46th Lesson of the Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra

(Based on a direct transcript from the recording of the 46th Lesson of the Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra class [dated 14.05.2017] Conducted by Bro. Teoh at Wu Pin Chin Seah, No. 4, Jalan 11/8, Petaling Jaya, Selangor)

For free distribution - to non-Muslim only

Donated by:

Kalyāṇamitta funds of Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

teohkiankoon@hotmail.com

Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Dated: 31.08.2017

Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng Boddhisattva

六祖惠能普萨

White Board Note of 46th Lesson of Sixth Patriarch Platform Sutra

Biodata of Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

Bro. Teoh graduated from University of Malaya in Civil Engineering in 1979. He has been a spiritual practitioner cum ‘Meditator’ since 1971. Since his retirement in 2001 from his Engineering career, he has been sharing his understanding and experiences with those who are keen in their search for true happiness, peace and liberation from birth and death and all mental suffering so that they can be more virtuous, nobler and wiser human beings. He gives Dharma talks and holds meditation classes & retreats and weekly Dharma classes at various meditation centers, Buddhist society and places that invite him.

For more details of Bro. Teoh’s dharma activities and his Kalyāṇamittaship grouping please login to his dharma website at: http://broteoh.com

1.  Preface

It is Brother Teoh’s sincere wish that Dharma friends, spiritual practitioners, seekers of truth, and cultivators will be able to make use of the enclosed dharma transcript notes to develop a better understanding of the Buddha Dharma as taught by the Buddha so that they may progress along the path of dharma to become more virtuous, nobler and wiser human beings that can be a blessing to all of humanity and the world.

As these notes were mostly compiled based on a direct transcript from the recording of the 46th lesson of the Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra class (dated 14.5.2017); the text is aligned as closely as possible to the colloquial speech in the talk. However some editorial amendments have been made to the text without detracting from the essence of the talk. With this, it is hoped that readers can adjust themselves accordingly to better understand its true meaning and intent. A good way to do this is to listen to the recordings first before reading the transcript notes.

To listen to the recording (audio file) you can log on to our http://broteoh.com website under Repository of Dharma material OR just Google, ‘Bro. Teoh’s Kalyāṇamittas – A Repository of Dharma Material’ to view them or alternatively download the audio file via this below MP3 audio link: http://broteoh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/46-6th-Patriarch-14-May-2017.mp3

2.  Acknowledgement

It is the donors’ sincere intention that these dharma transcript notes be given free to those who are interested and have the affinity to receive them. I would like to take this opportunity to thank and rejoice in the generosity and wholesomeness of all those Dharma friends or Kalyāṇamittas who have donated and helped out in the transcription, typing, typesetting, formatting, proof reading, etc. to make this free distribution of dharma dāna possible.

Special thanks should be accorded to Sister SK Hoong (Hoong Suet Kun) who has taken the initiative to volunteer to develop the draft transcript for my subsequent editing thereby enabling this dharma transcript book to be printed.

By the power of all these wholesomeness, may all beings be well and happy, free from all mental and physical sufferings and dangers and may there be love, peace and joy - deep within their hearts. And may it also pave the way for there to be causes and conditions for all dharma friends who have donated or helped out in one way or another to realize their good and noble wishes/aspirations soonest possible.

With Metta always,

Brother Teoh Kian Koon

(Dated: 31.8.2017)

3.  46th Lesson Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra dated 14th May 2017

A very good afternoon brothers and sisters in the Dharma. Today is 14th May 2017, a Sunday at Wu Pin Chin Seah Vihāra and we will be having our 46th lesson of the 6th Patriarch Platform Sutra class. Before we start as usual we shall do our puja. Compose your mind, develop the saddhā (faith), the vīriya and mindfully we shall commence the puja chanting.

3.1.  Pūjā

We shall pay our respects first before we start the pre-pūjā chanting:

Nā Mó Běn Shī Shì Jiā Móu Ní Fó (南无本师释迦牟尼佛) (3x)

Nā Mó Guān Shì Yīn Pú Sà (南无观世音菩萨) (3x)

Nā Mó Fó Púsà (3x) (南无佛菩薩) (3x)

Salutation to Lord Buddha:-

Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammāsaṃbuddhassa (3X)

Taking of the Three Refuges:-

Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi

Dutiyampi Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Dutiyampi Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Dutiyampi Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi

Tatiyampi Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Tatiyampi Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Tatiyampi Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi

Renewing of the Five Precepts:-

Pānātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi;

Adinnādānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi;

Kāmesu micchācārā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi;

Musāvādā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi;

Surā-meraya-majja-pamā-daṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi

Sādhu! Sādhu! Sādhu! (Rejoicing)

Now let us pay respect mindfully to the Triple Gems to end the pre-pūjā:

Buddhaṃ pujemi; Dhammaṃ pujemi; Saṅghaṃ pujemi.

