v111q3r9@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Yi L Chiang) (02/06/91)
PRACTICING GOODNESS AND GENEROSITY,
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INCREASING BLISS AND DISPELLING CALA.
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MITIES
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Faith of confidence in the Three Precious Ones is extemely
wholesome because synonymous with this confidence is the desire to
practice loving-kindness and perform acts of goodness. According to
the Buddha's Teaching, to respect, make offerings towards and to
contribute to the happiness and welfare of all sentient beings is the
primary field in which to sow the seeds of bliss in this world. Building
temples or creating statues of religious personalities, etc., can lead
to bliss and wisdom and is termed the field of reverence. Offering
devotion. respect and gratitude to one's parents and teachers due to the
fact that they are one's benefactors is termed the field of grace. We
should do our best for the poverty-strichen, the ill,old, weak and disabled
, etc., because they are fall into states of woe and calamity, should we
be armed with our practice of generosty and purity of heart, we would then
be able to transform these situations into more fortunate ones.
Natural disasters and catastrophes arise simply as a response to evil
minds and unwholesome activities on the part of many living being. If human
beings were to determine to use wholesome mind and pure action in all
circumstances, then bliss and happiness would follow naturally. All people
want a life free from ill and calamity and full of happiness. To expect a
life of happiness without performing wholesome and benficial activites is
not a legitimate expectation. If one does not sow the appropriate seeds,
one will surely not reap the desired response or result. The novice Boddhi-
sattva should develop a storehouse of skillful activity and virtue in order
to increase the happiness of all sentient beings.
TAKING THE REFUGE OF RIGHT FAITH
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After accepting the Three Refuges, it is important to take
the refuge of the Right faith. People who have cultivated the
Buddha-dharma in their previous lives and have developed strong
,deep roots and thus have natural confidence in the Teaching can
take the refuge of the Right Faith directly. One takes this Refuge
of Right Faith in the presence of a teacher and offers one's unlimited
devotion of the Three Precious Ones. When reciting one's affirmation
the pratice path of Bodhi, One should visualize woshipping at the
Buddha's feet and achieving unity with the infinite Dharmadhatu of
the Triple Jewel. As the nature of a drop of water and the Ocean
is the same, so is the nature of a small space and a large one;
similary, there is and should be non-differentiation and
non-discrimation between the worshipper and the worshipped.
It follow from this, then that there is no duality between one's
self-nature and the Buddha-nature; i.e.,
there is no notion of an ego, personality,being,etc., involved,
the only reality being the complete identification of one's
self-nature with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and their unlimited
compassion extended to all sentient beings. this awareness is
transcendental to all notions of insides, outside and middle, and
it comprehends all the ten directions. Transcending considerations
of time, it has no beginning or end and encompasses the Three
Realms. Now, Just as this moment of right faith and concentration,
one makes a determination of dedicate oneself to the
Dharmadhatu of the Three Precious Ones for all time without
Beginning or end. This is done in accordance with and adamantince
faith in wisdom that is done in accordance with and adamantine
faith in wisdom that is compared to eating a small diamond
that one can never digest. this is the manifestation of fundamental
Faith and is one of the four kinds that are explained in THE SASTRA
OF THE AWAKENING OF FAITH IN THE MAHAYANA, where it is said:
"This faith is the delight of True Dharma." The acknowedgement
of this Original Faith is considered to be right faith, and one
who possesses this eligible to undertake the preliminary training
of the Bodhisattva Tao.
TO DESTROY ILLUSION, ESTABLISH THE RIGHT
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FAITH WITH RESPECT FOR THE RIGHT TAO
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AND DISPEL HETERODOX VIEWS
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This is the actual proof of the efficaciousness of the right faith.
For it one has solid confidence in the Buddhadharma based
on wisdom derived from pratice, then all doctrinal disputatuions
or the pitting of one religious or philosophical view against another
leaves one's faith unmoved. moreover, the use of the mature wisdom
can destroy all absurd statements, evil modes of though, and
erroneous views with which one might come in contact. The
Sutras and the Sastras taught by Buddha and Budhisattvas
contain a complete, universally valid and reasonable teaching
for all sentient begin. Also, many different masters made every
effort to enhance and gorify these profound doctrines by way
of commentary. Therefore, Taking the refuge of right faith in
the Bodhisattva Tao means not only to recognize the truth for
oneself but also to protect the Buddhadharma against insult
and abuse and to profit others by teaching. Using skillful
eloguence of speech and writing, one should manifest the truth
of Buddhadharma to increase the faith of both oneself and others.
The Bodhisattva who takes the refuge of right faith, with his
qualification of self-knowledge, is able , eventually, to arrive
at the stage of non-retrogression. Those who have taken merely
the Three Refuges in order to link up with the tradition of Bodhi-
sattva Pratice are not yet prepared for this stage.