Engaging With The Buddha (Part 3)

Engaging with the Buddha

Class 3 – V2 of the Foundation of All Good Qualities (FGQ) - with Geshe Tenzin Zopa

Today’s topic is on Verse 2 , which discusses the precious human rebirth.

First, a quick revision of last week’s topic which was on guru devotion. Mundane happiness cannot be achieved without a proper guide/Teacher, let alone spiritual attainments. However, not everyone is qualified to be a spiritual Teacher. The scriptures (Vinaya, Tantra) set out the various criteria for a person to be a qualified teacher. As minimum, to be a teacher, that person must live life with proper discipline and ethics; have a compassionate heart; who cares for others more than himself or herself. The teachings also require the student to have qualities – to be faithful, have a certain level of wisdom to interpret teachings in a right way after accepting the person as a Teacher; try one’s very best to apply the teachings to protect one’s body, speech and thoughts from harming others; seeing the Teacher as emanation of Buddha, in oneness with the Buddha. In short, mentally we should view spiritual Guru as Buddha. Outwardly and conventionally, the spiritual Guru/Teacher appears in an ordinary form like oneself and appears to be subject to birth, sickness, old age and death and even delusions, for many reasons, such as – to serve as a teaching for the student about impermanence; to teach what to avoid and what to adopt; to be able to interact with the student with the pure motivation of seeking to benefit the student and all living beings. Ultimately, the Guru is Buddha; conventionally, they manifest ordinary traits. Therefore, if you see a Teacher misbehaving in front of you, one should interpret that the teacher is teaching oneself not to do such mistaken acts. Conversely, when the Teacher does inspiring acts, the teacher is inspiring students and all beings through example.

What is the main objective in devoting to a Teacher and listening to Dharma? It is to enable us to realise the potential of this precious human rebirth. The full potential of this precious human rebirth is Buddhahood.

V2 FGQ – “Understanding that the precious human rebirth is hard to find and obtained only once....”

The Buddha’s teaching reveals to us the preciousness of this human rebirth, which is qualified by the 8 freedoms and 10 endowments. I will go through these generally – they include our being free from being born as a hell being; as a hungry ghost; as an animal; as a deva being and as demi-gods. Not having wrong views e.g. not believing in compassion.

Not every human rebirth can be said to be the precious human rebirth. It needs to have the above qualities. If you observe, there are many human beings who enjoy violence, bombing others, creating destructive objects and regarding themselves as great and powerful. As long as one has this kind of mind which believes in harming others and not having regard for the consequences, it is regarded as wrong view. Then, there are many human beings who have incomplete faculties e.g. do not possess the mental ability of comprehension, which would have enabled them to receive teachings. There are people who are born with complete faculties but are born in the dark era (a period where there are no Dharma teachings). There are also many people who are born in places where there is no access to Dharma and teachings on loving kindness, enlightenment, emptiness. Our era is called a bright era because the Buddha has come to teach Dharma and we have access to Dharma, books, teachers, meditators, Buddhist practitioners. Even within one family, there may be family members who appreciate Dharma and another family member totally against Dharma/virtue and in such a case, we could say that even within one family, one cannot say for certain that every member there has obtained the precious human rebirth.

By considering the factors above, we can see that we are completely qualified with the freedom to practice Dharma and endowed with the necessary conditions to practice. If whilst obtaining this precious human rebirth, we don’t practice Dharma to put our lives to optimum use, it would be regarded as a great loss. The precious human rebirth with all those qualities is like a flash of lightning in the dark sky i.e. it is brief and as if occurring only once – the rest of the time, we have been born in the lower realms or even if born human, we were born during a dark era or in barbaric lands without access to Dharma. Therefore, we cannot hope and assume that the precious human rebirth will be obtained again in the next life.

Why is it so difficult to obtain the precious human rebirth? The teachings say it is because such a rebirth requires the right causes and conditions. What are the causes and conditions for the precious human rebirth?

First, we need to live an ethical life i.e. avoid the 10 non-virtues (killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, harsh speech, divisive speech, gossip, covetousness, ill-will and holding wrong views). In the past, we have succeeded in not committing those 10 non virtues and thus obtained this precious human rebirth. However, if we observe our present life, we are careless and commit the 10 non-virtues all the time. One’s mind is often in a negative state, having harmful attitudes towards others like jealousy, pride, anger, attachment, disrespect, no compassion and so on. When we look into our own mind, we are very negative. The result of these will not secure us a higher rebirth like the precious human rebirth but instead, a lower realm rebirth. We presently have very wild minds, so the chances of gaining a precious human rebirth (PHR) again is slim. Over and above the ethics, we also require compassion, generosity and pure aspiration to actualise the PHR in the future in order to benefit of others. Thus, to get the PHR, one requires 3 causes i.e. ethics (avoiding the 10 non-virtues), compassion and pure aspiration (to gain the PHR for the sake of others).

Since this PHR is so rare and difficult to find and meaningful, the Buddha taught that there are 3 levels/goals to aspire to, in order for us to extract the essence of life –

1. As a minimum, the lowest level goal is for us to gain the full protection from being reborn in the lower realms. This PHR has the power to prevent our rebirth there, which can easily happen due to our constantly committing the 10 non-virtues. To gain protection from the lower realms., we need to engage into Dharma practice. What is Dharma practice? As a start, one practise Dharma by taking Refuge in the Triple Gem. What is practising Refuge? It means to cultivate virtue and to abandon non-virtue; to refrain from harming others. If we can benefit others by engaging in virtue, then we will avoid the lower realms and gain a higher rebirth.

2. The next level is to aim for liberation/nirvana: Nirvana means freedom from samsara; after all, even a rebirth in the human realm or god realm will also bring sufferings. So it’s not enough to avoid the 3 lower realms; even the higher realm rebirths have suffering, hence the aspiration to be free from rebirth into the whole of samsara. To actualise this, one needs to engage in the practice of the 3 higher trainings namely ethics, concentration and wisdom. Just by abandoning harmful actions and taking refuge alone is not enough to free one from samsara and bring us to nirvana.