3.2.  Dharma Sharing By Bro. Teoh

You all can be seated. Please turn to page 1 of the text on Verse for Opening a Sutra:

The unsurpassed, profound, and wonderful Dharma,

Is difficult to encounter in hundreds of millions of eons,

I now see and hear it, receive and uphold it,

And I vow to fathom the Tathāgata’s true meaning

Please turn to page 236 and we will continue from there.

3.2.1  Chapter VI Repentance and Reform (page 236)

Sutra (page 236):

“Good Knowing Advisors, now that you have made the four all-encompassing vows, I will transmit the precepts of the triple refuge that has no mark. Good Knowing Advisors, take refuge with the enlightened, the honoured, and the doubly complete. Take refuge with the right, the honoured that is apart from desire. Take refuge with the pure and the honoured among the multitudes.”

This is the sutra part. Then let us go into the commentary by Master Hsuan Hua.

Commentary:

Take refuge with the Buddha; the Buddha is enlightened.

Enlightenment is simply the Buddha. The Buddha is nothing but enlightenment.

The Buddha is “doubly complete” because he has perfected both blessings and wisdom.

That’s why we always contemplate on the 9 great virtues of the Buddha. These 9 great virtues symbolize what Buddha is all about. He is not only enlightened, he is fully enlightened and because of that, he has these two very unique perfections which we call the doubly perfect - meaning he is perfect in both wisdom and virtue. So you can relate to the Buddha as a very unique being who is supposed to be the wisest and most virtuous living being ever to be born. This doubly perfect means he has completed the training to develop wisdom and virtue and he has reached the pinnacle of both. That’s why he is called the doubly perfect.

Commentary:

Take refuge with the Dharma which is “right” and proper. Do not take refuge with deviant teachings, heavenly demons, or heterodox religions. Take refuge with the genuine Buddha Dharma which is the “honoured that is apart from desire.” Everyone has sexual desire and it actually kills people. Why don’t we realize Buddha hood? It is because of desire, greed, hatred and stupidity which accompany it. We study the Buddha Dharma in order to get rid of desire and cut off love. The absence of lust is the honoured that is apart from desire.

So this is Hsuan Hua’s commentary. Then the third one is:

Commentary:

Take refuge with the Sangha; the Sangha is pure and its members are called “pure fields of merit.” True, genuine cultivators should maintain the precept against handling money. Without money, you are pure; with money you are dirty.

This again is Hsuan Hua’s interpretation because according to him, he thinks ‘without money, you are pure; with money you are dirty.’  When one doesn’t have the understanding one will think that way. This precept is introduced to prevent the monks from becoming greedy. The precept is – not to touch money. But they have to understand the deep meaning behind it. The Buddha said, one has to abstain from touching money otherwise temptations can arise.

During the early days, in the 8 precepts; if you may recall, the Buddha said you have to abstain from taking solid food after the allowable time, which is mid-day at the place where you are and you are to abstain from all those dancing, singing, sleeping on high and comfortable bed etc. All these you have to understand - they are precepts laid out for those who are still under training. If you are under training, you need to observe these precepts. Otherwise it can lead to downfall. This is to prevent sensual indulgence, desire, lust and craving. Otherwise sensual indulgence and craving can arise due to delusion. All these have been laid down as pātimokkha or monks’ precepts for training purpose only.

But when it comes to money you cannot blame money or technology for all those downfall or vices that happen. It is the user of money and technology that is more important. If the user has wisdom and understanding, then they can touch money and money becomes beautiful and useful for it serves its purpose; it’s the same for technology.

In one of the sutras if you may recall, there was an incident when Venerable Ananda came and talked to the Buddha and said, “We have somebody here and his teacher taught him this teaching which is very good.” Do you remember? That particular person came and told Ananda, “My teacher teaches: see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. Then by virtue of that, you will become virtuous; you will become wise and enlightened”. The Buddha reprimanded Venerable Ananda saying, “Foolish one. When did I teach you such dharma? You are supposed to see, hear, communicate and yet there is no evil arising. That is the teaching; not to suppress and avoid all these because your desire, your delusion and your greed are still there.”

So if you don’t develop wisdom to confront them via understanding, to see their impermanent universal characteristics leading to suffering, non-self and empty nature, you cannot free your mind, you cannot liberate. Hence all these precepts are laid down to prevent downfall initially because you have not developed the understanding as yet.

It is just like the first five precepts where you have to develop the understanding via right view with regards to the law of karma. Then you will know that the law of karma is so powerful because we are born of our karma, heir to our karma, conditioned and supported by our karma and we are what we are because of our karma. Knowing this - i.e. all of our life is almost 100% due to our karma because we are born of our karma, heir to our karma, conditioned and supported by it and we are what we are because of it. So what must we do? We have to take care of our karma, right? (Note: only the form and mind is subject to karma.) Then how do you take care of karma? You have to avoid all evil, do good and purify the mind following the advice of all Buddha. How to avoid all evil? The Buddha recommended that you keep your precepts. But you have to investigate into why the Buddha said you must keep the precepts. Why must you abstain from all those things? If you don’t abstain, it will lead to karmic negativity. Then you have to check, who are the people who violate karma? They are evil people with the evil roots of greed, hatred and delusion. Then you will understand why you have to abstain, why you have to maintain the precepts. As we cultivate with this understanding, we can avoid a lot of potential karmic negativities or causes for karmic negativities to arise. That’s the reason why the Buddha said all cultivations have to start with Sīla. The three steps or approaches that you need to take to cultivate the teachings are: Sīla, Samadhi and Paññā.

