Buddhist Hour
Script No. 400
Broadcast live on Hillside 88.0 FM
on Sunday 25 September 2005CE 2549 Buddhist Era
This script is entitled:
Atisha’s A Lamp for the Path, Part VIII
Thank you for joining us. In the last two weeks we have presented to you much about our Founder’s Day Celebration, which took place on the 9th of September 2005. In the first instalment we described the events of the day, including the speeches that were given by some of our members.
Then last week, we read reflections about the occasion written by our members.
This week, we are returning to our series on Atisha’s 'A Lamp on the Path'. A Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment is a text that was written by the Indian Buddhist Master Atisha, Dipamkara Srijnana.
This text became an invaluable guide for those Tibetans who wished to pursue the lofty goal of Buddhahood, and after many hundreds of years, it is still precise, relevant, and useful for modern practitioners. It was this reason that the Founder of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., Master John D. Hughes, chose to expound on the text for the sake of his students.
Today we present Part VIII of the teaching. If you are interested in reading transcriptions of the previous shows, containing Parts I-VII,, please visit our website at: www.bdcublessings.net.au, where you will find the texts of those broadcasts.
On the last of our Atisha’s 'A Lamp on the Path' segment, Master John D. Hughes explained the different kinds of reverence one can show to a Buddha. He said:
The blessed Buddha is not as pleased by the worship of pleasing objects as he is by meditative worship. In other words you are paying respect to the Buddha when you meditate correctly. That is respect. And as the Buddha, being the body of truth, in the Chapter of the Guards, the Buddha says the Buddhas are the body of truth, the Tathagata does not originate, he is purified, just like space. And the Heavenly Treasure sutra says if there is no objective basis to be found for the blessed Buddha in his essential reality, where can the objective basis for viewing him as a form with characteristics. And as Nagarjuna said, all things being empty of inherent existence, what is there to praise and who to praise it? Rejecting origination and destruction.
To summarise, the highest method of showing respect to the Buddha is to contemplate and realise his teaching, the direct realisation that all objects are without any existence from their own side. If one were to make an offering while knowing the insubstantiality of giver, gift, and recipient, the merit would be immeasurably greater than an act of generosity done without this wisdom.
We will now continue with Master John D. Hughes' explanation of the text.
So, having done the Red Torma offering to get protection for you and the place, and having done offerings, and having got the ability to do the offerings and the Mandala offering. The first meaning is on it's usefulness, then a summary, word definitions, it's relevance, and objections. The objections are that, you know, your mind wasn't at the level of a superior person, so you just have objections. And then responses and then finally explanation. Explanation is doing the commentary.
So, the meditative worship itself is homage to the Buddha. Pleasing objects, we put nice things on the altar plus the Torma itself. Confession of sins, that is not [in] the Christian sense, it's just saying be good, generating a sense of moral shame. Rejoicing at virtue and entreaty for the doctrine. Petition for the Buddha's blessing and bestowing merit on others through the Red Torma ceremony. That part is done.
So, the worship of homage includes worship of the body as well as the speech, like you bow down or something, and sit properly. In touching [the] right knee to the ground and so on, the same is understood with bowing to the Buddha. By this homage of my five limbs the five, you know, may all the five obstructions of all creatures be cleansed away. May their five eyes be purified, their five senses be perfect. May they remain in the five paths and obtain the five superknowledges unimpaired. May the creatures born in the fire destinies rise superior from these destinies and attain to pre-eminent conduct, concentration, insight and liberation. And to superior vision and wisdom of illumination, liberation. May they see the Buddha, hear the Doctrine and join the Community, Sangha.
So worship with pleasing objects, you know things like we've got here, what do we offer? The confession mantra in the Sutra set forth by Asamatta shows that the very confession of sins does constitute worship. In the words even in the confession can my own and other people sin. Sin is unwholesome, unwise action, you know, error. Remember the man who translated this was Christian so he used the word sin. Unwholesome action and unwise action tends to suffering for self and others.