What is meant by ethics/morality? As mentioned earlier, it means avoiding the 10 non-virtues of body, speech and mind; refraining from harming others. If one is addicted to non-virtue, work on it and gradually get out of it. If one’s purpose is to actualise freedom from samsara, any form of intoxication has to be gradually eliminated. Avoid being influenced by friends who encourage you to indulge in alcohol, smoking etc. Whatever intoxicates you, will hallucinate you and that hallucination – which may feel like bliss at the beginning - but when that hallucination intensifies, the hallucinated mind becomes like Mara swallowing you. Total confusion. In the Vinaya sutra, the Buddha says not to taste a drop of alcohol even the small amount that could be dropped from a rice strand. There are many stories of how intoxication can bring on all faults. I will tell you a common story on the great harm caused by intoxication : There was once a monk who was very strict in upholding his vows; he never even shook the hand of a woman, let alone be intoxicated. One day, a woman appeared with a goat and a bottle of alcohol and forced the monk to choose one of them i.e. he had to either drink the alcohol, kill the goat or have sexual misconduct with her. The circumstances were such that the monk had no escape. So the monk thought deeply – he didn’t dare commit sexual misconduct as he would be disrobed; to kill the goat would have been extremely negative karma; so he decided that the least harmful of the 3 was to drink the alcohol. After he drank the alcohol, he killed the goat and committed sexual misconduct with the woman. This illustrates how destructive alcohol and intoxication is. Liquor hallucinates the mind. At the time of death, it will dull one’s virtuous imprints, such that even when people chant, one will only hear disturbing, confusing sounds. This is not just me saying this. It is in the teachings. The Director of the movie “Unmistaken Child” was a heavy smoker. He wanted to stay with me in the monastery to film the life at the monastery. I told him that if he wanted to stay with me, he had to quit smoking. He said it was impossible. Whenever he wanted to smoke and didn’t get a cigarette immediately, I could see his hair standing up. So I suggested to him that since I burn incense everyday, whenever he wanted to smoke, he could light a stick of incense instead and hold it in his hand like a cigarette and I would also prepare for him a big Indian sweet for him to chew on. He agreed with my suggestions. So whenever he got into that state, I would bring him to the verandah and bring the incense and sweet to him. I could see him calming down when he “smoked” the incense and had the sweet. After 4-5 days, he didn’t shiver anymore and he soon became less dependent on his cigarettes. After 3 months, he stopped smoking. Even this class, Mr William Khoo was a heavy smoker but through his own determination, he stopped and it has been 5-6 years. He vowed to KLZR that he will stop smoking. Now when he goes with friends who smoke, he finds it offensive smelling. Hence it is important to practice ethics and restraint.

What is meant by concentration – we need to practice mindfulness. Our minds are very wild. When we want to think of something good, the negative mind arises instead; when we want to rejoice, jealousy comes; or want to be patient, anger comes. All this happens due to lack of concentration. Be mindful of what negative thoughts and actions that one should avoid. Be mindful to generate positive thoughts to those in suffering e.g. like the Japanese people now, as well as all living beings. Right now, we are lacking in concentration and overwhelmed by only thinking of oneself, what I should eat, what I should wear, whom I should call, what movie shall I watch? Mindfulness towards oneself benefitting others is also a very good thing to do. We constantly think of oneself only. We never realise that thinking only for one’s own benefit is a harmful attitude. By practising mindfulness this way, we will gain a virtuous mind. When thinking of oneself, think in terms of taking care of one’s welfare and going to work to earn money for the ultimate purpose of benefitting others. Concentration is training one’s mind to focus on virtue. Suffering comes from disturbing thoughts – attachment, anger, jealousy. One can train your mind to be gentle and peaceful.

When fully trained in concentration, one will gain physical pliancy (feeling light, comfortable, free from the baggage of contamination and even able to fly) and mental pliancy (sharp mental ability, clear mind). For that, we have to start from now. When negative thoughts come, recognise that it is not helpful but harmful. Everything that we do must be such that it will not harm people (nor give rise to criticism, etc). Even when eating food – think – to eat this one grain of rice, how many sentient beings have sacrificed their lives? When planting rice and ploughing the ground for it, how many bacteria, worms and bugs have died? We go to the shop, pay for the rice and forget the sacrifice of sentient beings.

Even when we sleep, we can transform that into virtue. Before going to bed – think with compassion of those beings who have no shelter, food and that one has all the comforts due to the kindness of sentient beings. Resolve not to waste 7 hours of sleep. Think of how precious our lives are and how the teachings say that it is as if we gain this life only once. Thus, if I don’t use this life well now, who knows – tomorrow morning might not come. Think this way before going to sleep and upon waking up, one should generate the thought of how fortunate one is to wake up in the morning (no one harmed us in the night) and appreciate one’s precious human rebirth that is able to practice Dharma and make one’s day most meaningful. A meaningful day is one spent in cultivating the 3 higher trainings – morality, concentration and use one’s mind to gain wisdom (of emptiness). To start with, one should know what needs to be eliminated and what is to be adopted, in order to attain liberation/nirvana.

Wisdom: Whenever one wants to cultivate wisdom, Manjushri is the most relevant aspect of the Buddha to cultivate in relation to. Pray to gain the right causes and conditions to accomplish the practices in relation to wisdom; to gain the direct understanding of emptiness. It helps to make supplication and prayer. Deva beings and asura realm beings cannot practice this way; let alone the 3 lower realm beings. Pure Dharma practice supports not only this life but all future lifetimes. Hence the urgency for us to realise this and try our best. Make our days and nights meaningful.

So far we have been talking about the 3 levels/goals to aspire to when seeking to extract the essence of life – the lowest level is to gain protection from the lower realms; the next level is to aim for liberation/nirvana. Now we come to the highest level of aspiration/goal:

The highest purpose we can aim for (to extract the maximum out of life) is to become a Buddha to benefit all living beings. For this, one has to be free from the 2 obscurations to enlightenment: (1) freedom from obscuration to liberation/nirvana and (2) freedom from the obscuration to enlightenment itself. Understand that nirvana is not enlightenment. One should aim for enlightenment. Once shouldn’t be satisfied with liberation/nirvana which is freedom from suffering for oneself alone; instead one should aspire to free all living beings from suffering and only then can one reach Buddhahood. For this, one has to practice great compassion known as Bodhicitta = the compassionate mind which takes full responsibility of liberating all beings to the state of enlightenment. Hence we must resolve to become Buddha solely for the benefit of others. Right now, one cannot help sentient beings much as one is also trapped in samsara but when one becomes a Buddha, one will have the ability to bring numberless beings to Buddhahood. Note that the practitioners of the earlier first 2 levels of aspiration also have compassion but they don’t have great-compassion. It is only the practitioner of this 3^rd level of aspiration, that has great compassion and extracts the highest benefit of this human rebirth; extracts the maximum essence from this life. The practice of this 3^rd level practitioner is that of the 6 Perfections – morality, generosity, patience, perseverance, concentration and wisdom. When bodhicitta is combined with the 3 higher trainings, it becomes a powerful cause to actualise enlightenment.