Sīla is morality or precepts and Samadhi is the trained mind which is collected and unwavering. This mind is very stable, collected and unwavering. With your mind in Samadhi you will have the ability to see things as they are, then wisdom will arise and this is the one that can liberate the mind via understanding. When you have understanding, you will awaken. That’s how you cultivate.

So the purpose of precepts or the monks’ rules which is the pātimokkha is to develop the training of the mind so that you don’t have so much karmic negativities. And when you are without karmic negativities, you stand a better chance because they are the conditions for you to cultivate. If you break your precepts, if you don’t have these training rules to train you, you will keep on creating karmic negativities. So without Sīla, it is very difficult for the mind to enter Samadhi. It’s very difficult to train your mind to develop the meditation. You will know why isn’t it? If you break your precepts, you will have a lot of mental hindrances. You will have a lot of karmic negativities that will bring about situations that will make you less peaceful.

Also without morality you cannot develop the goodness, the wholesomeness and the merits. And without the merits, the wholesomeness, you cannot have the good conditions to allow you to come and train your mind, to meditate. So that is the reason why precepts were introduced initially for you to avoid all evils so that you can have better conditions to train your mind. Your mind will have less karmic negativities, less fear, worries, anxieties, sorrow, lamentation and karmic fruition; then you will have a more peaceful mind with less restlessness, less agitation and fewer mental hindrances. After you have the mindfulness you will have the ability to avoid evil, then you can start to develop the other aspects of goodness via the 4 right efforts.

The first right effort is to abandon the wrong thought, action and speech that have arisen. That is to do away with all action, speech and thought that have the evil roots of greed, hatred and delusion. Then when you have the wisdom and understanding developed, you can prevent them from arising. This is the first stage of cultivation where you need to make sure from now onwards; you will not introduce any more karmic negativity into your life conditions so that you will have the good conditions to allow only the good karma from your past to arise because by doing so, you have set the base for goodness or virtue to arise.

But if you don’t keep your precept or Sīla, it’s very difficult to develop Samadhi, the second stage of cultivation. That’s the reason why the Buddha emphasized a lot on Sīla or morality. This is the virtue that you need to enable you to walk the path of dharma, to train your mind, to arise the causes and conditions through your mental aspirations. You can invoke the merits for causes and conditions to avoid the foolish and meet up the wise so that enlightenment in the here and the now can be realized as soon as possible. Then you can invoke the power of truth. Without Sīla, all these will not be possible. Therefore sīla is very important.

In the commentary by Master Hsuan Hua, he didn’t explain this deeper meaning. They are just like ordinary people who will advise you not to touch money because they believe the precept has a good reason for it. But they don’t understand that this precept is only needed during the initial phase of training because before you have the wisdom and the understanding and before Samadhi kicks in, you cannot stabilize your mind, to have the clarity to see things as they are, to insight into phenomena and to realize their universal characteristics thereby giving rise to the wisdom. You still cannot deal with defilements as yet because the mundane mind is still deluded and egoistic.

The teaching is staged out into Sīla, Samadhi and Paññā for you to understand. That’s the reason why when you are under training, you have to observe your precepts. You cannot play the fool with them. You have to uphold them. But the moment you have Samadhi that leads to the awakening and understanding, then the ‘form and mind’ which is the user of thought and the user of money and technology becomes wise; that user has wisdom and understanding. Then thought becomes right thought and money becomes wholesome and technology can be put to good use. Then precept is no longer applicable to such people because these precepts are only for people who are still under training. That’s why in the teaching; there is such a thing as beyond training; sekha and asekha. Sekha are those still under training. Asekha are those beyond training. When you are beyond training, then you will come to understand that these training rules are put in place for those who are still undergoing the training because they haven’t yet developed the wisdom.

It’s similar to traffic lights; why does the government introduce traffic lights? Of course everybody knows that it is to regulate traffic. So their purpose and intent is to regulate traffic. What happens if the traffic light is no longer functioning, like when there is a short circuit or something is wrong and it is no longer performing that function? If you are rigid about rules, what will you do? You see the red light and you say, “No, red light means stop, you cannot go” and then you wait. You wait until the people at the back honk at you because it’s not serving its purpose anymore. If it is not serving its purpose anymore; you must not be gullible, you must not be rigid. You must not just say ‘because the Buddha said so’ hence you cannot do this and you cannot do that. The Buddha never said you cannot do, the Buddha said you undertake the training rule to abstain from doing it. You have to understand why you have to abstain? It’s because it will lead to evil and downfall. That’s why you cannot do it. Then the abstinence from money is the same. There is a big difference between the abstinence from touching money and the first 5 precepts. Even though the precept says you have to abstain from accepting or touching money, it does not mean that when you touch money you have committed negativity of karma. This is because it is not like the first precept - when you kill or harm, you have violated the precepts. But if you use the money negatively then only you have violated the karmic law, do you understand? The precept on money is needed when one is under training because the moment they touch or accept money before they have the Samadhi and the wisdom they can be tempted to use it out of greed and delusion leading to negativity of karma.

