Next, what Lao Na wants to talk about is the real Dharma that the Buddha gave to us: "Being able to distinguish all dharma appearances well, and remaining unmoved in the first meaning." This is the path to Bodhi that we want to achieve. When everyone observes the precepts and revise the precepts, they all want to have no delusions or worries, but why can’t they do it themselves? Everyone should study this issue carefully.
The next question is, after becoming a Buddha, do you still think about it?
Everyone, pay attention here! Being able to distinguish well means there is distinction, not no distinction. The Buddha is good at distinguishing all dharmas.
Ordinary people's discriminating minds will either have good thoughts or bad thoughts, or they will have no thoughts that are neither good nor evil. Only by attaining enlightenment and becoming a Buddha can one be able to distinguish all dharma phenomena without being distracted by his thoughts. Therefore, it is said that emptiness, formlessness, and no action (or wishlessness) are the three doors of liberation.
The first meaning of being able to distinguish well, the Buddhist explanation is the true meaning or the metaphysical Tao. For example, although you have heard Lao Ne's sermon since you just listened to it, it no longer exists, but have your ears that can hear been moved? We need to study here "Be able to distinguish all phenomena well, and remain unmoved in the first meaning". We should study hard here from the realm of ordinary people's mind consciousness, and slowly we can reach the point of "having a pure mind and attaining all kinds of meditation." ". For example, we have yesterday, today, tomorrow, last year, this year, next year, the last second, now, and the next second. These different realms must not exist, but the "Yu first meaning" who knows the past, present, and future without moving".
"Having become at ease with all dharmas", because "can distinguish the appearance of all dharmas well, and remain unmoved in the first meaning", only then can we reach the realm of Buddha, be at ease without being attached, so "this is why we honor this Dharma King".
"The Dharma does not exist or exist, and all dharmas arise due to causes and conditions." The Buddha said that all dharma, whether it is Mahayana, Hinayana, exoteric teachings, esoteric teachings, or the twelve branches of the Tripitaka, are not attached to existence or emptiness.
Nothing means emptiness, and nothingness means existence. In this case, why use the words "non-existence" and "not-nothing"?
No, it’s not existence, it doesn’t tell you that it is absolutely empty; it’s not nothing, it’s not nothing, it doesn’t tell you that it is absolutely there.
The Buddha said that all dharmas, all phenomena in the world, and even the thoughts we ordinary people have are all caused by causes and conditions. The law of conditioned origin is the emptiness of conditioned origin taught in Chinese Mahayana. The word cause and condition used here is not the cause and condition of the twelve causes and conditions, so it is very difficult to understand.
In terms of karma in Chinese characters, "cause" means dynamic cause, and yuan means "climbing". "Destiny" is a continuous relationship with a moving cause. For example, when we speak, the previous sentence is the cause, and the meaning of the next sentence continuing the previous sentence is the fate.
Karma is like a circle, without beginning or end, and always continuous. For example, the tea cup in your hand is made of porcelain clay, added with heat energy and artificial intelligence, and then put into a mold to be calcined. It is born of causes and conditions and has no material nature. When causes and conditions come together, it forms this thing; when it is broken, the causes and conditions are scattered. It will no longer be this thing.
If it wasn't called a teacup at first, it would be called by another name now, and the noun would have no inherent nature. It's the same with all of us gathered here. Therefore, the two principles of cause and condition are dependent origination and emptiness; everything is caused by cause and condition; everything has no self-nature, and has no possibility and nature of independent and automatic existence.
In other words, the powerful thing that drives all things is the cause; the continuous effects that develop from it are the conditions.
The second factor is to increase the upper condition, just like soil to plant seeds. Another example is the physical and mental genetic traits of parents, family and social environment, which are all the conditions for the growth of seeds.
If the seed is good, all external conditions, whether good or evil, will cultivate it on the path of good; if the seed is caused by bad conditions, all encounters will be bad.
Using the analogy I just mentioned again, I had an idea: tell them the Vimalakīrti Sutra! This is "kinship". With such a powerful thought, a notice was sent out, and everyone got together by fate, and now we are here.
This place must have light, venue, etc. to promote this sermon, which is to "increase the superior conditions."
There may be fellow Taoists who are listening to the sutras here. Some people have understood their own minds and natures and understood the Tao because of listening to the sutras. This environment is their increasing advantage. His enlightenment was not given to him by the Buddha, nor was it given to him by his teacher. It was his own nature that exploded, and he met good teachers and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Such an increasing cause and condition helped him to understand his mind and see his nature. For example, we are born through karma and karma, and then have the influence of our parents, family, society, country, etc., which increases the influence of karma. From this karma, this person will either spread the Dharma or create bad karma, just like one after another. The circle rolls down.
The front cause becomes the back cause, and the back cause becomes the front cause. The chain of objects is the "object condition".