In summary:

· The 3 causes for the precious human rebirth is - ethics/morality (avoiding the 10 non-virtues), compassion and pure aspiration for the PHR to benefit others.

· Samsara refers to cycle of suffering of the 6 realms – from the lowest is the hell realms, the hungry ghost/preta realm, the animal realm, human realm, asura (demi-god) realm and the deva realm.

· An Arhat is not nec a Buddha. An Arhat is one who attains liberation but not yet enlightenment. A Bodhisattva is lower than a Buddha but at a higher level than Arhat. Within the term “Bodhisattva” there are ordinary Bodhisattvas and Arya Bodhisattva (Kuan Yin, Tara are Arya Bodhisattva) which means they have realised emptiness directly. The term “Tathagata” refers to the Buddha. The Buddha is the highest of all.

Q: We have been asked to recite the Ksitigarbha practice. What is this practice?

Ans: The earthquake and tsunami are explained as mainly related to harming lives of others, particularly, landlords (earth protectors), nagas - those beings who reside in the water and in the earth. Due to that, one does prayers in relation to Ksitigarbha, who made a pledge to pacify destruction caused by living beings who are karmically related to the depths of the earth and water. Hence it is particularly effective to do Ksitigarbha practice for earthquakes and tsunamis. There are other prayers which can also help. The best antidote is 8 Mahayana Precepts. It is also a powerful purification practice that purifies the harm one has caused to living beings in the past. Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained that a place may be experiencing fire but if there is a person who undertaking Precepts, the immediate surrounding area will be protected. There is a story which illustrates how to achieve peace and abundance in a society - During the Buddha’s time, there was famine and drought in the land for a long time but one day, everything went back to normal, including the weather. The villagers were happy and thought it was due to power of the meditator in a nearby cave; some thought it was due to the power of the country’s king; some thought it was due to a Brahmin’s magic. So they went to ask Buddha for the cause of everything being peaceful, with crops flowering at the right time and rains coming in the right amounts etc…The Buddha revealed that in the forest, there lived 4 animals – an elephant, a monkey, a rabbit and a bird (known in Dharma stories as the Four Friends) - who co-habited in perfect harmony and respect for each other . And it was on account of their merits, that the land enjoyed such bounty.

Hence, in any place where there is a conflict, it is good to have the picture of the Four Friends. Even animals who don’t have profound wisdom can bring so much benefit to everyone by living in peace. Imagine what can be achieved by human beings doing the same.

Q: Without refuge, is it possible to take 8 Precepts?

Ans: It would be good to have taken refuge vows but if not, it is also alright to take the 8 Precepts with a sincere heart.

Read More

Engaging With The Buddha (Part 2)

Engaging with the Buddha - Geshe Tenzin Zopa – Session 2

This short text that we will be going through, “Foundation of All Good Qualities” (FGQ) is a Lam Rim text. Lam Rim is Tibetan for the Graduated Path to Enlightenment.

It is a road map, a guide set out by Lord Buddha to lead us from our present lost, samsaric state up to full enlightenment. Buddha learned from, practiced and was blessed by his Gurus including Manjushri, Amitbha over many lifetimes, over many eons in the past. So the text that you are going to study is one which contains the entire path with no contradictions and was practiced by all the past Buddhas – by Amitabha, by Kuan Yin, by Shakyamuni Buddha, by Tara, by Lama Tsongkhapa, by all the great Indian Pandits and all the great mahasiddhas of Tibet, China etc.

The Lam Rim is not new age Dharma created by some ordinary scholar but is the Dharma handed down by the Buddha which enables us to attain full enlightenment. This text was composed by Lama Tsongkapa, whose qualities embodied those of Manjushri and Shakyamuni Buddha himself, based this text on Lama Atisha’s “Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment” which in turn, came from the Kangyur which is the complete collection of all the teachings of the Buddha himself. So it is all connected.

This FGQ text is written in verse form and I will cover one verse in each class – soon there will be a book published by LDC for free distribution, containing the commentary of these verses which you can use as your textbook. If you can manage it, you can also progress to the Lam Rim Chenmo which is a much more detailed Lam Rim text and was also composed by Lama Tsongkhapa. Otherwise, just try to get some understanding from these classes.

The main teaching in this text is the 3 principal aspects of the Path, namely renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. Other words that are sometimes used for these 3 principles are renunciation, method and wisdom. These teachings help us purify 3 countless eons of obscurations, obstacles and many negative imprints and enable us to accumulate 3 countless eons of merits/good karma. Without learning these 3 principles, it would be as if we have a body but no limbs.

For us to gain realisations on the Dharma, we need to engage in meditation to habituate our body, speech and mind with these 3 principles. All the Buddhas possess the great compassionate bodhi mind (bodhicitta) and this altruistic mind is what we need to cultivate. To do this, we need to make it a habit for to think compassionately. Right now, we have emotional and discriminating minds. We need to transform that into the bodhi mind. For this to happen, we need to familiarise ourselves with compassion and virtue through meditation. However, to be a successful meditator, we need to engage into the cultivation of knowledge obtained through contemplation on the Dharma. Contemplation can only happen after one learns the Dharma.

Studying, contemplating and meditating: The first step is to get the info, learn the correct path. After learning, we need to contemplate and analyse what was taught to see whether those teachings have the power to eliminate negative mind and action or not; after this contemplation, we adopt the key points derived from our contemplation and treat those key points as the object of meditation. The result of meditation is realisations. Realisations of what? Of bodhicitta, of wisdom. What is the measure of successful meditation on bodhicitta? Your heart becomes bodhicitta itself, free from emotional negative states of being, always wanting to benefit others. Through applying these 3 stages of practice onto the teachings on the 3 principal aspects of the path (renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness), you perfect them within yourself and become a Buddha.

In this text, the first verse is about the Guru. How to find a right Guru and after finding a Guru, how to relate to the teacher. As you already know and saw in the slide show just now even in ordinary life, you require a teacher to develop any knowledge or skill, not to mention the spiritual path. In terms of ordinary life, samsaric activities, we have learned the skills over many lifetimes and yet still need to learn them again in this lifetime, e.g. how to cook; how to drive. Likewise, we may have met Dharma before but we never gained Dharma realisations and that’s why we need a teacher to guide us now.

