The Buddhist Hour

Script No. 387

Broadcast live on Hillside 88.0 FM

on Sunday 26 June 2005CE   2549 Buddhist Era

This script is entitled:

Meditation on the Three Hindrances to Refuge Part I

On today’s program we would like to take you back to the very basics of Buddhist practice, taking refuge in the Triple Gem; the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.

In the same way that when one undertakes a dangerous journey they would rely on an experienced guide, so is the same when it comes to traversing the Noble Eightfold Path to Enlightenment. Refuge in the Triple Gem is necessary for proper spiritual cultivation.

The Buddha, the perfectly enlightened one, is our first refuge. The Buddha is considered to be the incomparable guide for escaping from the endless suffering of phenomenal existence. He is considered as the doctor who, after determining the illness, can recommend the proper antidote.

The Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha, is the antidote itself. In the same way that a sick person takes medicine to become well again, beings must practice the Dhamma to become free from the sufferings of Samsara.

And thirdly, the Sangha, the group of practitioners who have heeded the Buddha’s advice are considered to be the nurses; the ones who help beings plagued by suffering recover from the afflictions which keep them locked up tight in Samsara.

Coming to true refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha can sometimes be difficult due to our karmic obstructions. Through previous actions, we have built up numerous resistance’s to heeding the advice of the Buddha.

Seeing this, Master John D. Hughes compassionately gave a teaching to his students of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., on how to identify and eradicate the hindrances to attaining true refuge in the Triple Gem.

Today we would like to read you this teaching, which is entitled: “Meditation on the Three Hindrances to Refuge.”

The teaching will be read over a two week period, and we encourage our listeners to tune in next week for the second part of the reading.

Master John D. Hughes began in the following way:

All right, now. You know in hearing Dhamma there's always problems. So you brighten your mind. What we want to do is abandon the three obstacles contradictory to the study of Dhamma, right.

So we don't want to be like an upside down vessel. Like if I turn that cup upside down you can't put anything in it. That's to stop being closed-minded or rigid minded. One of the cetasikas is to have pliable mind, pliant mind. So you listen very carefully without letting your mind slip or wander to other objects. Otherwise you can't receive bright teachings because of the mental agitation. When the mind's out playing with something else then it gets into a conflict with what it's playing with and hearing the Dhamma.

Like if the mind will come bright and let go of what it's playing with then the Dhamma comes through like a million volts. Very strong. It's very good to receive Dhamma teachings while concentrating very carefully and deeply because then listening becomes sort of a meditation. The listening is a meditation. If your mind is grabbing on to anything I say that's an attachment. So it's like hearing only, knowing only, learning only. So that is one obstacle. Don't have that unpliable, rigid mind, you know.

The next one is like a vessel with a hole in it. You hear Dhamma and you loose it. This means being without memory. When you hear teachings you think "I'll do that, I'll practice that". If you haven't got much memory, like the time to put the teaching into practice is as soon as you possibly can and then gradually, gradually you don't forget when it's needed. So whatever your practice is that you're hearing; by hearing you'll put in your mind.

Now the next one to avoid is being like a dirty vessel. That means having wrong motivation. Now when you start, of course, your motivation will always be a bit off. But it doesn't really matter. But we check our motivations. Why do we want to learn Dhamma? So we get out of trouble. That's the main reason. So we want to escape from dukkha. To do this ultimately we practice renunciation, which means we won't be born again one day. In other words we'll finish the practice. We won't be born again one day. 

We are just talking about obstacles in hearing Dhamma, you know. One obstacle is like being closed, rigid mind. Other obstacle is like having no memory, like if we learn something and we don't apply it then it soon goes away. We forget. And the next one is being like dirty vessel. Having wrong motivation and when anyone starts. It’s only after nirvana access that you can get it right. So we always have to check our motivation. And then ultimately we come to renunciation and we ultimately come to finish the path and finish the rebirth. Just dwell as pure mind. So we check again and again.

So, if we go in for Dhamma just to get gain, then we'll sometimes get gain, sometimes get loss. Or fame. If we get honour, someone praises us then someone else will blame us. We can't escape these pairs. So you've got to check motivation. Wanting to know. That is part of practice because one eighth of the Buddhist path is right motive. Right understanding, right motive, right livelihood, not just meditation. Buddhist Path is Eightfold Path. Right motive is one eighth.

We can never get our motive right with an ego. So we just have to adjust the best we can. Even practice a little makes for happiness. Mind gets happy. When we get online to Buddha Dhamma Sangha our negatives are transformed to positives automatically so you get peace.

So the thinking about and practicing Dhamma. There's a difference between those who can be taught and those who can't be taught. At the moment only about one percent of people on the whole planet are teachable. In Buddha's day it might have been about 15 percent. In another couple of hundred years you'll be lucky if it's point one percent. In another two and a half thousand years, end of Buddha Sasana no one can learn Buddha Dhamma. This is impermanent, it doesn't last long.

This present Buddha Sasana lasts five thousand years and we're two and a half thousand years down the track. In another two and a half thousand years all Buddhists finished. No one can learn. Minds as, we're running into a dark age; kaliyuga. People will get worse and worse, keep less and less precepts. The Teaching of the Buddha is very precious because it removes the delusions and sufferings of all sentient beings and can bring benefit to them.