Similarly, when you understand this, you will understand why the precepts are phrased in such a way. You will always see the last few words, ‘veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi’. That means ‘I undertake the training rule to abstain from doing something’. So that is the reason why I always emphasize to you all that the dharma is to be cultivated with understanding. Meditation is to be done with understanding. Why do you take the precepts? Why do you take the refuge? Why do you do the puja? All these need understanding and when you understand, you will do it well, via doing it with understanding. Even meditation is the same. So when you read the commentary, you have to understand. They didn’t explain the last part. They go by the book, which is the precept. The commentary said: ‘Without money, you are pure. With money you are dirty’. Do you agree with that sentence? Cannot be, isn’t it? Without wisdom, even without money, you are still not pure. How can they say without money, you are pure? If they word it differently, then maybe it’s more meaningful. Without money, chances are you will not become greedy because you don’t have the chance to own the money. Then you will not think of stealing or misappropriating the money. That is the meaning. If they don’t allow you to touch money, it means it’s done out of love and compassion for you because before you develop the understanding and the wisdom, it is advisable that you don’t touch it. It will lead to downfall. In a way it’s like drugs, do you understand? You touch them but if you don’t take them, you are still ok. But chances are, if you own them or you are given, you will try it. Then through your delusion, your craving and desire, you will get yourself into trouble, you can get addicted. So that part is not taught. But I haven’t read the rest of the commentary so I don’t know whether it will be explained later or not.

Master Hui Neng’s meaning is different. You read the sutra. He only talks about taking refuge with the Triple Gem, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. But in Master Hsuan Hua’s commentary he said: ‘Take refuge with the Sangha; the Sangha is pure and its members are called “pure fields of merit”, which is true. True genuine cultivators should maintain the precepts, which are also true because the precepts include - against handling money. But the next sentence you have to careful, ‘Without money you are pure, with money you are dirty.’ Ah, that one, you have to contemplate and you will understand what I mean. This statement is no longer true. It assumes that if you are with money, you will use it negatively. That is because that person is deluded. Whether with money or without money, that person is deluded. To say that without money you are pure, there is no such thing. Ok, we shall go on.

Commentary:

Members of the Sangha who truly wish to cultivate should stay away from money.

They should add in the word, ‘initially’ stay away from money.

On the other hand, without money you cannot nourish the Way, you cannot cultivate.

Although you need money, you should not be attached to it.

Ah, this part is correct; you should not be attached to it.

. …… and depend on its source, thinking all day, “Who has several million in the bank?

I’ll go and beg from him. Then I can build a temple or a school or perhaps print an edition of the Tripitaka as a meritorious activity.” That’s just profit seeking.

You are just seeking for merits and all those things.

While in Manchuria there was a short period during which money and I parted company.

I never touched money for a good reason. Living in the temple where I lived when I left home were forty or fifty bhikshus, but sometimes as few as ten. When I first arrived at the temple, the abbot was out begging and none of the bhikshus knew me. “I know the abbot,” I said, and they welcomed me.

The word ‘begging’ is not appropriate, it should be ‘out for alms round’.

After leaving home, I practised austerities, but not the ones you practise.

You type, translate Sutras, and meditate, but in the big rural temple where I live was a lot of outside work to be done. Sweeping the courtyard alone took an hour.

My first job was to clean the toilets, which weren’t flush toilets, but pit toilets, and every day the waste had to be removed because the cultivators did not want to smell the odour.

They gave this work to me because I had just left home and had not yet cut off my attachment to smells. I did it every day and didn’t mind too much.

This was referring to Master Hsuan Hua’s early days’ situation that he had to go through.

I got up at two in the morning to prepare the hall for services.

When it snowed I swept the walkways so that they were clear at four when everyone else got up. When the abbot returned and saw me he said, “So you have come!”

“Yes,” I said, “I have.” After I had formally left home, he called a meeting, wishing to elect me as manager, a position second only to the abbot.

Is the manager called 当家 (dāngjiā), the person who manages everything on behalf of the abbot? I think so, right?

When the abbot retires, the manager or当家 (dāngjiā), becomes the new abbot. So everyone objected. “He has just left home,” they said. “How can he possibly be manager?”

“Very well,” said the abbot. “Let’s go before the image of Wei Tou Bodhisattva and draw Names.”…..

Do you all know who Wei Tou is? He is a Dharma protector, Wéi Tuó Púsà (韦陀菩萨).

