The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives
Buddhist Hour
Script
No. 376
Radio Broadcast live on Hillside 88.0 FM
for Sunday 10
April 2005CE
2547 Buddhist Era
“Correcting
Misconceptions of the Buddhist Practice”
Today's program is entitled, "Correcting
Misconceptions of the Buddhist Practice." It is the final
program in our series of recorded Buddha Dhamma teachings taught by
John D. Hughes during a five-day meditation course in June 1988.
Because of the comprehensive nature of these teachings, we
encourage listeners to visit our website: www.edharma.org, where they
can find the original audio files and transcriptions of these
teachings. We encourage the study and practice of these profound
instructions.
The authors apologise for any errors or
misunderstandings that may have occurred in the process of
transcribing the talks from the original audiotape recordings.
John
D. Hughes began in the following way:
So we've just heard from
Daniel Odier, Nirvana Tao, the difficulties that Westerners
experience. Now let's go very carefully over step by step, how do you
produce a chance for yourself to be able to practice? How do you
maintain an environment that is suitable for success in meditation?
Well, the first thing I want to talk about is your internal
environment. As Daniel Odier pointed out, to talk about watered down
things like Christian Zen is an absurdity. The first thing you've got
to understand is this is Buddhist Meditation. It's not yoga, it's not
Christianity, it's not Hindu, it's not Red Indian, it's not yippee
hippie, it's not this it's not that. It's Buddhist, pure, clean and
simple. So there's only one refuge here. It's on Buddha line.
So
it's Buddha Dhamma we're talking about. It's Buddha Buddha and it's
Buddha Sangha. We've got refuge, Buddha Dhamma, Buddha Buddha, Buddha
Sangha. If you have got any other refuge, either overt or covert, it
must be got rid of, because you can't... there's an old saying, "You
can't follow two masters."
So this Buddha Dhamma Sangha
refuge is extremely profound. Now, so when you set yourself up to
practice the Buddha Dhamma it is very wise to recall Buddha Dhamma
Sangha are your refuge. You must have five precepts; there's no ifs,
buts or maybes. You can't, it's totally futile to wander around and
not keep five precepts.
It's necessary not to disturb the
atmosphere of this place, because when you sit, the disturbance you
cause to the other meditators will come. The first thing that
happens, the disturbance you caused to the other meditators will come
back to your mind.
So Leila, if you wriggle, you sit and the
tendency will be for you to want wriggle again. So you've got to
exercise constraint. You'll say whatever habits, whatever habits I
have developed, whatever ritual I sit myself down in meditation,
whatever habits I developed, I want to get rid of them. So if you
think you can only meditate on this cushion or that cushion, I
meditated in a lot of temples, what I tend to do normally, it's only
out of courtesy basically, I never bother to sit on a cushion. I tend
to sit on the floor because it certainly puts more oomph into the
meditation. But the protocols of sitting on a cushion, like if you
don't sit on cushions, it sort of offends some types of Buddhists. So
I sit on cushions.
Now, the environment, the internal
environment, the first thing you have to understand is what are you
trying to do? You've got to ask that question, what am I trying to
do? I'm trying to become an Arahant fruit. That's all I'm trying to
do, I'm not trying to do, save the world. I'm not trying to be
particularly nice, I'm not trying to, you know, do this or do that,
or win the garden show, or whatever. I'm not trying to do any of
those things. I'm trying to become an Arahant fruit, to finish with
re-birth as soon as possible, in this very life, for preference.
And
that's what the Buddha's teachings are about. That's the root, the
root of the Buddha's teaching is to become trained so well. See, the
Arahant fruit has no more training, one of the characteristics, if
you've studied the texts, an Arahant fruit has finished the training.
There is no more training.
So you might argue, you might say
if you're a bit of a wacko, “Oh well, if I'm trying to do that
then the simplest thing to do is to go and sit in the forest. I mean
I could sell this house, invest the money, go and rent some land in
the middle of bloody nowhere, and sit by myself. On the interest on
the money, I'd be able to get myself a feed a day, and I wouldn't
have to depend on anyone”.
However there's a flaw in
that, and one of the articles here points out what the flaw is. It's
by, by running away from the society and then in the article, one of
the articles I was reading, it made a very valid point. Perhaps I can
find it. It was saying, in essence, that in the East, normally, the,
the most successful worldly people who have developed kindness for
long time, the most successful people, the most successful people in
Asia have been extremely rich, extremely kind for most of their life,
and this is Indian culture. And then at a certain point they abandon
everything, they give it to their children, they hand over the
business to their children and then they put on the white robes and
they practice.