Verse 1 of FGQ:

Here the word “foundation” refers to your spiritual teacher, Master, Guru, mentor. All these may have different connotations but overall, one’s Guru is all those things. Here one is talking about one spiritual master to whom you have spiritual connection. The advice that the Guru is the foundation of all of one’s good qualities up to the perfect qualities of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas means that if we wish to gain the great qualities of Buddhahood, we need to rely on a Guru. Although one should be grateful to all forms of teachers, the spiritual Guru is special because he/she guides you to attain your highest potential i.e. enlightenment. If you wish to be free from lower realms, you need to rely on a Guru; if you wish liberation from samsara, you need to rely on a Guru; if you wish to become a Buddha, you need to rely on a Guru.

Since the Guru is so important, can one just go out and grab anyone as your Guru? No! You need to search for a guru but there is a method of finding a Guru. First of all, you need to have within yourself, some sense of wishing to be free from suffering; to be free from this confusing samsaric life; wishing to get a genuine and lasting state of happiness. If you have this basic feeling, then you are ready to search for a Guru.

When looking for a Guru, the Teacher should possess 10 qualities. As a minimum, that Teacher must have a compassionate heart; cares for others more than oneself; lives an ethical life (i.e. someone who practices at least the 5 lay vows. If the Teacher is a Sangha member, then that Teacher should be one who abides by the Vinaya Vows and puts maximum effort into upholding them).

Where does one go to look for such a Guru? Do we wait somewhere for the Teacher to come along? Do we go to every temple to search for a Guru? Don’t rush on this. There will be some sense of karmic force to make you to look for a teacher. When you experience this, use your wisdom and tell yourself “I shouldn’t blindly search but observe and seek out a Teacher who has qualities and can teach the entire path and not only partially”. The entire Buddha’s teachings refers to both sutra and tantra and your purpose in finding a teacher is to be able to gain knowledge of that whole path and not only part of it. The student should resolve “ I’m not going to blindly jump into a Guru-disciple relationship after merely listening to one teaching from a master. Let me listen to more of the teachings first and think about them and when I gain conviction that the master is teaching the complete path and the master is ethical & selfless, then at that time, it may be appropriate to enter into a Guru-disciple relationship.

When you are on the search for a Guru, you should keep a questioning mind because establishing faith without wisdom is risky; it can even become an obstacle to your spiritual path. Analyse the qualities of the master before accepting that person as one’s Guru. Ask questions and analyse the answers yourself. Do not merely rely on other people’s comments on the master but whether this master can answer your questions and clear your doubts. One needs this kind of conviction.

So keep some key points in mind when searching for a Guru:

· It is very important to find a spiritual Guru but I wish to say again that one cannot rush into it without analysis.

· Put effort to attend Dharma classes, listen to his teachings or read his books. You need to put some effort. Otherwise, you cannot discover anything.

· Whenever you listen, you should maintain a curious investigative mind, to establish the qualities of the Teacher and the teachings being given.

· Don’t merely rely on other people’s comments and assessments of the teacher. You need to engage directly and observe. Ask yourself when you meet the master or listen to the master or remember the master, does it cause your mind to be subdued or not? If it does, that is one indication that there is some karmic link with that teacher.

· Use your wisdom. After hearing the teacher, read up, check whether there are any contradictions between what the teacher taught and what the Buddha taught. There is no negative karma when doing this checking and analysing the person you are thinking to regard as Guru, it is required. But once you establish the Guru-disciple relationship, no more doubts are to arise in your mind, as that becomes an obstacle to your cultivation and realisations.

· The story of Asanga – when he was searching for his guru Maitreya, to meet him directly and it took him 12 years. He didn’t do it in a simple way – he engaged in a long solitary retreat and put much effort to find this Guru. After the first 3 years of retreat, he hadn’t met his Guru but he did see a rock with a deep groove made by the feather of a bird. Due to the frequency of the bird flying past that rock, the wings made a deep cut into the rock. This Asanga understood to mean that he should persevere in his search, since through consistent effort, even a soft feather could cut rock. After the next 3 years, he still didn’t see his guru. He went out of his cave and observed that some dripping water falling onto a rock had over time, made a deep hole in the rock. This Asanga took as a lesson that perseverance enabled even drops of water to bore a hole into rock. With this, he returned to the cave. In the final round of 3 years, he went out again hoping to see his guru and this time, he saw an old, wounded dog outside his cave, which had many sores filled with maggots. When he saw this dog, he generated deep compassion in his heart. Seeking to help the dog and yet not wanting to harm the maggots while removing them from the dog’s sores, he used his tongue to lift the maggots out of the dog’s wounds. As he bent down to do that, the dog disappeared and before him was his Guru, Maitreya. Asanga was so happy but asked Maitreya why he didn’t come sooner. Maitreya explained to him that he was with Asanga all those years but because of Asanga’s karma, he was not able to see him; however because Asanga generated such strong compassion that day, it purified so much obstacles that he was now able to see Maitreya. Asanga didn’t quite believe that Maitreya was with him all those years. To convince him, Maitreya said “Look at my robes and these spit marks on them. During your retreat, you would spit and your spit would stain my robes and here you can see it”. Asanga was so happy to see Maitreya that he wanted to carry him on his shoulders through the nearby village to let the villagers meet Maitreya. Maitreya told Asanga that it was pointless because most people there had’t the karma to see him directly. Asanga didn’t quite believe this could be so and thus carried Maitreya as he had asked. True enough, many of the villagers either couldn’t see anything on Asanga’s shoulders, some saw an old dog being carried and only an old woman of some virtue was able to see Maitreya’s golden foot.

Therefore, encountering the Guru is not easy. But if the perfect disciple can meet the perfect Guru, enlightenment can happen right there. Maitreya brought Asanga to the Pureland for one morning which was equivalent of 5 human lives, and there Asanga received all the teachings the 5 Treatise. So we need to put a lot of effort and purification of karma to meet the right teacher, whose teachings will be the cause of liberation and enlightenment.

“Correct devotion to him” – after finding a proper Teacher, the student needs to correctly devote to the Guru. By doing so, whatever practice one does becomes the root of enlightenment. How to devote correctly? There are 2 ways – through physical action and mentally, through one’s thoughts. Devoting through action refers to various ways of showing respect. Imagine if you met Amitabha Buddha in person, how would you behave? Would you march up to him to shake hands? You’d probably put your palms together and call his name respectfully. That’s how one should behave with the Guru. Verbally, use honorific terms for the master. Mentally, must see the Guru as embodiment of all the Buddhas. Once, one of the Pandits (Atisha) was meditating on Green Tara. At that time he also had a vision of Chenresig (Kuan Yin) and also of Tara. He said whilst Tara appeared green and Chenersig appeared white, to him they were inseparable from his master. This is to denote that whilst Buddhas may have different manifestations, they are of one essence and of the same essence as that of one’s Guru.