…Oddly enough, they drew three times and my name came up each time.

No one said a word because I had been elected by Wei Tou Bodhisattva himself.

Later, when the abbot wanted to make me an administrator, I said, “All right, but I will not touch money. Other people must handle and count it. That was my condition.”

So administrator is the当家，not the manager as I had thought earlier on. As a monk, you should have this kind of understanding because the rules are meant to train you. In the Theravada tradition the monk will have a kappiya to manage all the offerings and money on his behalf. But if you have in the past, been deceiving people, cheating people or as kappiya you are not honest, then when you become a monk, you will have kappiya who will in turn cheat on you, not honest to you and all these are possible. Let us continue.

Commentary:

Unusual things happened while I held this precept.

Whenever I went to the train station I would sit and wait for someone who knew me to come and offer to buy me a ticket. If no one came I just waited, but strangely enough whenever I went to the station someone will come forward to buy me a ticket.

If you don’t handle money, you are pure. If you keep even one cent, you are unclean.

Take refuge with the Sangha, which occupies the purest, highest, and most venerable Position “the honoured among the multitudes.”

So this is Master Hsuan Hua’s commentary. This is how he did it, which is very good. There is one part, which I need to explain to you. In the Theravada tradition when the Buddha started this pindapata (going for alms round) tradition, he did it with a very important understanding. There must be a synergy between the lay community who offer and the receiver of the alms. That’s the reason why monks who go forth must have this understanding too. To be a monk, technically, you have to be worthy of offering or must have a lot of virtues. You have to have a lot of pāramī (perfections) from the past. If you believe in your virtues, in your pāramī, then you can keep the precepts well just like what Master Hsuan Hua went through because those pāramī will come to fruition. Then whenever you need anything, you will be able to receive it because this is your pāramī which you have cultivated before. That’s why during the Buddha’s time, whenever they want to go to a remote place which is very cold, chances are you won’t be offered warm clothing and food. The Buddha knew hence he said you take along this disciple because he has got a lot of pāramī. He had donated and offered a lot of warm clothing in the past before. So even when they are there at a remote place, there will be people there to offer them warm clothing.

Then the others are food and shelter. So you must have those pāramī. If you keep to that understanding which is the right view and you have the faith in your cultivation then you will be alright. Just like what happened to Ajahn Jagaro; he has been a monk of many years and he told me there were only 2 occasions where he was not able to get food and during those 2 occasions, he did not eat. The rest of the occasions, he would surely receive offerings from the lay community.

If you have those understanding and your pāramī is there and you follow the advice of the Buddha, which is to keep the pātimokkha accordingly then you will do well. That’s why they always advise the forest monk or the dhutaṅga monk, to live nearby a village where you can go for pindapata. It should not be too far and too near because by the time you go out and come back and have your meal, you should do it before noon. Sometimes they have to leave early if it is a bit far. Then they have to endure the harsh terrain, conditions and climate so that they can come back before noon to eat their meal. Then only they can have time to cultivate. As they go for pindapata, they also cultivate mindfulness (daily mindfulness) and all those other training. These are the pātimokkha or monks’ training rules and precepts that the Buddha introduced for monks to train. If you can keep to the monk’s precepts, the pātimokkha which has 227 rules, it will train you very well in developing mindfulness - for you have to be mindful of so many things under the pātimokkha; do you understand? Then when you can be mindful over all these things, your mindfulness will become very stable or become a part of you. Everything that you come to experience, or encounter or come into contact, you have to reflect and contemplate mindfully. Is this allowable? Am I worthy of the food? Am I keeping the pātimokkha? Did I violate any part of the pātimokkha? All these are training rules.

You have to be constantly aware and with that type of training you will definitely become enlightened. Like the Buddha said, “Heedfulness is the path to the deathless; the heedful never dies whereas the heedless are as if dead.” So the moment you decide to renounce the world whether as a monk or not as a monk - you have already determined to train yourself to be mindful and heedful because renunciation is inwardly. Then you are destined for enlightenment because according to the Buddha the heedful never dies and Heedfulness is the path to the deathless - the Buddha’s teaching is very clear. This is the reason why you have to determine and aspire to cultivate and develop all these training; to develop the 5 spiritual faculties and the essential dharma leading to the understanding and constantly work on the cultivation starting with Sīla, then Samadhi and Panna which is essentially the cultivation of the noble 8-fold path. Then within the noble 8-fold path, all the essential practices are there; the four foundation of mindfulness, which include Ānāpānasati, mindfulness of the 4 postures, the daily mindfulness etc.

Cultivate the right views leading to right thought, right speech, right action and right livelihood. Then develop the 4 right efforts to constantly purify and improve on yourself. Then right Sati and Samadhi will follow. That’s how the cultivation can become beautiful and you can perfect it. These are the essential understandings that are not taught. So this is the part I want you to pay attention to. I have added it in because this is the understanding that I came to realize but is not mentioned by others. Now we will move on to the next part of the sutra, page 238.