This is mainly Hindu, but, so there's, they
didn't run away from failing in commerce, or they didn't run away
from failing in worldly matters, whereas the point was that the, the
Westerners cop out. So they run away and then they, because the
living costs are very little, in say places like, you know, Nepal or
India. The hippie mentality, "Where can I live?" Like in
Bangladesh you could live quite well for about three dollars a day,
or three dollars a week.
So by working out a system like
that, Westerners go there and the amount of money, by the Indian
standards, they're very rich people, even though they might only have
a couple of thousand dollars. By their own standards in their own
country, they are very poor people. So first of all they get a
delusion of that they are wealthy. Now, things are relativistic
insofar as they are wealthier than the beggars, they are wealthy. And
then that lulls their mind. However, sometimes they are robbed and
then they panic. Their reaction to robbing is to steal, and of course
getting robbed is kammic, because they've already stolen.
So
under those conditions, their refuge was, "I am superior to
these peasants," so their pride grows. Because there's a
tendency to for people in the East to be courteous, and because
there's a rarity value in white people, they get a mis... a
misconception of their own worth. Some of the Gurus in the, in India,
it's a bit of a status to have a white man or white woman as your
disciple because it pulls more Indians.
So they put the, the
cella, the student, on a sort of display and use him like a marketing
device. And then of course they get all the sensation of hundreds of
people and then they brag about their, in my country in Australia I
do this and we've got this. And like, so they end up a spinner of
tourists’ tales, by which time their mind is totally and
utterly unfit to even practice meditation.
So many parts of
this book are very well written, and there's just a small few little
bits that are a bit foggy. But the first thing is a thorough study of
the different paths of the way and a clear understanding of the
principles of Buddhism are necessary in order to realize the
teachings through meditation. So unless you've heard, we'll say, a
thousand discourses, and you've read, we'll say, two or three hundred
books, good books on Buddhism, not trivial ones, you haven't got even
a theoretical understanding of what you are trying to do.
So
therefore you're encouraged to study worldly subjects, and just
remember Buddhism is worldly. It occurs in the Samsara just the same
as computers or puppy dogs or anything else. There's not two worlds,
you don't practice meditation in one world and practice accounting,
curriculum design and development, or sales, or literature or
whatever you're studying in another world. There's only one world,
it's called the world of human beings and you're a representative of
that.
So until you've done a thorough study, the purpose of
the thorough study is to unbundle, in your mind, any residuals you
might have concerning, for example, a creator god because Buddha's
texts are quite adamant that there's no belief in creator gods. There
are such things in heaven worlds; they got the title, translated,
creator gods. But no being, although they can aid and abet another
sentient being, they can't create anything for them. So until you get
to unbundle all the misconceptions, I've heard people talk here about
Law of Kamma, and in their minds they think God invents the Law of
Kamma. Well, god doesn't invent the Law of Kamma. God is subject to,
God is... all the higher gods, any god, is subject to birth, death
and decay and subject to the Law of Kamma just like you are or an ant
is.
The, although it's not articulated, it's, by looking into
your minds I see, you imagine God says, "Ah, I'll invent the Law
of Kamma." Well, God didn't invent the Law of Kamma, nor did
anyone else. There is no inventor or creator, that's the first thing.
No one created the universe, no one created you. A set of factors
came together and there you were. No one created the Law of Kamma, no
one created the Buddha Dhamma, no one created anything. There's not
anything in the world created, and that's the first thing.
There's
no creator gods, there are creator gods but they don't do what
Christians think. God didn't create the world. You did. You created
your world, I created my world and so on. And you've been creating
your lives and your deaths, you create your own death, you create
your own birth, you create your own suffering. You create your own
happiness. It's not God given. God can't make you happy. I get metta
from all the heavenly beings, but then there's a cause for that, I
send them metta. I wish them well. So I scratch their back, they
scratch mine. Well, most of them are in a great delusion.
So
unless the study, a thorough study has been made, until you've got a
thorough theoretical understanding of Buddhism, to the best of your
ability, you wouldn't have any criteria of distinguishing a Buddhist
teacher from Mara. You wouldn't know.
So when you understand
Buddhism, and as a layman you understand five precepts, the first
thing you should say to your Teacher, "If I become your
disciple, should I kill?" If your teacher says, "Ah, yeah
killing is part of the track," then walk away, that is Mara.