Rejoicing at virtue comes from the Moonlamp Sutra and then Saramgamati Sutra. There are three things that are supreme for attendance upon and worship of the Tathagatas. What are these three? Producing the thought of enlightenment, which you've done, comprehending the holy doctrine, which you've done, and begetting the great compassion for all beings. And in the Gradual Rising sutra it says, Good Sir, the Bodhisattva who worships the Tathagata, or the Buddha, is one who looks of four certain qualities. What are these? Faith in that excellent object of veneration, and that other creatures notice him and perform worship also. And from worshipping the Tathagata paying respect to, remember he used the Christian words, his enlightenment thought will be steady. And by seeing the thirty-two great marks of the great person he will acquire the roots of virtue. These are the four qualities. The thirty-two marks are things like having well rounded shoulder, and all the other marks of a great man. The Buddha has thirty-two marks, you know like [that student] has got ajana chakra, one of the marks of the great man. Little wispy hair and all sorts of things. And there's eighty minor marks. The Buddha has all of those.
So in the River of Brine Sutra, giving your light to creatures is also a form of supreme practice of worship. Shantideva says this: If others are happy, the great sages rejoice. If others are sad, the sages are sad. When others are content, all the sage rejoice. Harm done to others is harm done to the sage. So, worshipping with loving intent constitutes a creature’s greatness. Merit from faith in the Buddha constitutes the Buddha's greatness. There is no other means of pleasing the Victors and the Bodhisattvas except by showing deference to other creatures, which means being kind to them.
The Buddhas are the body of truth. The Tathagata did not originate, he is purified just like space. If there is no objective basis to be found for the Blessed Buddha in his essential reality, where will be the objective basis for viewing him as a form with characteristics?
Then, Nagarjuna says, all things being empty of inherent existence, what is there to praise and who is there to praise? When the Buddha became fully enlightened under the Bodhi tree for he looked someone to praise, but because he'd done it himself, his own liberation of his own mind, he couldn't find anyone. There was no one his equal in the whole of the Samsara, so he couldn't praise anyone. But conventionally he could remember his past lives and his many great teachers, you know, big teachers, little teachers, over a span of twenty world cycles. So, you know, he thought they were kind, they helped him.
See, in the ultimate enlightenment, when you see, you can understand correctly. It was like saying that there was no being that caused your enlightenment. It was just this series of lifetimes, this series of practices that you did because you've got Bodhicitta, the enlightenment wish. See, in relative there's no self, but that enlightenment wish, which is sometimes stumbled across, it's like Shantideva says, it's like a blind man finding a diamond or big jewel in a rubbish heap. It just happens! You've somehow, in your wanderings in Samsara, you banged into the Buddha’s teaching. Your teacher has taught you, the conditions came, you didn't run away, you practiced, and so on, therefore you will go to the full enlightenment.
So there's the preparation, the places and all the things we've done. So one who has taken the refuge, you should then observe the proper training. He should not pay homage to other gods. He renounces harm and injury to others. He does not associate with heretics and show them religious reverence. That means you don't put down other religions, but you don't follow the practices, you keep with Buddha Dhamma. Mindful of the eminent qualities of the Three Jewels, the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, he takes the refuges again and again and again, you know, Buddham Saranam Gacchami, all Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, over and over and make sure it's established.
Mindful of their great kindness, the kindness of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, he is zealous in his worship. That means you get on with it. Making first offerings even before eating, drinking, maybe doing five reflections.
Mindful of compassion he spreads these practices among other creatures, including animals. The benefit comes from the Three Jewels, the Triple Gem at the time of the cause, when you first take Triple Gem refuge. At the time of the path, while your on the path, and at the time of the result when you fruit, there are benefits. When you took the Triple Gem Refuge, that's in the past. You've been moving along the path and the result will come. The fruit will come.
The first of the benefits are in the present lifetime. The other two benefits should be learned from the Guru, the teacher. And so, one who knows the advantage of taking the Refuge will repeat them three times a day and three times at night. He will preserve and not abandon the Triple Gem, or Three Jewels, even out of human respect, to all the jokes or threat to his life. In other words he's become quite established in the Refuge. See, the Refuge, if you want Tantra you have Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Guru, the Guru's only seen as the Triple Gem.
So the Triple Gem gives you devas rejoicing at the fact, mental joy comes and all sorts of things. So you attain in the end the nirvanas and the Dharmakaya, the body of the Buddha, bliss body and so on. So that's the commentary.