Do you have any questions? You can raise your hand and I will pass the mike to you so that we can discuss it further. Since there is no question we shall move on. This is the sutra part.

Sutra (page 238):

‘From this day forward, we call enlightenment our master and will never again take refuge with deviant demons or outside religions. We constantly enlighten ourselves by means of the Triple Jewel of our own self-nature.’

“Good Knowing Advisors, I exhort you all to take refuge with the Triple Jewel of your own nature: the Buddha, which is enlightenment, the Dharma, which is right(teaching), and the Sangha, which is pure.

The Buddha, the Dharma and Sangha, they are the Triple Gem. What are gemstones? They are the most precious among the precious stones. So when you take refuge with the Triple Gem it means these are really precious Gems the most precious among the precious stones. That’s why they are called gemstones. The reason why they are so precious is because you can only find the teaching within the Triple Gem.

Take for example the first gem, which is the Buddha himself. Who is the Buddha? Is it the image? If it is not the image, then who is the Buddha? Of course you can tell me he is not only enlightened but also fully enlightened. He is the embodiment of his perfection of wisdom and virtue. That’s what the Buddha is. Those qualities, nobody can take away from him. Even by destroying his image, by abusing his name, the Buddha is never affected because that is not him. That image or rūpa is for you to recall to mind the 9 great virtues of the Buddha. That’s why they are objects of veneration. They are not the Buddha. This understanding is very important. If you have this understanding, you can cultivate correctly. With this understanding your mind is different. You are not gullible like other people. You will not become affected or afflicted when someone does something to the image and you will not go and say, “How can this guy be so disrespectful?” Like what they called the Banyan people of Afghanistan when they destroyed the Buddha images using modern weapons. Many Buddhists around the world got very agitated and very unhappy. They said they (the Banyans) never respect our Buddha and all those things with all the big hue and cry.

Luckily when I saw the comments, at that time, on the Internet, I wrote a very simple explanation and after that all quieted down. Before that, the emails came non-stop and some people were getting very emotional and unhappy with what the Banyans were doing. Everybody was giving their very unhappy views. Then I said, “That is the image and not the Buddha. The Buddha is the embodiment of his perfection of virtues and wisdom.”  And you have to understand that only the spiritual nature with its perfection of wisdom and virtue is the Buddha, not the image. The Buddha took the wisdom path and taught the 4 Noble Truths which is the essence of his teaching.

He is the Buddha, a fully enlightened one and because of that he will have the teaching. That’s why you must take refuge in the Buddha because the Buddha is the embodiment of his 9 great virtues, resulting from his perfection of all virtues and wisdom. Then the Dharma is the teaching that the Buddha proclaimed or brought forward to the world after he became the Samma Sambuddha. That one can really awaken you, that is the reason why it is a true refuge.

Then the Sangha are the enlightened disciples of the Buddha who have already realized the truth. That’s why they will also have the teaching and this is true refuge. If you take refuge in them then you are safe because the Buddha under the Dhammapada verse said, “There is no other refuge safe outside of the Triple Gem”. Only in the Triple Gems is there refuge safe because only in them you can find the teaching, the 4 Noble Truths. And these 4 Noble Truths can liberate your mind and awaken you. That’s the reason why you have to take refuge in them. So this is a very profound understanding. And this part we will have to read through it because the sutra did mention this. The commentary part, we will go through afterwards and see what it says. We will now continue from page 239.

Sutra (page 239):

“When your mind takes refuge with enlightenment, deviant confusion does not arise. Desire decreases, so that you know contentment and are able to keep away from wealth and from the opposite sex. That is called the honoured, the doubly complete. When your own mind takes refuge with what is right, there are no deviant views in any of our thoughts. Because there are no deviant views, there is no self, others, arrogance, greed, love, or attachment. That is called the honoured that is apart from desire.

When your own mind takes refuge with the pure, your self-nature is not stained by attachment to any state of defilement, desire or love. That is called the honoured among the multitudes.”

So this is the explanation of the sutra regarding the Triple Gem. We shall move on.

Commentary:

To lessen desire, it is not enough to be a vegetarian and to read Sutras. You must cut off all sexual desire:

If one does not cast out thoughts of lust, One will never escape the dust.

So this is Master Hsuan Hua’s explanation through his commentary. The first part is very interesting and meaningful. To lessen desire, it is not enough to be just a vegetarian and just read sutra. This part I think you can understand. If you claim to be a vegetarian, this is outward form dharma. It does not mean that if you are a vegetarian, you are more compassionate. Do you know why? You can claim you are a vegetarian but if you have not developed the cultivation as yet, what difference does it make? You can claim to be a vegetarian but you have not cultivated the dharma and the teaching which means you are still deluded. So how can there be love and compassion? Love and compassion come from cultivation. If you cultivate until you understand, then automatically, you go vegetarian – that is good because that is based on understanding. But if you only hear people say, “Hey, you better become a vegetarian for it will make you more compassionate and pure”. Then through believing, you do it without cultivating the understanding via mindfulness leading to the heedfulness; this has not much meaning.