When the Buddha goes to Parinirvana, before he passes away and has no more rebirth. There are three sorts of Parinirvana. One is he attains under the Bo tree. They're Bo tree leaves there. They are leaves of the branches from a cutting under the original tree that Buddha sat. He receives one sort of, he cuts ignorance totally. Then the next one is when he passes away, dies if you like. Never to take any more rebirth. Finished. And the third one is the parinirvana of the energies of the Buddha which last, in the case of this Buddha, five thousand years.

In this world cycle five Buddhas will appear. Four have already been. The next Buddha will come a long, long time in the future. His Buddha Sasana, Maitreya only lasts five hundred years. The original Buddha in this world cycle lasted nearly half a million years. In the next world cycle there are no Buddhas so nobody can learn Buddhism. So they just have life, death, suffering. No one can find the Dhamma. The one after that a couple of Buddhas. Not every world cycle has Buddha's. They are extremely rare. They're rare. Teachings don’t last long relative to the length of a world cycle. The length of a world cycle is about ten to the twenty eight, with ten to twenty eight naught, years.

So five thousand years out of that is nothing. So if we don't practice now. Like if you got reborn in say five hundred years, the psycho atmosphere of this planet is very dark. You know, world war three, world war four, war ten thousand, it doesn't matter. So better to practice now. So to practice you've got to get a human rebirth, which you got. You've got to have Buddha Dhamma intact, which you got. You've got to be teachable which you are and you've got to practice. It's no concern of anyone in the whole world whether you practice or not. But if you don't, if you go on doing dumb things, you're the person that gets the bad kamma.

You've had an infinite number of lives, you've never finished the path. So, can't do.

So what you conclude is you've got to get the difficulties out of the way that stop you from practicing. There's a hundred and twenty one types of consciousness, fourteen of them are negative. You've seen on those abhidhamma lists, things like jealousy, hate. The ignorance is always there. What to do with them when they arise, which they will. How to sweep them aside gently and not play with them and how to develop bright states of mind, cetasikas.

So there's a difference between those who can be taught and those who can't be taught. Like of the 1% of beings on this planet at the moment who are teachable, most of them are teachable with extreme difficulty. Like, you know, in a thousand years the only way of teaching will be Tantra, which is very powerful. You won't be able to learn in other ways probably.

So, it's extremely difficult to follow the path because the mind, first of all the psycho-atmosphere of the planet is, each second of each day, getting darker. The people who are being born human now will keep less precepts, or in Christian terms commandments, than their parents did.

You're lucky if you can find in the moment in Australia maybe 1 person in 10,000 who keeps five precepts: no killing. That means no killing mosquitoes, flies, anything. No lying, cause everyone fiddles. No stealing, everyone fiddles tax, things like that. The black-market economy. No adultery. I saw a figure a few months ago. 87% of married women in Australia, it's estimated, practice adultery. And no intoxicants. That's booze or drugs that cloud the mind, and tobacco is minor, it doesn't alter your consciousness much. But booze does, and things like speed or heroin or valium or these sort of things, they alter consciousness, they're intoxicants.

But there is only about one person in ten thousand who keeps five precepts. So you've got to practice five precepts, which is difficult. If you get Buddha Dhamma Sangha refuge deep enough in you, take refuge in Buddha Dhamma Sangha, automatically your mind won't break precepts because the energy that comes from Buddha Dhamma Sangha keeps the mind guarded, protected.

So in the future, like, say a few hundred years from now, you might find one person in a hundred thousand who can keep five precepts. In two thousand years from now it will probably be only one in a million who can keep five precepts. So it's easier to practice now, then stall and wait for tomorrow, or the next day or the next life. Every year it gets harder to practice, because the pyscho-vibes of the planet oppress you. Like if you had nay good kamma you would have been born in Buddha's day, become one of his monks or nuns and be full enlightened, so it's not easy.

So, the Buddha says keep away from fools but you don't know who's foolish. If you can mix with people who keep precepts, good. If you can't, well, too bad. Now if we can get the refuge deeper, see, what can you take refuge in? You can take refuge in your body, the thing gets sick and dies. If your body's going to have a stomach ache, it doesn't say can I have a stomach ache, it just has one. You've got no control over body, it's just old past kamma. The same is true with feelings. Same with memories or consciousness. It depends on the merit you make in the past, particularly past lives. All of you have practiced in past lives, otherwise you wouldn't be able to hear.

You can't rely on your teacher. It's not that you can't rely on your teacher, the teacher is reliable. If your teacher's not reliable then run away and get another teacher. But you can't rely on your teacher because your teacher can't do your meditation for you. Your teacher can guide you. If you practice, the teacher can help you, but you can't rely on your teacher. For a start, in a year I'll be sitting in the bush for three years and three months. You'd be lucky if you see me once a month.