In short, Guru devotion practice is seeing the Guru as being in oneness with the Buddha, as the embodiment of the Buddha. This is the realisation to be cultivated and attained. When one sees Guru, one sees all aspects of the Buddha in him. It is not an easy practice.

If both Guru and disciple do not abide by the guru devotion practices, the practice will degenerate e.g. if you met your Guru on the street and you fear that if you started to bow down to him, people will laugh at you, so you don’t offer your respects to him or if one’s master in not wanting you to face being ridiculed by others, stops you from paying respects, then there is the danger of degeneration of the practice.

Devote oneself to a qualified master – one who knows the entire path and upholds vows and lives ethically. If one devotes correctly and devotes well, it will bring success to one’s cultivation.

Having understood the importance of correct devotion to the Guru, one should put effort to sustain this guru devotion practice and pray for blessings from the Buddha to practice well. When you see Buddha directly, you purify so much negative karma and this can happen when one truly from one’s heart, sees the guru as inseparable from the Buddha.

During the Buddha’s time, there was once where there were 3 kids playing in the sand, as the Buddha was passing by. One of them was inspired to make offering to the Buddha – he had nothing and thus, picked up some sand and put it into the Buddha’s begging bowl as an offering. Through this single act, the boy became a Wheel Turning Dharma King. So whether one gains benefit from devotion depends on the mind of the disciple – if one regards one’s Guru as merely an ordinary teacher, then one will get ordinary benefit from that relationship; but if one seems one’s Guru as the Buddha with all the virtuous qualities, one then gains the maximum benefit. Conversely, if the Buddha appears before you and you only see the Buddha as ordinary, then the merit will be ordinary.

In the famous ancient Buddhist Monastic University called Nalanda, all the scholars practiced seeing the Guru as the Buddha and hence they obtained the benefit of high realisations and some attained enlightenment.

Can one have one or more teachers? It is up to the individual. In the early times in Buddhist India, there were many realised beings who by devoting to one Guru, were able to obtain great realisations but here, we rely on many Gurus but cannot get any realisations! Lama Atisha (7^th century) explained that the practitioners in India, by seeing the Buddha in Guru, they were able to actualise the entire knowledge of the Dharma; whereas in Tibet (during Lama Atisha’s time there) they didn’t have such a view, hence, they gained no benefit. Similarly, by correctly devoting to one Buddha-deity, one is able to attain enlightenment and be of one taste with all the Buddhas. Hence one needs devotion and devote correctly. The fundamental point is to be able to see the Buddha’s qualities in one’s Guru.

Thus if your level of devotion can handle multiple gurus, go ahead; but if not, then having one Guru is safer. If having established a guru-disciple relationship, you don’t devote correctly, it becomes obstacle to your cultivation.

What are the ways to establish a guru-disciple relationship? There are several ways: It could be through the process I earlier set out i.e. finding a Guru through analysis and finally requesting the Guru to be one’s Guru or having developed faith in a master as Guru, listening to that master’s teachings; or it could also arise as a result of a master giving you a vow (e.g. Refuge Vow, Bodhisattva vow, vows from initiations). Once that happens, one needs to devote correctly to that Guru.

In my case, I have none of the qualities of a qualified Guru, yet I give Refuge vows, so upon taking those vows, the teachings on Guru Devotion apply. Correct guru devotion brings vast merit; whereas a breach of guru devotion brings heavy negative karma. Therefore, one needs to understand the significance of taking vows, taking transmissions and initiations and creating a Guru-Disciple relationship.

The reason for exercising caution in establishing a Guru-Disciple relationship is because our minds are fragile, hence our devotion is fragile and karmic consequences will follow.

HH Dalai Lama says it is easier to devote to master sitting on high throne and whom one rarely meets. But it is much more challenging to sustain guru devotion towards a guru who lives with you or is in regular contact because it is easy for one to project our own faults onto the guru.

In conclusion, mentally, one should always be one with the guru but physically, best to remain as far as possible.

Let’s say you do find your Guru but subsequently, you see or hear something seriously negative about your guru, what do you do? As a disciple, think that the Guru is manifesting a negative display in order to teach us not to be that way. For example, when the Guru scolds you, see it as a teaching; see it as a mind-training exercise for you. Having established the Guru-Disciple relationship, one needs to abandon one’s sceptical mind in relation to that guru. No more checking about whether Guru is pure. One should focus on the qualities, not the faults.

If Guru gives you a very heavy task and you cannot do it, what should one do? The teachings say that one can respectfully and without any loss of faith in Guru, explain that whilst one will do that task one day but right now, one is not ready to do so and therefore respectfully request the guru to postpone the task till later. But note that although one may postponed a task many times, there will come a time when you have to do it!

Questions & Answers

Question:

As ordinary people, it will be difficult to practice the 3 principal aspects of the path in our daily lives. How can we do it?

Ans: In order to be able to practice renunciation, one needs to engage in being more detached towards common distractions such as avoiding intoxication, negative friends who indulge in unethical activities, learn to be contented with one’s gains e.g. we need to work hard to earn money but one shouldn’t be overly attached to money. Earn money with the mind of right purpose e.g. helping others. If one earns money just to be rich and enjoy life for one’s own benefit alone, that kind of self centredness will deny us satisfaction, plus bring a lot of suffering to oneself. Satisfaction comes when engaging in activities that help others (within your means), preserving virtue, Dharma teachings. All these help in the practice of renunciation.

To integrate bodhicitta into one’s daily life – begin by at least expressing unconditional, un-biased love towards all beings and not just express care for the person/object of your desire; cultivate the heart that wishes all other beings to be happy. Learn about karma, life and rebirth and try to see the interdependence between all sentient beings. Remind oneself that one has the ability and responsibility to ease the suffering of all sentient beings and do your best to serve others. Cultivate compassion and as minimum, wish all beings to be free from suffering. Before going to sleep, generate this thought too. Think, “When I go to college, it is for the ultimate purpose of helping sentient beings I go to work to free sentient beings; I eat to free sentient beings “. Repeatedly think this way until it becomes second nature to oneself to have this kind of thinking. When you are well trained in this way, bodhicitta will naturally arise. The highest level of compassion is called bodhicitta.

