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Book: An Overview
of The Buddhadharma
- Book: An Overview of The Buddhadharma
- Title: First Day: May 3, 1993
- Written by: Living Buddha Lian-sheng, Sheng-yen Lu
- Translated by: Janny Chow
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First Day: May 3, 1993
Masters, fellow cultivators, good afternoon. This is the second
Dharma teaching held at the Rainbow Villa and the topic is An Overview
of the Buddhadharma. On one hand, this may seem to be a very easy
subject because its scope is so broad that, no matter what one discusses,
the subject would be covered. On the other hand, this is a very
difficult topic, because one must be able to extract all the essences
from the vast Buddhadharma and present them in a very systematic
and orderly manner. Therefore it is both easy and difficult. Anyway,
difficult or not, I am going to attempt it. (laughter) I am going
to talk about it. (laughter) Although I have studied the Buddhadharma
for many years, taken refuge in many teachers, and penetrated deep
into the treasury of the sutras, it still requires careful thinking,
intense inner focus, and eloquent communication skills to present,
in a very short period of time, a complete presentation of the Buddhadharma.
This is a subject as vast as the ocean itself! I hope that everyone
will be able to understand the teachings contained in this Dharma
discourse, and that they will derive benefits from what they have
learned. By putting these things into future practice, one may attain
Realization. This will bring a great significance to this Dharma
teaching.
Great Vehicle - Small Vehicle - Diamond Vehicle
This is the first day and I shall begin today by talking about
the different "vehicles" in Buddhism. In Buddhism, there are the
so-called Great Vehicle (Mahayana), Small Vehicle (Hinayana), and
Diamond Vehicle (Vajrayana), which is the same as Tantrayana. Actually
when Buddha Shakyamuni was alive, he did not mention anything about
the Great Vehicle, Small Vehicle, or Diamond Vehicle; these differentiations
were created by people after the Buddha's parinirvana. The Buddha
himself did not make any reference to "vehicles." As he was the
True Buddha, therefore only the True Buddha can be considered as
True Vehicle. Apart from that, there is no other vehicle. The practice
of differentiating the three vehicles came into existence after
the Buddha had passed on.
However, in our discussion today, we will be making references
to different "vehicles." Why? This is because the three vehicles
are traditions which have been passed down to us by our predecessors
in the practice of Buddhism. In reality, the true Buddhadharma has
only One Vehicle, which encompasses the Great Vehicle, Small Vehicle,
and the Diamond Vehicle. It would not be correct to talk solely
about one particular vehicle. This would be like describing a person
by considering only the head. The alone does not represent a person!
Similarly, concentrating on the trunk alone would produce only a
partial representation of a person. Likewise, it is not correct
to consider only the limbs when one is discussing a person. One
must describe the head, the trunk, and all four limbs in order to
give a complete description of a person. One must also consider
all aspects in a description of the true Buddhadharma. Therefore,
the true Buddhadharma contains all of the Great Vehicle, Small Vehicle,
and Diamond Vehicle. In reality, there is only One Vehicle.
In the context of the Buddhadharma, what does the Great Vehicle
teach? It teaches one to seek Enlightenment for the sake of the
welfare of all beings. When one generates the bodhicitta, which
is a desire to help all the sentient beings to reach Liberation,
one is generating the Heart of the Great Vehicle.
What is the Small Vehicle? The Small Vehicle seeks the Liberation
of oneself. One mainly engages in practices that concentrate on
one's own Liberation.
How about the Diamond Vehicle? This is the esoteric pathway which
uses esoteric methods of cultivation to enable one to quickly achieve
Realization. After self-realization, one then proceeds to help other
sentient beings as in the Great Vehicle. The practice of the Diamond
Vehicle is known as the practice of attaining Buddhahood in the
Present Life, because one engages in actual practices of inner realization
which enables one's body, speech, and mind to enter into a union
with the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha. These methods of
inner realizations are methods of the Diamond Vehicle.
Although the Buddhadharma encompasses tenets from all three Vehicles,
discord exist among followers of the three Vehicles. Small Vehicle
practitioners like to criticize Great Vehicle practitioners for
being impractical and for wanting to help other sentient beings
without first engage in actual practice. They also like to point
out that the Buddha himself never preached on the Great Vehicle.
On the other hand, Great Vehicle practitioners criticize Small Vehicle
followers indulging in their own salvation, while ignoring other
sentient beings and failing to generate the bodhicitta. They contend
that the highest achievement of the Small Vehicle practice only
equals the level of the Arhat and, therefore, falls far short of
that of Buddhahood. Such arguments have occurred throughout the
history of Buddhism. What about the Diamond Vehicle or Vajrayana?
This Vehicle is subdivided into Tibetan Vajrayana, Japanese Vajrayana,
and Tien-tai Vajrayana. Many differing views exist among these Vajrayana
schools. For example, just the Highest Tantra section alone of the
Tibetan Vajrayana has received much slander from other Vehicles.
The Japanese Vajrayana has been criticized as consisting of only
the lower three parts of esoteric teachings and lacking an authentic
Highest Tantra practice. The Tien-tai Vajrayana has been accused
of placing too much emphasis on rituals while being deficient in
inner realization practices. Therefore, it will take a long period
of time before there can be a true integration of the Vajrayana
with all the other scriptural schools. The fact is that the three
traditional divisions of the Buddhadharma-the Great Vehicle, Small
Vehicle, and Diamond Vehicle-have so far proven unable to be integrated.
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