So with great faith in, this is the text now, with great faith in the Three Jewels, the Triple Gem, bending knee to ground and folding hands, take the Three Refuges Thrice. Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha. And then because the thought of love for other creatures, and at the sight of suffering you want to help, and you realise you must get the thought of your enlightenment to a higher level and pledge never to turn back.
And then the Stalks in array explained, read the sutra and accumulate merit. Take a man who owns jewels and with them fills every one of the Buddha fields, more than the sands in the river Ganges and then offers them to the Lord of the world. But if you merely fold your hands and incline to the thought of enlightenment your merit is much higher than if you gave all the jewels in the world to the Buddha. The merit is higher.
Because in the enlightenment wish for yourself to quickly come to enlightenment there's no end. So when you get the thoughts of aspiring to enlightenment then you strive on with great effort to expand that thought fully and recall your resolve and observe your training. So a right resolve will not be furthered without vows that have progress in mind which means you've got to get them, your mental logic understand the vows as wise. So you drop your trouble logic minds, the ones that are a bit suspicious, and you pick up logic systems that inherently are based, the logic system is built up on precepts, or Triple Gem and that sits pretty well in your mind. It comes a bit.
And then when you live by your vows, because they don't have to be big vows, just I'm gonna become enlightened or something and I'll help others. So in this way Manjusri Bodhisattva of Wisdom to which this is dedicated, he got the enlightenment thought and then he wrote it all down. He said in the presence of the Lords, you know, Manjusri's very ancient, Arya Bodhisattvas were in the heavens. He got the thought of perfect enlightenment and issued an invitation to all creatures, he said, I'll save you from the cycle of rebirth.
Beginning from this moment, until I attain the highest enlightenment, I'll not permit ill-will or anger, or avarice, avarice is greed, to occupy my mind. By changing [the] mental logic of your mind there's no room for such things and you don't really want the old logic system which has got hate, greed and ignorance in it, you can drop it. Just put it off .
I'll practice the pure life, give up unwholesome actions, I'll imitate the Buddha. By rejoicing in the vow of the conduct I'm quite happy to, I've altered my mental logic systems so it's inherently good. However, I am not keen to reach enlightenment in some swift way, I'll remain, with Bodhisattva vows, I'll do it a bit slower. Like, instead of becoming fully enlightened in the next second, you do it a bit slower. Maybe one or two lives. You'll help others.
And I'll purify the innumerable, inconceivable fields of the universe. And by taking this name I'll live in the ten directions so you can get, you can put that down, you can pick up any mind you want. Purifying the actions of my body and speech entirely all you have to do is drop your impure logic system and pick up a pure logic system which is like prefabricated. It's already got built-in precepts. Make it your own, and so on.
You see, if you just pick up what you want there's no straining any more. So just as a bird with unfledged wings can't fly in the sky, so without the super-knowledge’s power one cannot work for the good of others. So you develop siddhis which are minds, but you only use them for other people. The merit which a man makes with the superknowledges gains in a single day what cannot be had in a hundred lives for anyone who lacked the superknowledges or siddhis. So it's okay to get siddhis for the sake of others. Magical powers they're called, but they're just phenomena, that's all.
And then calmness we need. When the mind is calm, superknowledges are there, particularly the superknowledges like wish-fulfilling gem. Scripture says that bondage is from insight being divorced from means, and means from insight as well, therefore neglect not this union.
Yet, means and insight, method and means link together wisdom insight. Develop wisdom and compassion, so that one guards the other. It's like two wings of a bird. If a bird's got only one wing it can't fly straight. You need method and means, two linked together. But what your method and means are can be anything, but you link them together with insight, you link them together with wisdom.
The means are all the equipment of virtues, starting with Dana and Sila. You can combine mastery of means with a true cultivation of insight. When you combine mastery of means, first you get means coupled with method, then you master it, and that, then you've done that. You'll swiftly attain enlightenment, but not by cultivating merely anatta by action, by action. So one good action will bring you enlightenment.
So in the past, present and future, many beings attain enlightenment. You'll be one of them. You must get to the enlightenment. Whatever logic system you're employing, if it didn't bring you to enlightenment, you must abandon it, because it would be ridiculous to keep that logic system that didn't work in the past so drop it!