To integrate emptiness or right view into daily life: Learn to view how everything is like an illusion; everything is a creation which comes about from various factors. Analyse it - when you try to grasp at a person/object and try to pin-point something that is the essence of that person/object, you will discover that there is no solidly, independently-existing object for one to grasp at. There is no fixed permanent object to hold onto for us to be angry at. Of course, at first, to meditate this way takes time and one’s affliction like anger might have already arisen. So one begins by training in emptiess by holding the thought that there is no “object of anger”” or “object of desire” that is independent of one’s mental projection. Start by training in having such a thought. Then progress to exploring this concept further and you will find that there is not a single atom of an object of anger or an object of attachment. Let’s say you like this cup and someone breaks it; you get upset. If we train in thinking that this cup (and its attractiveness which gave rise to our being liking it) does not exist on its own but came about due to many factors, our grasping towards the cup will loosen. Our misconception makes us believe that things exist on their own out there. Instead, think that all things are empty of inherent existence. Or you could also think this way – think that all things are a dependent arising – e.g. why do people hurt me? Because I’ve hurt people before. For me to stop experiencing hurt, I must now not retaliate and cause harm in return. By realising inter-dependence and cause & effect, we come to understand the emptiness of self and phenomena a bit more.

Q: We are supposed to generate more compassion but how do we generate great compassion and bodhicitta without attachment?

Ans: The practice of bodhicitta and emptiness must be done on the basis of renunciation. This way, the complication of attachment and afflictions will not arise. If by generating compassion towards someone gives rise to attachment, our compassion is not pure nor stable. Hence we first need to cultivate renunciation towards samsara and the causes of samsara which include objects of desire, anger and indifference. Further, compassion must be unconditional without any expectation of return or result. Compassion towards family and friends is mixed with attachment and hence not really pure. Whenever you feel hurt, it shows there is some underlying attachment there. In all situations, one should first check one’s motivation to see whether it is pure or not.

Q: Can I have a Guru from any Buddhist tradition?

Ans: Yes, why not?

Q; Is it possible not to follow any particular Buddhist tradition but seek direct teachings from Kuan Yin?

Ans: Yes, why not. There are some situation of special connections with Buddha-deities, so why not?

Q: Why do Buddhas have to continue their work in the form of Teachers?

Ans: Because we do not have the merit to meet the Buddha directly and hear the words directly from the Buddha. Thus, the teachings have to be transmitted from person to person, as an oral tradition. For this, the Buddha has to manifest himself as a human being so that we can interact with him. The Buddha taught that during degenerate times, he will appear in the form of Teachers who manifest birth, aging, sickness, death. Buddha is indestructible yet we may see that one’s Guru manifests sickness, aging and death. Why? Because these are teachings on the contaminated nature of aggregates; of samsara; teachings of impermanence. But does it mean that Guru is samsaaric being? No. Guru is only manifesting a body that is subject to decay. Buddha has to manifest different bodies to teach and reach different sentient beings.

Q: How are we to differentiate between guru devotion and guru attachment?

Ans: If you feel jealous when someone gets closer to the Guru, then you are most likely affected by Guru attachment. But if you are more happy that others are getting closer to the Guru and learning more Dharma, then it’s more like devotion.

Read More

Engaging With The Buddha

Engaging with the Buddha - S1 – 25 Feb 2011

You saw the 2 YouTube movie clips presented just now. The first movie clip showed the busy city-life which is exactly how our lives are right now - we are seeking peace and happiness and liberation from problems but due to our ignorant mind, instead of searching for the solution inwardly, we search for it externally. We spend effort towards gaining money, name, fame, wealth and hoping to find ultimate lasting happiness. And yet, not a day passes by where we are completely exhausted and empty-handed; genuine happiness escapes us. Then, we engage in an endless search for desirous relationships but at the end of the day, all turn out to be disappointments.

The fact is that there is no solution to be found in the external world which will help us obtain lasting or genuine happiness. For those who are young and healthy, it is urgent for you to wake up to understanding the fact that in life, money, the ordinary concept of love and status is not enough. There is something else that we must cultivate, namely the spiritual path.

The first clip showed how we are now and the second clip showed how we can be and how we need to discover the Buddha nature, ultimate happiness and total perfection. This cannot be discovered from amongst external phenomena but within our own mind.

So today, I’d like to split the topic into two: Why we need spiritual practice for our present lives and why we need spiritual practice for future lives too.

· why we need spiritual practice for purposes of our present life. We can see for ourselves that somehow we cannot find happiness that lasts. Today, science has advanced greatly and yet we face environmental disasters, more adversities, there are more new illnesses emerging and compared to 1000 years ago, it is a far more degenerate time.

The world has become more and more unsafe. At a physical level, medicine are now more powerful and sophisticated. However, these have not been able to keep up with the new illnesses being discovered. Thirty years back, cancer was rare but today, cancer is more common than the flu. Despite medical progress, its methods do not always extend life and sometimes become an obstacle to long life. Then, although people have more possessions, mentally they are not contented and afflicted desire has increased greatly. As a result, the mind suffers more and more - more discontented; more distracted; more negative. The reason for this is that the beings who live in this universe never look towards inner cultivation, never used wisdom to learn about karmic impact, never looked into the nature of mind and only relied on external, material factors for help. Therefore, If we are unable to obtain some control over our mind in the sense of transforming it through understanding of for example, karma; if we don’t manage our emotions, then no matter how conducive external conditions may be, we will not find peace.

Bliss and contentment can come from learning the spiritual path and making it part of our lives so that it becomes one with our mental continuum. For us as Buddhists, if we wish to experience a fruitful, peaceful, present life, Dharma/spiritual practice is necessary. If we wish to experience the sensation of floating high in the sky without the obstruction of afflicted emotions, we have to engage into Dharma practice. We cannot obtain such happiness through money, fame, staying in a big house or driving a nice car. The contentment received through training of one’s mind is the best. It comes from cultivating the spiritual path/Dharma which is the advice of Shakyamuni Buddha and consists of what he cultivated to eliminate all suffering and attain all happiness. The advice then has become the tools for us to cultivate to achieve the same things. If one wishes to live in genuine peace for even one day, money alone cannot give you that. There may be some joy but it will be temporary and superficial. Thus, if we wish to truly live in peace even for at least an hour of a day, we must cultivate Dharma.

