That's why
Buddha taught us towards
our parents, especially our Mom,
as we are perfecting our ways,
we repay their kindness.
The progression towards the perfection
of Bodhi which is Buddhahood
is getting faster and better.
Amitabha Buddha is the best example. Why
does the Western Pure Land outshine all
other Buddha’s Pure Lands in 10 directions?
All Buddhas
from 10 directions are praising
this (Amitabha’s) Pure Land.
They all praise him to a level where
they say that he's the supreme
among the enlightened,
a Supreme King among the Buddhas
to that level according to
the Infinite Life Sutra
because of these
achievements, because of his heart.
At our level, if we want to live a better life
in the next life, next existence, we need
to have huge merits, huge fortunes.
How do we have a huge fortune?
In Chinese, there are five categories
of fortunes: Long Life, Good Death …
and all these fortunes come from filial piety,
from a heart of love and respect
towards your parents.
This is true! This is the root of fortunes,
filial piety, from love and respect
towards elders.
A historical example,
in the Han Dynasty,
1500 years ago, it was a very long era,
about 300 to 400 years of
the Dynasty's lifespan.
It began when a Han Emperor
wanted to fill the role
of the Minister,
he began by looking at the reputation of this
person towards their parents, if they were
being good towards their own parents,
because if he or she could be loving
towards people who have
been kind to them,
then obviously he knows how to repay
kindness. They would be very loyal
and very honest officials in the nation.
The Han Dynasty was
about 400 years
in lifespan.
There are very few Chinese dynasties
prior to unification that lasted
longer than the Han Dynasty
because
the Han Dynasty built its
empire on the basis of filial piety.
In Buddhism,
this is why we have
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva as the first step,
it's the first example
we should learn
when practicing Buddhism.
It's trying
to tell us Buddhism
starts from filial piety and respect.
Buddhism starts from
appreciating the kindness shown
by others, by paying them in return.
Buddhism starts from
respecting the teacher
and their teachings.
Buddhism starts from
broadening the heart and mind,
and because of this we are able to liberate
ourselves from suffering. From here we start
to appreciate the compassion of Buddha.
He taught us the root,
the first important thing
we should grasp.
The spirit of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva,
it's like what we mentioned just now,
is like a big tree.
Without roots,
how can there be stems,
branches, leaves, flowers and fruit?
That's the root of our cultivation,
basics of our cultivation,
perfection of our practice.
So the education system represented by
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is
perfect, well-rounded.
No matter the content of the teaching
or the methods of teaching, the way
they teach and the content they teach,
it's perfect,
it's well-rounded.
We should know about that.
Of the Four Great Bodhisattvas,
Ksitigarbha(or Dizang) Bodhisattva
is the first in line,
because this is what Buddhism is founded
upon and the name is already telling
us this, Earth Treasure.
Buddhism
is built on discipleship,
we all know that.
Teacher and student relationships are
educational relationships, rather than
religious relationships,
because we must be aware:
if it becomes a religion,
it is superstitious by nature
because
it is all based
on blind worshiping.
If you look at the worldly religions,
if they're not using education,
it becomes superstitious.
When we
become superstitious
in a sense, we are blind.
Well, look at our current situation,
we are already lost in our
wandering thoughts
because we have so many wandering thoughts.
We got confused with so many things
happening around us.
Are we going to
add another layer of
confusion to us,
another layer of superstition
to confuse ourselves further?
There's no need for that.
The purpose of Shakyamuni Buddha's
Dharma is to help us to break through
delusions and be awakened to the truth,
because only when you're awake,
knowing what is the Cause and Effect,
what to prevent, when to do it,
can you have real happiness,
preventing yourself
from falling into suffering.
Having a peaceful mind
and a fulfilling life is
the discipleship of Buddhism.
Now that we know the foundation of
Buddhist education is built
on discipleship,
but discipleship,
Buddha also told us is
built on filial piety,
without love and respect
towards your parents, how can you be
respectful towards your teacher basically?
Without this as a call,
we can’t grow.
For a person who disrespects the ones
we should love the most,
which is our parents,
how can
they be respectful towards
the teacher? Impossible!