It's like saying that because of past kammas your original logic system forms. Because of present kammas you can change to any logic system you wish quite easily, without going mad. You can know the minds of others kammically.
My logic system probably wouldn't suit you. Kammically, Buddha's logic system probably wouldn't suit you. Whichever is key and lock, whichever is comfortable for you will comfort you. See, hundreds of thousands of Arya Bodhisattvas know you, know that you practice. Buddhas in the long past dedicated their merit to their own Sasana. Shakyamuni Buddha, the current Buddha, dedicated his merit to the beings. The Buddha knows, from the Bodhi tree, and wants to shower blessings on you. But if you've got a logic system that repels blessings, now what sort of a logic system will soak up blessing, and I soak up blessing, and I'm using them. I get showered with blessings all the time.
Well, first of all, your logic system must get rid of the obstinacy, that I'm going to do it all myself because you couldn't. If you wanted to do it like an I, my, me, you could never make enough merit to do it. You must accept the showers of blessings that are sitting there.
The people who say I'll do it myself end up as silent Buddhas. They spend a hundred world cycles, and very arduous practice. When they become enlightened, and because of their arrogance in not taking blessings, not going near teachers, wanting to be, do it themselves, when they become enlightened, they are second only to a teaching Buddha in attainment. They've got more blessings than an Arahant. But they can only say about four words because they never took a vow to teach. They went around saying I hate teachers, I'll do it myself, I'm not going to listen to anyone, which is complete, it's doing it the hard way. Just as Buddhas are rare, silent Buddhas are rare. For an arrogant person who took that attitude that doesn't mean that attitude will take you to being silent Buddha. That attitude could take you into hell, could wash you away from Buddha.
So whatever hard lump is left, see you keep rebuilding, rebuilding, you're rebuilding your logic systems, but they've still got the same supposition locked into them that I, my, me, must do it, and then, if that's out of balance, it's like you walk past blessings, I'm showered with blessings. I can sit in whenever I wish, a big blessing field of Buddha.
Now, if I said, every single thing I have to do I've got to do myself, like a silent Buddha, silent Buddhas don't mix with other Buddhas generally for a hundred world cycles. So they're always a loner, haven't got the warmth, the friendliness, and fellow practitioners to buffer them life after life. Although their final attainment is great, the path they walk is the most miserable, lonely path. A hundred world cycles of loneliness, never talking. Whenever they, over that time they see Buddhists, they see Buddha's Sangha, all happy, all becoming enlightened under a Buddha.
Because there are still teachers in the world, we should take advantage of this. The great Master Geshe Michael Roach, in his “The Magic of Empty Teachers,”
I would like to speak about teacher.
Sometimes you get a feeling that you would like to learn something new. You might see an extraordinary person - maybe a musician who plays extraordinary music, and then your heart leaps inside and you say, “I want to learn to do that. I want to learn to do it as well as they do".
Then maybe you try. You go and buy a flute in the store and, after you sit for a few hours, it becomes clear you can't even make it peep. And then, especially if you are very serious to become a master, you set out to find a true teacher. Anyone who tries to learn something great realizes at some point they must find a master teacher. There's a blessing to a living person that can never be even approximated by books or tapes or videos. There's a blessing to how a great musician holds their arms, or how they walk, how they sit, how they look around the room, how they speak, how they touch their instrument so lovingly. None of these things can be taught in a book; you have to be at their side. You learn greatness only by being at their side. And it's not, I think, so much what they teach you, but how they are that infects you and grows inside you. There's nothing like it – you can't play piano in a great concert hall unless a master has guided you for many years.
There are many texts which discuss in detail the benefits of relying on a qualified spiritual master. Some good examples are The Words of My Perfect Teacher, by Patrul Rinpoche, or The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, by Je Tsongkhapa.
Thank you for joining us. We hope that you will join us for the ninth installment of “Atisha's A Lamp on the Path” on Sunday, the second of October.
May you be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
This script was prepared and edited by Alec Sloman and Leanne Eames.
References
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http://www.world-view.org/media/text/miscellaneous/quietretreat/magicofemptyteachers.pdf
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