From this relationship, there are three lives of cause and effect, rolling down forever like a circle. If he had good roots and wisdom in his previous life, he will become better when encountering increasing conditions in this life. Therefore, he will continue to promote Buddhism. Give merit. This object's condition has been combined by three conditions and brought to the growth of his good roots in the next life. It is the "equal and infinite condition". Equality is an equal rotation, and infinite means that there is no gap in causes and conditions.
Ordinary sentient beings have accumulated a lot of good and evil karma. After becoming a Buddha, this karma will not be broken. Even the enemies and enemies we made in the past have become good companions in this life.
There is a saying: "Before you become a Buddha, you must first make connections with others." Once you have attained the Tao, you want to save all sentient beings. If you do not have enough merit and Dharma connections, you will still not be able to save people.
The same goes for those of us who want to learn Buddhism. If we don't have enough Dharma connections and merits, we won't be able to meet good teachers. Even if they meet, they will naturally leave or encounter obstacles. Therefore, karma must be cultivated by oneself.
It explains the principle of cause and condition and understands that all dharma arises from cause and condition and has no master. There is no God or fate to dominate. In fact, it is the law of cause and condition. Religions all teach that there is a master in life, and someone is in charge of you.
Bodhisattva must save you no matter whether you are predestined or not, and you must teach bad people even more. How can you punish you for not worshiping him? How can this be considered a Bodhisattva?
Not to mention being a superhuman master, even an older person or a person with moral cultivation will be tolerant of others. Could it be that a Bodhisattva cannot even match such a broad-mindedness?
All laws have no master, so does it come naturally? If it comes from nature, it becomes materialistic thinking. Therefore, all laws have no master and are not natural. They are caused by causes and conditions. The principle of cause and effect is the basis of all Buddhism.
There is no self in all dharma. Everything in the universe is caused by causes and conditions. There is no creator or recipient. No self, no creation, and no feeling are the three most important points in Buddhism’s teaching of emptiness.
Let us use our own lives to investigate. Now that we are sitting here, if we talk about no-self, we are probably just talking about it. We obviously feel that there is me sitting here, so how can we say no-self? Everyone has learned all kinds of kung fu. Can you achieve selflessness when meditating? The better you get at kung fu, the stronger this "I" may become, and everyone thinks "I" is the most amazing.
Why can't we be selfless? Because three mistakes were made: there is a self, there is a creator, and there is a recipient. As soon as you meditate or think of Buddha, you will subconsciously have the thought of "I" doing kung fu.
When doing Kung Fu, whether you visualize, recite mantras, practice Qi, or recite Buddha's name, you are all creating it yourself. The biggest mistake is for recipients to magnify their own feelings and think they are doing kung fu.
Therefore, whether you are sitting on the floor or not, you should always examine the selfless one. What exactly is the self?
Is it this flesh? The body is just a shell, which is temporarily borrowed. The "I" is not in it. You must truly investigate where I am.
All phenomena are caused by causes and conditions. If you feel the qi pulsing in your body, it is not me. It may be that you ate right or wrong today. Or you may have a slight cold and your head is slightly swollen and you think it is qi. This is all self. Pretending.
All living beings originally have no self, and mistakenly believe that there is a self. This is the real big delusion. It is not just delusion caused by constant thoughts during meditation. That is just a trivial thing.
You don't know how delusional you are, you always think that I exist. Obviously there is no one who is artificial and has no control over you, but consciously or unconsciously, you always feel that there is a power worthy of trust and reliance, whether it is Buddha and Bodhisattva, God, or your own destiny; otherwise Relying on yourself and believing that you are not wrong is the height of foolishness.
Think about it carefully, is that true? You said you were in good spirits after sitting all morning. Of course, you were sitting there doing nothing as if you were taking a rest. Of course you were in good spirits. When you say this is kung fu, aren't you deceiving yourself and others?
Those who have no creation are creating realms themselves! Those who have no feelings, just play with their feelings.
You meditated yesterday and felt that your state was very good. If you meditate again today, how come you have lost that state? If you can cultivate it successfully, it can be broken. Everything in the world and everything depends on cultivating the Tao. If you don’t cultivate, it will definitely be bad. The day the house is built is the day the house's destruction begins, which is what Zhuangzi said: "It's only when you live that you die."
You are doing some work here because of fate. There is such a place, you are a free person, someone helps you prepare food, you have a cushion to sit on, and the sun is shining... Remember, there is no self, no creation, no receiving. ah!
Since there is no self, no creation, no receiving, then you say: I might as well do evil, right? It’s not that dogma prohibits you, it’s that karma is not lost!
You say, "If it's empty, what karma will there be?"
Free karma! Emptiness is cause and effect, cause and effect; emptiness is the cause, and the result obtained is pure. Likewise, the results of good and evil actions are not lost. When we understand these principles, we understand that "we can distinguish between all phenomena and remain unmoved in the first meaning."
"Begin by succumbing to demons in a Buddhist tree, and achieve enlightenment through nectar." This is a tribute to Sakyamuni's experience of becoming a Buddha.