Basic logic, when you look at students in the
school nowadays, the way their disrespectful
attitude shows towards teachers,
then you understand that
there is something
lacking at home.
It's not easy for a teacher because
parents' home education has issues,
teachers can only do so much.
If they can't even respect their teacher,
how can they learn anything? That means
how can they be awakened to the truth?
Say, if you are disrespectful towards
Amitabha, your teacher, how can
you gain enlightenment?
How can you be liberated,
without this awakening, how
can you be liberated from suffering
because
you're not listening
to anything he says?
Like Shakyamuni Buddha, everything he
taught us, every single word is
not there just for the sake of it,
everything
is coming out
from the True Nature.
Buddhism relies on your respect in order to
dig up the treasure of our True Nature,
without that, how can we be awakened?
If there is a lack of discipleship,
it represents a lack of respect in
general towards your own teacher
and that means
you lack love and respect
towards your own parents.
That means if you're not listening to
anything because of a lack of respect,
you just let it be,
you don't even take in what they said,
how can we achieve anything,
how can we learn anything?
That's why Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva,
everyone knows him already at this stage,
represents filial piety.
The sutra about him, Ksitigarbha Sutra,
is like Buddhism's doctrine
of filial piety.
A person who is filial to his parents and
respectful to his teacher is given
the title Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.
It's a title given if you are being
respectful and loving towards
your parents and teacher,
if
you treat your parents
with a loving heart,
if you treat
your teachers with reverence
and respect towards the teaching,
then you are Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva,
Dizang Pusa. This is the way you enter,
this is how you begin your journey.
Not just the parents of this life, the parents
of past lives, many many past lives,
that means all beginnings in general.
You need to expand this loving heart
from the people close to you
towards everyone else, expand.
With this
foundation in your character,
if you are like that, truly like that,
then when you want to learn further and
get better and more sophisticated in
your learning, you progress very quickly.
That's why
all Bodhisattvas or Buddhas,
when they try to turn the Dharma Wheel,
are all born into the family of Emperors
and Kings. You can imagine how big
their merit and fortune is
because they all cultivate this filial piety.
In our case, if you want to
have a good family
or be born into a happy family or you want
to have your children to be loving and
respect towards you,
then you need to start
doing it towards your own parents.
If we can't even be respectful and loving
towards our elders, how can you expect,
when you become an elder,
to be respected
by your youngest?
So as young people,
we must understand that.
No matter how smart we are,
how capable we are,
never fall into the trap of arrogance,
always remember your roots,
only then can you grow very far.
As a Buddhist, we need to learn how
to love people, how to respect people.
Especially in modern times, we need to learn,
because it is unfamiliar and even unknown
to people, how to be loving people.
Next week, we'll talk about that
in detail: How do we be filial?
So that's it for today.
So to recap,
this was a basic introduction on
where to start in learning Buddhism,
explaining why we need to be respectful
towards our elders, our parents and
not just parents of this life,
parents of many, many lives in the past.
If your understanding is clear about
these teachings, this principle,
you will understand that all beings are your
parents at one point in time and how
can you harm your own parents,
knowing that
they are your parents.
Even if they harm you, you will not
have the heart to retaliate,
because you are one.
It's like the left hand harming
the right hand basically.
You can't.
If you have this foundation of
filial piety in your character,
your cultivation, say,
chanting Amituofo, the speed of
your progress is very quick.
Every day you improve.
So this is the basic introduction we learned
today: Where do we start in learning
Buddhism? Filial piety.
Where do we start from filial piety?
How do we perform filial piety or love
and respect towards our parents?
We'll talk about it
next week.
So today we stop here.
I hope that everyone could
honestly chant Amituofo
and be healthy
so that you all can be
peaceful and prosperous.
Also,
let's go to the Pure Land.
Amituofo!
Let's
dedicate our merits:
May the merits and virtues accrued
from this work, repay to
the karma creditors of all times
and also be born in the Pure Land,
repay to the beings from
all directions
so that
they may be
liberated from the sufferings.
Repay the Four Kindnesses above,
Relieve the Sufferings of those
in the Three Paths below.
May those who see or hear of this,
aspired to invoke the
Bodhi heart
cultivate the teachings
for the rest of this life,
Then be born together
in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Amituofo