· Why we need spiritual practice for our future life. Whether you believe in future lives or not, there is a continuation of our consciousness/feelings. One needs to subdue one’s mind and to do this, one has to practice Dharma. There is no reason not to believe in future lives. We can observe and think. The Buddha himself declared that there are numberless past and future lifetimes. As long as mind exists, whether now or in the future, at its core is the wish for peace and not suffering. Therefore, if you want to secure genuine lasting happiness in future lifetimes as well, it is necessary to learn & cultivate Dharma now, while we have the intelligence and wisdom to appreciate virtue; to understand the value of life and benefits from cultivating Dharma.

When we experience the last moment of this life - i.e. death, the last moment of consciousness, the perceptions experienced then, every single thought and feeling as we go through the death passage – without the cultivation of Dharma, will be intense suffering. It will be physically torturing, mentally torturing and all experiences at that time will be dominated by suffering. This suffering has to be experienced by everyone at death unless one has spiritual practice. Buddha himself went through this and taught that only Dharma can protect us from suffering and secure a happy death and good rebirth. We cannot hope to escape the suffering of death. We may trick ourselves into thinking that my death will not be one of suffering but as long as we have taken human rebirth, sickness, old age, death and the continuation of life after life, is a package deal.

The Buddha experienced sufferings in previous births too – as human and non-human and in that life as Siddartha, he was born as a prince, wealthy, famous and protected but his through analysis of many lifetimes, he knew that there would be no genuine happiness until one is able to practice renunciation. Not everyone can renounce in the sense of becoming monks and nuns but can practice renunciation to worldly attachments and this means reducing grasping and creating the space to cultivate the inspiration of liberation from all suffering.

How does one “cultivate Dharma”? We need to study and practice the Lam Rim, the graduated path to enlightenment which contains the Buddha’s 84,000 teachings. These can be broadly categorized under 3 principles (hence referred to as the Three Principal Aspects of the Path) namely, renunciation, bodhicitta and right view of emptiness.

· Renounce worldly/samsaric afflictions, samsaric ideas i.e. all that is based on the afflictions of ignorance, anger, attachment etc.

· Cultivate the bodhi mind, which is the great compassionate mind to free not only oneself but all living beings from suffering.

· See the true nature of true existence: See that things do not exist as they appear to us; see that we mistakenly think that samsara is enjoyable, without realizing that is suffering. Some people go to Australia thinking it’s safer but they then experienced house break-ins. Life is not as we perceive it. The truth of existence is the non-existence of its own independent nature. Things comes about dependently and through various factors. They don’t just pop up out of nowhere.

The conclusion is the whether in this or next life, we need to cultivate Dharma.

What is Dharma? What is the essence of Buddha’s advice? What is the meaning of the spiritual path which we label Dharma – it refers to the teaching which helps us transform/cure our mind of afflicted emotions and enables us to gain enlightenment.

What are the objects that we need to apply Dharma to? We need to apply it to our 3 doors of body, speech and mind. One’s present body, speech and mind is controlled by contaminated emotions and delusions. Example the moment we walk, so many ants die underneath our giant feet; just one movement, many formless beings are struck; our speech harms others or we gossip; our minds are cunning and negative – think of it - within one minute, how many negative thoughts arise? How many positive thoughts arise? Try to count them with white and black beads. White bead for virtuous thoughts; black beads for negative thoughts. You’ll find that at the end of the day there will be more black beads than white! Our thoughts are quite violent. A combination of the actions of our body, speech and mind can be powerful and affect many others. Therefore, it needs to be subdued. It needs Dharma to subdue and transform it.

For the newcomers – a bit of history – Gautama Buddha who was born Prince Siddartha, understood the nature of samsara and the value of liberation and enlightenment. He renounced his princely life at the palace, cultivated Vinaya vows, actualized solitary meditative practices, engaged in the practice of the 3 higher trainings (morality, concentration and wisdom) and was able to purify immense past negative karma plus actualize a great amount of virtue. This assisted him in realizing the stages of the path and under a bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, Bihar, at the dawn of Vesak day, he destroyed the 4 maras including delusion and death – and entered into retreat for 49 days and thereafter, turned the Dharma 3 times (such special groups of teachings are called the “Turning of the Wheel”). At the 1^st Turning of the Wheel at Varanasi, Buddha taught the 4 Noble Truths (principally for the Theravadan disciples); the 2^nd Turning at Rajgir, he gave teachings on wisdom (Heart Sutra) to mainly to the higher capability beings of the Mahayana path; the 3^rd turning of the wheel was at Vaisali was to disciples who were also of the Mahayana school but held a lower view of the explanation on emptiness. While the Buddha was turning the 2^nd Wheel (at Rajgir), he simultaneously turned the wheel of Dharma on tantra, where he arose in the form of Vajradhara to deliver the tantra teachings.

When the Buddha taught at Varanasi and Rajgir, he took the aspect of a monk; when was teaching tantra, he manifested as Vajradhara which is the sambogayakaya aspect of the Buddha (perceivable only by bodhisattvas). Hence, Buddha taught both Sutra and Tantra.

Many people have a misunderstanding of tantra or simply don’t believe that there is Buddhist tantra. They think tantra is a Hindu concept and didn’t come from the Buddha. Some practitioners even comment that Buddhist tantra copied Hindu tantra. This is totally untrue. The tantra that Buddha taught was cultivated by all the past Buddhas for numberless aeons before and even before this universe was formed. What he revealed were the teachings he received from past Buddhas, his Gurus. So all these teachings were taught by the Buddha.

The main followers of the 1^st turning of the wheel were Theravadans. Of course, the 4 Noble Truths is the common teaching amongst all Buddhists. What is commonly practiced by Chinese Mahayanic practitioners is the Heart Sutra , the perfection of wisdom sutras taught during the 2^nd Turning of the Wheel. These teachings together with the tantra teachings were brought to Tibet.

So you are now in a Tibetan Buddhist center and you are receiving these teachings from a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Although you may say that you are studying Tibetan Buddhism, the fact is that you are studying Buddhadharma. One shouldn’t be discriminatory when studying– e.g. we shouldn’t say, “I only practice the Theravadan way and not the Mahayana” or, “I only practice Mahayana and not tantra”. Tibetan Buddhists practice the entire aspects of the Buddhadharma namely, they regard as preliminary practices, the teaching of the 4 Noble Truths and 8 fold path and the Vinaya vows; this is followed by practicing the bodhisattva path / the Sutra path (containing all the 3 principal aspects of the path) and then they also practice tantra, which involved meditations to transform the impure to the pure. Buddha said without putting into practice all these teachings together, one cannot complete the practice to attain enlightenment .