Your teacher will always teach you, if he's Buddhist, no killing. But
then on the other hand he, so do the Hindus, so do the Jains, so do
some of the Christian mystics, teach no killing. So there's no
distinction there, and the same with the others.
The
statement here is, "The presence of a master is indispensable
for all thorough study". I can't stress that too much. Even if
your master sat there while you read a Dhamma book, the effect on
your mind, first of all you'd read it once, he'd say read it again.
So the presence of a master is indispensable when you read Buddha
Dhamma because you will read into it what your ego wants to hear.
You will take a small part of the text and you say, "I
like that", you'll take another part of the text and say, "I
don't like that", and you'll take a text and you'll say, "Ahh"!
So what do you think of that text? "I believe half of it."
And it's all true, if it's a good text, not corrupt of course.
So
the environment in which you practice, the way you handle the Buddha
Dhamma books, you're taught not to throw books on the floor, you're
not to spit on them. That written Dhamma is very precious. Two and a
half thousand years of effort.
Now when the disciple has
understood the basic teachings and has found a master, he takes
Triple Refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, which is the
instructor, the doctrine and the community of monks.
"My
humblest respect to the Lord", this is a translation I presume,
"My humblest respect to the Lord, the Emancipator and the
Illuminator, Illumined. May I receive the Triple Refuge and the five
precepts. I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dhamma, I
take refuge in the Sangha. Each of these injunctions is repeated
three times. They mark the entrance of the disciple into the field of
Buddhism and constitute a kind of baptism".
Note how the
English writers always go back to the Christian terms, which are
wrong. So they, it's nothing like a baptism. "The refuge is a
conscious act, a choice one makes after examining the doctrine. It is
certainly neither a question of dogma, nor of faith. It's not a
question of dogma nor is it a question of faith. It is simply an
adherence to a method that the disciple thinks is capable of leading
to liberation".
In other words, the Triple Gem Refuge,
upfront, is part of the technology of teaching, and the five precepts
are part of the technology of teaching. There's a technology of
teaching the Buddha Dhamma.
"The five precepts, the
masters of all schools of Buddhism, unceasingly repeat that no true
progress can be made in the way of meditation without the observation
of five fundamental precepts: No killing, No stealing, No lying, No
committing of sexual impurity, abstaining from every drug or
intoxicating substance. Westerners, for whom the existence of
precepts is often very bothersome, manage to give them a secondary
importance, but in fact, they are the only logical base of every
accomplishment. So the masters of all schools of Buddhism unceasingly
repeat that, no true progress can be made in meditation without the
observation of the five precepts". And anyone who doesn't flog
five precepts is inviting their students to have a lot of unnecessary
suffering. So stop me if you've ever heard me flogging five precepts,
because they are absolutely vital.
The Ten Paramitas, "after
a period of preliminary practice and strict observation of the five
precepts, the master also asks the disciple to observe the Ten
Paramitas without which one cannot go beyond the rudiments of
meditation. They are one, these are in English of course, charity.
Two, morality. Three, renunciation. Four, energy. Five, courage. Six,
truth. Seven, intensive resolution. Eight, compassion. Nine,
equanimity. Ten, wisdom".
The difficulty of translating
each of those we’ve been through hundreds of times, you
understand. That's just one set of translation. "All these
virtues are tied together in the same way that the precepts are tied
together. And the development of each of them assists in making
possible a step by step progress".
However the third
Paramita, that's renunciation, can be, considered the foundation
stone, not only of the other virtues but also of meditation.
Renunciation is the basis of everything in Buddhism. The
renunciation, these are the comments here. "Renunciation can be
the greatest stumbling block on the way to meditation. Its
realisation is an extremely important step in the disciple's life.
The Buddha, as Jesus, and nearly all the great teachers, make it the
primary virtue that allows one to enter easily into the contemplative
life and to arrive quickly at the realisation of the teaching. The
greater the renunciation, the faster the progress".
"The
renunciation is the second obstacle that Westerners prefer to forget
in the study and practice of Buddhism. What Tantric writings could be
read on a deep level as claiming that virtue and renunciation are
only an adornment of the principle destined for ordinary men, of
which we of course are not a part". That's sarcasm, of course.
We're ordinary.
"Such attitudes are intellectual
defenses which are not anchored in the depths of being. Everyone who
is honest with himself knows that without sacrifices and efforts no
method will permit the blossoming of concentration and the interior
vision".
