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Book: An Overview
of The Buddhadharma
- Book: An Overview of The Buddhadharma
- Title: The "Practice" Approach
- Written by: Living Buddha Lian-sheng, Sheng-yen Lu
- Translated by: Janny Chow
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THE "PRACTICE" APPROACH
As soon as one enters the doorway of "practice," one
must cultivate the "purification of body, speech, and mind."
This is to enable one to attain Enlightenment, to transform the
energy in one's body, and to realize Emptiness. Ultimately
one will obtain the Rainbow Radiance. Actually, as long as one achieves
Enlightenment and the Clear Light, and realizes Emptiness, one will
automatically understand the Buddhist doctrines. Although one has
not studied or researched the sutras, one will be able to penetrate
their meaning. The Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng was almost illiterate,
yet, after engaging in actual practice, he opened his mouth and
out came the expounding of the Buddhist doctrines! [audience applause]
After the Fifth Patriarch Hung-jen transmitted the formulae for
Enlightenment to him. Hui-neng fled to live among the hunters. He
stayed for over a decade and, during those years, Hui-neng put the
teachings of Hung-jen to actual practice and was able to achieve
Awakening. After Realization, the words he expounded were the Truth
of the Buddhadharma. Therefore, one does not have to be a scholar
to understand the Buddhist doctrines. By focusing on one practice
and practicing it wholeheartedly, one will also be able to understand
the Buddhist doctrines.
This brings us to one of the issues of "practice." Should
one learn many practices or concentrate on just one practice? It
is better to cultivate just one practice at a time. The learning
of many practices is tantamount to "seeking a wide knowledge"!
When one concentrates on a single practice at a time and penetrates
that practice deeply, one will arrive at Realization. This Realization
will enable one to understand and penetrate all other practices.
As long as one achieves Enlightenment through actual practice, one
will understand all the Buddhist doctrines. That is why the approach
of "practice" surpasses that of "theory."
Many of the older generation Buddhists today are very well versed
on the Buddhist theories and doctrines. They can tell you the contents
of each sutra but, when asked if they have done any actual practice
or have attained Realization, their answer would be "no."
This is the flaw of a purely theoretical approach. Pursuing many
practices at the same time also has its problems. I have recently
written an essay for the True Buddha News criticizing a certain
contemporary Buddhist monk who admitted that he had not achieved
Realization. We do not have any dark clouds here today! [audience
laughter] This Buddhist monk claimed that he practiced Zen, Pure
Land, and Tantrayana and confessed that he had not yet achieved
any yogic response or Realization. Strictly speaking, he does not
practice Tantrayana as he only chants the Great Compassion Dharani
and the Ten Minor Dharanis. There is something wrong when he cannot
obtain any yogic response even with "the Tantrayana" practiced
"his way"!
Some people claim that their school is an amalgamation of eight
different schools. Do not make the mistake of thinking this make
it better than others. You would become totally confused if you
entered such a school. If you had to practice doctrines alternately
from the Zen, Pure Land, Tantrayana, Vinaya [disciplines], Madhyamaka,
T'ien-tai, Lotus Sutra, and Hua-yen schools, you would
be completely confused! It is better to concentrate on one practice
and penetrate deeply into it. If you do otherwise, you will not
achieve Realization-even when you are sixty or seventy
years old. If that happened to me, I would find the whole situation
laughable and embarrassing.
Perhaps one has been pursuing other doorways, such as "money,"
"authority," or "power." None of these is a
Buddhist doorway. Such pursuits are the behavior of ordinary people
of the samsara world. Isn't there something wrong when
a monk becomes involved in business deals?
Therefore, the most important thing in practicing Buddhism is to
concentrate on one single practice and to penetrate it deeply. [audience
applause] I have made this recommendation before: a young person
can afford to look into different schools to hear more teachings;
a middle-aged person should stick to just one practice and concentrate
on it to reach Enlightenment; an old person should seek rebirth
to a Pure Land. As one gets older, one does not have much time left
and one should therefore concentrate on a practice that will lead
one to be reborn to a higher realm. These are very important points.
Indeed, focusing on one single practice is better than doing many
practices at the same time. There was one student who sent me one
hundred U.S. dollars, requesting one hundred different kinds of
empowerments. He wanted empowerments for all the practices I have
mentioned in my books. One should seek empowerment only for the
practice that one will do, unless one is a master in this school.
A master in this school might seek to receive many empowerments
so that he or she could, in the future, give others the same empowerments.
General students, however, should focus on one practice. As long
as one achieves spiritual response or Realization in doing one particular
practice that results in the opening of one's heart,
one can immediately see the Light and the Truth of the entire Buddhadharma.
In the past I had trouble understanding the sutras. To be honest,
my wisdom was not that developed. Before, when I read the Diamond
Sutra, all the paradoxes were enigmas to me. [audience laughter]
I could not figure out what it was about. Today, when I open the
Diamond Sutra, I can penetrate deeply into it and understand its
charms and meaning. [audience applause]
Thus, inherent in Realization are the other three steps of Faith,
Comprehension, and Practice. While one may choose either the approach
of "theory" or "practice," the approach of "practice"
is better. Understanding the Buddhist doctrines does not necessarily
result in Realization, while actual practice can definitely lead
one to Realization. When one attains Realization, one will automatically
understand all doctrines. [audience applause]
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