This means that once one has a stable understanding of the 4 Noble Truths, vows, bodhicitta , then to speed up your progress towards enlightenment it is necessary to adopt tantra practice. If we cultivate only the common path of the Mahayana, it will take 3 countless eons merit. Tantra however has the method of expediting our practice to purify 3 countless eons of karma within this very lifetime on this very cushion. Enlightenment can be attained on this very cushion. This unique uncommon method of tantra can only be digested by practitioners who have a firm understanding of Lam Rim, all the stages of the Path including the 3 principal aspects of the path. We can only succeed in tantra if we have such a clear and firm understanding. If however as newcomers, you are uncomfortable saying you are practicing Tibetan Buddhism, you can just say that I’m practicing Buddhism.

When the Buddhadharma went to Tibet around 3^rd or 4^th century. During the 7^th century the Dharma declined due to King Langdharma who destroyed many monasteries and texts; after that, came Guru Padmasambhava and gradually, the authentic Dharma was restored. There was at one time in Tibet something called Yungdrung Dharma or Bon, which is similar to Taoist practice. It was common for them to depict the Buddha with a swastika. Nevertheless, Yungdrung Dharma also taught ethics to it followers. When the actual Buddhadharma went into Tibet, it followed precisely the tradition of Nalanda. Due to the kindness of King Yeshe Oe and his nephew Jangchp Oe, they invited Lama Atisha (who was also from Nalanda) to Tibet. In acknowledging the Tibetans’ faith and conviction in the Buddhadharma and due to their merits, Lama Atisha composed the first Lam Rim text called Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, containing the entire 84k teachings of the Buddha, organised in a sequential manner. This teaching has become the root teaching for the entire Sutra and tantra as it contains all that is found in the Kangyur (more than 100 volumes of Buddha’s teachings). //Later, Lama Tsongkhapa who wrote the short Lam Rim text called Foundation of All Good Qualities which we are going to study. In fact, he composed various Lam Rim texts, using Lama Atisha’s teachings such as the Lam Rim Chenmo, the Middle length Lam Rim, Foundation of All Good Qualities. These texts contained both Lam Rim teachings and mind training teachings (lojong). Tibetan Buddhism is not Lamaism but authentic Buddhadharma.

The author of the text that we are going to study, Lama Tsongkhapa, had inner wisdom since he was a boy and displayed great compassion. Conventionally, he was born as ordinary being with high wisdom and cultivated extensive studies engaging into solitary practice, preserving pure monastic vows, at the end of his life, he attained Buddhahood in one lifetime. In the ultimate aspect however, he is emanation of Manjushri, although conventionally, Manjushri was his Guru.

So Buddhist tantra is about eliminating afflictions – ignorance, anger, desire whereas Hindu tantra enhances desire. You need to be clear about the differences between Buddhist Tantra and Hindu tantra. Buddhist Tantric images can be misunderstood as son depict mother and father embracing. In fact these are mere symbols that illustrate the illusory form, the form which negates ordinary, inherent existence. Buddhist tantra taught by Buddha himself and taught by the mahasiddhas and premised on strict morality. Lama Tsongkhapa himself was supreme in sutra and tantra and until the moment he passed away, remained a pure monk upholding all vows perfectly. Not even a slight transgression. Buddhist tantra is most suited to be practiced by only those who uphold pure vows perfectly. Other faiths may use this term in their own way but we must be clear about Buddhist tantra, which enables us to attain enlightenment in one lifetime.

Read More

厚德载福

在儿童佛学营里碰巧听到了一个师父给与孩子们的讲课，
当中提到了福报这一回事。

对厚德载福这四个字留下了非常深刻的印象，因为说得实在太有道理了。

因缘果报真实不虚，种善因自得善果，
如今你所享用的福报就是因为之前乃至于前世所累积下的善因所结成的善果。

这些福报都有用尽的一天，所以古代圣贤有说积善之家必有后福。

对因果的事情，或许很多人都会对此存在一些疑问，比如说为什么某某人作了这么多坏事，却依然可以风光富贵，
那些大善人，怎么有些却不得善终？

当我们想到这问题时就会开始怀疑因果之说只不过是随便用来唬人，或是无法解释的任何现象，就用因果来敷衍带过。

那好，如果我们不信因果，那信前世今生吗？相信人死后会转换成另一个形态吗？

如果对于这一点是相信的，那就没有理由不信因果了。

因为前世今生来世存在的元素就在于因果。

近代的科学研究几乎已经证明了轮回的存在与事实，心理治疗师在替病人们进行催眠疗法时，无意间窥见了前世的种种也已经是见怪不怪的事实了。

西藏佛教的转世活佛的传统也在确确实实地告诉着我们，人死后不是真的什么都没了，每个人都要为自己所做过的一切负责任，或许你逃得过人世间法律的制裁，但因果这事实还是会对你形影不离的。

万般带不走，唯有业随身就是这个道理。

这世界是公平的，我们之所以时常觉得不公平是因为我们都在用着一双凡夫的眼光和智慧来省视这个世界。
凡夫的眼光和智慧是窄小的，看到的仅仅只是事情的其中一小部分就认定了那是事实，就如瞎子摸象般地自以为是。

你真的以为你眼前看到的一切就是事实的全部了吗？
那对于前世种种的因缘果报，你看到了吗？我们肉眼看到的永远只是事情的表面。

我也曾经有过类似的疑问，怎么那些恶人可得善终，且一辈子依然如此地富贵风光，天理何在?

其实道理就在于因果的运行和原则是很公平的，今世享受着的果报是由于前世的功德善行成熟后的善果，
今世所造的业，轻则会有现眼报，重者待福报享尽了，恶果还是会随之而来。
这还不公平吗？

一饭一啄莫非前定，看起来似乎很消极，
但当你真的接受了，你还是可以积极地生活。

因为你不再怨天尤人，你接受了当下所承受的一切好坏都有其个中因缘，
而是谁造就了那些因，以至于现在有这些果？答案当然是你自己啦。

既然是自己造的，就更应该积极地去承担接受，以一颗欢喜自在的心去接受，解决，
恶缘，逆缘都可转换成善缘，自利利他。


信了因果，就不该再盲目地向外追求，向外攀缘，
凡事皆该反求诸己，欲求大福报，就得先从自身品德行为上开始修正学习，
毕竟没有端正的心及良好的品德修养，
就如把水倒进一个底部破了个大洞的杯子里，即便给你求到了，
很快地也会消失得无影无踪的。


祐益

Read More