What happens is that you never get to see your self-delusion, your own evil roots. Without cultivating the mind, wisdom cannot arise. You will still be what you are, meaning a puthujjana and still deluded. So outward form dharma cultivation or what they call outward form level cultivation does not give understanding for you have not moved on to cultivate the mind dharma. You have not developed the training of the mind to develop Samadhi to awaken to the truth. So the first part is useful. As per what Master Hsuan Hua had shared – ‘to lessen desire it is not enough to be just a vegetarian and to read sutras. You must cut off all desire.’ Here he also emphasized on sexual desire because he believed people find it very difficult to cut off sexual desire but the correct explanation should be - you should cut off all craving, all desire and all attachment in whatever form.

It’s just like what I have explained before; if there is good food, if there is condition for you to have it, you can have it as long as you don’t get attached and you don’t develop craving and the desire for it when there is no condition to have it. That understanding is very important. That’s why there must be understanding behind contentment. Attachment and craving have the deep rooted evil root of greed behind. When there is no condition for you to have, yet you want it, then it becomes a craving, a desire. Then it will make you miserable. It afflicts you because there is a very strong craving to get what you want.

When you understand that there is condition for things to arise, then use it. Just like this form and mind, if the condition arises for you to be born into a wealthy family, to receive all these because of your pāramī, then use it. Rejoice in it. Also thank your good karma. But don’t be deluded by it. Don’t cling and be attached to it. Don’t be miserable when this thing is no longer around when you don’t have the condition to have them. This non-greed is very important. That understanding of it will not make you rigid, gullible and deluded. Otherwise you will become the other extreme like what I explain before.

If you have become enlightened, you must not have craving or desire, right?  Have you heard of this before? There is nothing wrong with the statement of, ‘you must not have craving, you must not have desire.’ But they interpret it differently. To them, eating good food is a type of craving. Sleeping on nice bed is craving. But when you are under training you are supposed to abstain from enjoying or indulging in all those things because when you are under training, you don’t have the understanding yet. So it’s better for you to abstain. But when you have the understanding already, it’s different.

When there is condition to have it, then have it but you must use it with understanding. If you have the condition, (the good karma that manifests this condition) for you to have it then you can have it. Just like during the time of the Buddha, he was invited to the palace by the king and the rich people to their home and do you think they offered him simple food? No, they offered him very good food and he still partook, but he did not overeat. He did not develop the craving for it. He did not compare that with those simple foods his received from people when he went for pindapata or alms round. So that is the understanding behind the teaching, not to be attached, not to have craving or desire.

When there is condition for things to arise, if you have the condition to receive it and to have it, then you can have it. Or you can give it out to help other people just like what my teacher did. He received a lot of offerings and I saw it happening. Here he receives, there he gives. Then sometimes he used to tell us, he said, “Mr. Teoh, sometimes, we have to be sensitive. If people offer, then immediately you give, they may not be happy.” See, he had the understanding. That’s why he passed them to his kappia first. Then later on, he would just give it to someone else. It’s because I think people complained to him before. They said, “Aiyoh, how can Phra Ajahn do this? I purposely go and buy all these good food and I offered it to him but instead he just gave it away, just like that. I should have saved my money instead.” If you have these thoughts it means you don’t understand. The moment you have offered and you have done it sincerely, it’s already a meritorious action. After you have offered, what they want to do with the offering is up to them. Instead of rejoicing, you get unhappy. See, you are still attached to your offering. Already offered yet you became unhappy. So what type of cultivation are you practicing?

It’s just like you go for retreat, you cultivate very seriously. The moment you are out of the retreat, your old anger, hatred, envy, jealousy, greed and craving start to manifest again. Then it defeats the purpose of that so-called retreat or meditation training, right?

Sometimes, they may go on a spiritual trip (or a pilgrimage) and when they come back, they are supposed to have developed some form of spiritual understanding and cultivation. But the moment they are back, they go back to their old way. Then there is no meaning behind all you do while on such trips because you are not really cultivating. You are just thinking about the merits you can get while going on such spiritual trips. The desire for merits is a craving with the greed behind. So behind all these actions of yours is the evil root of greed; greed for merits. But if you understand that the principle of cultivation is to develop the spiritual faculty of faith so that when you are on such trips, your faith (or saddhā) can be strengthened, leading to the vīriya (or spiritual zeal) for you to plant the seed of Bodhi which is most important then you will progress because after that you can make the aspirations to walk the Bodhisattva way. And diligently, day in and day out, renew your vows until they become a part of you, until you fully understand; and that is real cultivation. Just like the monks who had renounced; they undertake the training rules to abstain from all those things and keep the 227 monk’s precepts. All these things, if you do them accordingly, you will become ever mindful. You will be destined for enlightenment. Cultivation is about cultivating the heart with understanding; constantly purifying, renewing your understanding, your faith, your virtue, your saddhā, vīriya and sati then stabilize it until it becomes Samadhi. Then via the direct seeing awaken to the truth which is wisdom.