"Renunciation is all the more difficult to
practice because the masters of Buddhism have described in great
detail the meaning that they give to this term and to its different
applications. First of all, it is necessary to renounce the world,
namely physical and mental contacts with the world", which means
keep your mind inside. "In order to do this it is necessary to
abandon every intellectual, effective, spiritual, economic and social
relationship with the world. The world must be abandoned physically
and spiritually. One must forget its culture and no longer utilize
those ways which have been taught".
If you remember a
couple of days ago I said you have to do a thorough analysis of your
culture and find out which bits are good and drop the other bits.
"One must forget its culture", that means certain parts of
your culture you abandon because they are harmful to you, like
drinking is an Australian culture. You abandon getting pissed, simple
as that.
This is one of the greatest difficulties; the mind
must be emptied of the material that clutters it. We talked about the
glass and having space to teach, and so on. For only an empty mind
can be penetrated by light. It is also necessary to free the mind of
projections, you know, in the psychological sense; projections,
dreams which are your fantasies, and remembrances, pining back to,
"Ah, I wish I was back there doing something".
"These
can block the disciple’s progress" Pining for yesterday.
"Finally, it's necessary to suspend the superficial activity of
discriminating that which conditions our everyday life. The Buddha
attained total deliverance by the complete rejection of all opinions
and conjectures. It is also necessary to renounce bodily desire and
sensual satisfaction as they prevent the growth of concentration. The
disciple does not do this in order to immerse himself in imaginings
of another type; he must renounce every thought of the goal, and must
not imagine the successive levels of his asceticism".
"In
not reaching his goal, the meditator risks experiencing only the pale
reflection of his mental formations, becoming victim to a simple
phenomenon of autosuggestion. The experience of meditation allows a
release from the universe of words, images and mental formations;
therefore every activity of the mind can only prevent this process.
When Sariputta questioned the Buddha on the way of transcendental
knowledge, the latter responded, "Sariputta, the Bodhisattva is
on the way to knowledge and he doesn't abandon himself to his
imaginings. When he imagines neither body nor mind nor word, nor any
of the six excellent virtues, charity, morality, patience,
concentration, meditation, wisdom, nor doctrine, and then imagining
nothing, he takes nothing and rejects nothing. He is neither the
covetousness of the eye for its object, or the ear, or nose, scent.
He is free from the covetousness of the domain of the earth, the
water, the fire and the wind of space and consciousness".
"The
total renunciation seems beyond the reach of man and can discourage
every sincere aspect. The Buddha, contrary to many others, has not
established a goal nor stated a rule without giving at the same time
a very precise method that permits its realisation". And so on.
So it's the up front, it's the up front inner content of the
mind that has to be attended to, and every time you sit that
attention has to be given, because otherwise you sit for no purpose
at all. If you do offerings, the up front attention should be given
to the offerings and so on. You go to the toilet, the up front
attention should be to the toilet. If you're under the shower, the up
front attention should be the shower and so on and so on and so on.
You must develop sati every second of the time, and if you don't then
you might as well sit down and look at the television, because you
let your mind run out. You let it run off to play, and of course the
ego will play.
Even the ego gets tired of running out, so
sometimes after a blast of ego you sit down and your mind seems to go
quiet. And you think that quietness has something to do with your
sitting, but it's just the bloody ego has worn itself out for a
moment and that quietness is ego quietness, not Buddha Dhamma
quietness.
But, occasionally, as you all know, if you hit
Nirvana, and things like that, there is a change of view. And then
you know anicca, dukkha, anatta. You know the three marks of
existence for yourself. So you’ve got to attend, not to the
number of hours you sit or anything like that or or how many flowers
you offer the Buddha, but you've got to attend to the up front detail
before you do something. Tidy up your mind. Say, "Why am I doing
this"? It's because I want to become and Arahant fruit, that's
why. And that's about all. So take rest.
May you untangle the
tangles.
May you clarify misconceptions of the Buddha's
teachings.
May you come to understand the Buddha Dhamma for
yourself.
May you be well and happy.
This script was
written by and edited by Alec Sloman, Frank Carter, Leanne Eames and
Anita Hughes.
References:
Recording Title: Correcting
Misconceptions of the Buddhist Practice
Tape 10, Side 1
Teacher:
John D. Hughes
Date of recording: 29 June 1988
Transcribed by:
Alec Sloman
Checked by: Frank Carter
CD Reference
29_06_88T10S1A
File Name: 29_06_88T10S1A_JDHtranscribe.rtf
5
Day Meditation Course; final recording of Course.
Wednesday 29
June 1988 2.48PM
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