The ultimate is, just before Buddha passed away, Ananda said to Buddha, you know, you've been around. Who will be our guide? And the Buddha said be a lamp unto yourself, or in other words, Buddhism, the ultimate analysis has a role of one person, yourself. It doesn't matter if all the worlds Buddhist or no one in the world's Buddhist. It’s you who follows the path, no one else. No one asks you to follow the path. It doesn't matter if the world's the only person who has a ball if you don't follow the path is Mara, which is like negative forces, like devil if you follow Christianity. It's of no concern to anyone whether you follow or you don't follow.

If you have got a Teacher it's no good complaining when the Teacher says keep five precepts and you keep four and a half because all the Teachers going to do is tell you what Buddha told you; If you're a layperson keep five precepts, you know. Now the benefit of a Teacher is a Teacher can bring up your defilement’s so that you look at them, as you probably know. Do you know that by now? They would have come up in the future anyway. Sitting in meditation they come up, mind inside, in Buddha field here, easy to run. But you can't escape your negative actions, you can't escape positive actions. It is quite easy for your Teacher to bring up your good kamma and you would be sitting in bliss. But that is burning up good kamma, better to bring up the negativities then your mind will put ardour on top, Buddha, Dhamma , Sangha on top then the negativities are down below, the kamma runs of all your negative kamma, negative kamma, certain types of Buddhist practice you can cut fifty thousand world cycles of negative kamma in a few hours.

If you adjust your mind and you brighten your mind with your mind inside not outside you'll just see this phenomena; feelings arising and falling, arising, passing away, passing away, cessation, put in relinquishment there. And you'll realise they are anatta, they don't have an owner. They are not your feelings, they are just kammic. You are experiencing them,they arise from the kammic past.

So there's a lot of things you must understand. If you've got Teacher it is possible to create negative kamma as well as positive kamma from the Teacher; it's automatic. Like, I've got no concern whether you praise or blame me. It's no concern of mine. But if you don't know who your Teacher is the safest thing is to send loving kindness to all Teachers. Don't knock any Teachers of any religions at all. Because if they are Teachers of any religion at all they probably keep a lot of precepts. Therefore they're quite virtuous.

Buddha says don't say Buddhism is higher, equal to or inferior to any other religion. Now if you think that there's any difference between, say, a Christian practicing no stealing in terms of kamma you're wrong. Cause and effect. The only difference is a Buddhist might be able to sit in higher absorption band than Christians, or arupa jhanas, something like that. Because in bright mind, when you're in arupa jhana, it's not a question of whether you're a Buddhist or not a Buddhist, that doesn't come in to it. It's just knowing only. In the sphere of nothingness, knowing only. In arupa jhanas, couldn't say whether male or female because above, above rupa jhanas. The label "Buddhist" is delusion at those levels. But refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha has to be put in at those levels.

We've got to put in refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha on every level. That means we've got to put it in on four rupa jhanas, and we've got to put it in on five arupa jhanas. Now, in each of those jhanic levels, those absorption levels, for example sphere of nothingness, has got eighteen levels. Sunyata has got eighteen different levels. We've got to put refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha on each level.

Robyn, you've get to put in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha in first rupa jhana, second rupa jhana, third rupa, jhana and fourth rupa jhana. Fourth body, right. We put in up there in this one, this one, this one and this one, right. We've got to have refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha. Put into every jhana level. If you take in the subdivisions there's fifty-two different levels from first jhana, like if you count subdivisions. So you've get to put in strong refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha in fifty-two different levels. Four rupa jhanas, five arupa jhanas including cessation of consciousness one, because if we leave any bands open when we get onto that band our practice stops because we haven't got refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha and the mind doesn't quite know what to do next.

This ends the first part of “Meditation on the Three Hindrances to Refuge.” We will conclude the remainder of the reading on next week’s program, on the 3^rd of July.

As Master Hughes mentioned, when you are able to develop refuge in the Triple Gem, it will become a natural tendency to keep the five precepts. He said that when you have refuge, it is as though the Buddha’s energy becomes available to you, and the Buddha does not kill, steal, commit sexual misconduct, lie or take intoxicants which cloud the mind, and it becomes easier for you.

"Indeed, the Blessed One is worthy and rightly self-awakened, consummate in knowledge & conduct, well-gone, an expert with regard to the world, unexcelled as a trainer for those people fit to be tamed, the Teacher of divine & human beings, awakened, blessed.”

"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One, to be seen here & now, timeless, inviting verification, pertinent, to be realized by the wise for themselves.”

"The Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples who have practiced well... who have practiced straight-forwardly... who have practiced methodically... who have practiced masterfully — in other words, the four types [of noble disciples] when taken as pairs, the eight when taken as individual types — they are the Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples: worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respect, the incomparable field of merit for the world."

May you have true refuge in the Triple Gem.

May you be well and happy.

May all beings be well and happy.

This script was written and prepared by Alec Sloman, Anita Hughes, and Frank Carter.

References

Recording Title: Refuge and the Three Hinderances to Refuge

Tape 1, Side 1 (no side 2)

Teacher: John D. Hughes

Date of recording: 06/07/1984

Transcribed by Frank Carter

Checked by:

CD Reference: 06_07_84T1S1A

File Name I:\06_07_84T1S1A_JDHtranscribe.rtf

www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/tisarana.html

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