"He first subdued demons in the Buddha tree." At the age of thirty-two, the Buddha subdued all demons under the bodhi tree with the power of wisdom.
What is a demon? The demons of trouble, the demons of death, the five yin demons, and the heavenly demons have been mentioned before.
"The enlightenment is achieved by obtaining the nectar to extinguish consciousness." When a person meditates, a cool feeling occurs on the top of his head, and the liquid secreted by the pituitary gland flows into the mouth, making him feel endlessly sweet. This is called nectar initiation. This is not yet attainment of concentration. You have to cultivate slowly and step by step, and then maybe you can attain concentration.
If you don’t even have this nectar and your mouth is dry, you even feel bitter or your whole body is dry, then it goes without saying.
The nectar mentioned here in the Vimalakīrti Sutra is not this tangible nectar, but the nectar that describes wisdom. The path to cessation, that is, the path to nirvana, is called attainment of nectar.
To achieve the cessation of nectar is to eliminate all worries and life and death, and to realize the enlightenment.
"There is no intention, no feeling," in Buddhism, the heart, mind, and consciousness are three different things.
Thinking is the heart. For example, when you go out and think about countless things in your mind, that is the heart.
Never forget to call your mind, your mind is your mind, and you don’t need to think about it anymore. You put a penny in your pocket when you go out. You don't think about it, but you know that you have a penny tattoo on your body, which is called meaning.
Consciousness is a state of mind. In this sutra, mind also includes consciousness. A truly enlightened person is unconscious unintentionally, but he does not become an idiot, nor does he die. His wisdom is truly developed, and he is much better than ordinary people, and his mind realizes the emptiness of dependent origination.
The state of consciousness is not mind consciousness and can be tested in medical clinics. For example, when a person is completely comatose or has just died, if you touch him, he will still react. This is a feeling, a state of suffering.
Another example is cutting off an earthworm. Both parts will move. Its state of consciousness has dissipated, and the remaining force of movement is the sensory instinct of the realm of suffering.
Faith is the driving force of life, the instinct of life, which is always in motion. Only when Xing Yin is still can it be called concentration. For example, when we sit in meditation, we can occasionally get a brief moment of tranquility in our mind, and we can also temporarily forget about physical sensations. However, your blood is still circulating and your breathing is still continuous, which means that the yin is still there, which is not true concentration.
Therefore, those who have achieved the path and fruit of Bodhi have no consciousness, no feelings, and no actions.
"Use this wonderful method to help all living beings. Once you feel it, you will never regress. It will always be peaceful. The great doctor who cures old age, illness and death. His etiquette is boundless." The Buddha uses this wonderful method to save all living beings. They are truly enlightened. They only receive the retribution of this life and will never regress. Always in the purity of Nirvana. Therefore, I admire the vastness and breadth of Buddhism, as vast as the boundless ocean.
When the Buddha was alive, there were ninety-six kinds of heretics. Don’t underestimate the heretics. They all pay attention to kung fu, eat vegetarian food, and abstain from drinking alcohol. Their practices may be more thorough than those of you who call yourself a disciple of the Buddha.
The true Dharma can be enlightened once and for thousands of times and will never fade away. Only when a Mahayana Bodhisattva has reached the eighth level or above can he say that he will never be able to retreat from a feeling.
"I am unmoved by criticism and praise, just like Sumeru. I am kind to the good and unwholesome. My mind and actions are as equal as empty space. I don't respect people's treasures and respect them." Both good and bad people, Buddhists and heretics, can be treated with compassion equally. Psychology and behavior, intentions and thoughts are all equal as space, and inclusive of all. They are treasures among people, and no one can respect them!
"Now I entrust you to the World-Honored One with this tiny cover, in which appear my three thousand realms, the palaces where all the gods, dragons and gods live, the gandharvas, etc., and the yakshas." This precious cover can cover the three thousand great thousand worlds, but what exactly is it?
If it is said directly according to Buddhist scriptures, it is transformed by supernatural powers. If you truly believe in Buddhism, it is not a myth, but a fact.
We need to study it from an empirical standpoint. This world is a treasure cover, and our body is also a cover, but it is a bad cover, but it can also be transformed into a treasure cover. We are now within the Buddha's treasure cover, but we are also within the cover of our own karma and are covered. As you sit here, your mind can go to outer space, but your body cannot move because it is covered. To transform this karma, you need to have real cultivation skills.
Each of us will dedicate ourselves to the Buddha today. In this small cover, our three thousand worlds will appear. This question needs to be taken into consideration and cannot be ignored.
Our mind covers the three thousand worlds. It is big but has no outside, and small but has no inside. But we are still in the treasure cover and cannot find it. Now, using the plot of supernatural power, our mind has the same function as the treasure cover dedicated by Baoji. In this cover, the palaces where all gods, humans, dragons, gods, and the eight tribes of heaven, dragons, etc. live, appear in it.