When these spiritual faculties are so stable until they become balas or unshakeable, then they will become a part of your nature. Then you will become very different. Your meditation and cultivation will also become completely different. You are already heedful throughout the day naturally and meditation has become part of your nature. You don’t need to train anymore because the spiritual faculties will ensure that you will have the meditative mind in every moment and every instant. That’s the power of these spiritual faculties. That’s why within the 37 factors of enlightenment, the spiritual faculties are repeated. It occupies 10 out of the 37 and they are very important for progress. The spiritual faculties will allow you to understand spiritual teaching, will allow you to overcome the 5 mental hindrances, and will make you mindful, heedful on its own. The meditative mind will just manifest like that, no need to train, no need to do anything. Whatever posture you are in, you are always in the meditative state. That is real cultivation, okay? Now we shall move on.

We will go through the commentary. The first part we have covered.

Commentary:

Unless you rid yourself of sexual desire … - Should use just the word ‘desire’ instead of sexual desire’ as it’s more encompassing. …..you will never get out of the Triple World: the world of desire, the world of form, and the formless world.

Do you understand the meaning of these triple worlds? Yes, sensual world, the form world and the formless world. They are your kama loka, rūpa loka and arupa loka. They call it the 3 worlds. The first one is world of desire or the sensual realm which is kama loka. Then there is the world of form which is rūpa loka and Loka is world. Finally we have the arupa loka which is the formless world.

….“Contentment” means not being greedy.

This word is very important. You must have contentment. If you are contented with life and you are contented with the way things are or whatever that arise then you are at peace because to have contentment is to have wisdom. For according to the Buddha, contentment is the highest wealth. When you no longer need anything else, it means you are already wealthy. That’s the reason why contentment is the highest wealth. Contentment is wisdom. Without wisdom, you cannot be contented. You will always have craving and desire. We will read on.

“Contentment” means not being greedy. Dying of poverty, dying of starvation, no matter what’s the difficulty, you are never greedy.

This part is very meaningful. When you are in this world, going through life, you will experience many things. If you don’t take care of karma, what will happen to you? Just like those who are born in less fortunate conditions, such as war zones, famine areas or under developed areas where there is not enough food, proper shelter, proper medication etc. What will happen? You have heard of people starving to death because of under-nourishment, going through malnutrition. These are the people who are not so fortunate because of their karma born of their past actions. They don’t have the merits and the dana pāramī. That’s why they cannot receive any food while going through such harsh situations and they have no choice. You have to understand what hunger is, what famine is? All these people, sometimes they have to go without food for days. Sometimes water is also difficult to find because they are born in desert area, dry area.

We should count our own blessings and develop contentment. Because of our good karma, we are born with such favourable conditions, in such beautiful places and locations. When you look at our country, Malaysia it is considered a very blessed country; a land of abundance with a lot of opportunities but there are still people who are very poor and miserable. They are the ones who live below poverty line and it’s not to say that these people don’t receive aids but sometimes because of karma, they don’t have the conditions to receive them - not until when people highlight their conditions. Only after the newspaper, the press, the media or whatsapp highlight them, do they receive aids and help or something can be done. Malaysia is considered a blessed country, blessed with lots of wealth, resources, hardworking and talented people. So we should have this contentment and count our blessings and develop the joy when compared to those who are less fortunate. We are already blessed. We not only have all those basic needs of life, like food and shelter, etc. We also have our parents to raise us and provide for us. We have good conditions for education. And when we grew up and become financially successful, we have good family units, good children and good relationship with people and our loved ones. You cannot take all these for granted because these come about because of your good karmic inheritance and conditions; from the way you understand life and the way you have lived your life basing on that understanding.

This life you can have all these blessing is because in the previous sāsana you have also developed a lot of wholesomeness and goodness just like in this life. The question to ponder is what will happen when the sāsana is no more? Have you all contemplated and reflected into this matter? What will happen? That’s why you have to have this clear understanding to make the appropriate affirmation. With this condition, you should bring forth the deep clear understanding and resolve to vow and make the aspiration so that life after life whenever you come (whether there is sāsana or no sāsana), your nature will come with the bodhi mind planted, with the bodhi seed planted and properly nurtured with understanding. It will just manifest. Then you will know what to do. You will never get lost again and you will never have to go through the cycle of ups and downs, the karmic cycle. Then your progress will be all the way up based on right view and right understanding; based on all the beautiful conditions that you have planted. Then even without the Buddha sāsana, you will know how to come, how to cultivate and develop all these. Then when the next sāsana arise, your pāramī will bring forth the causes and conditions for you to manifest as beautiful beings to take across other beings, just like what happens when other great beings take you across.

Unless you have this understanding and determination to do all these, your future cannot be secured. Chances are during the dark ages (dharma-ending ages), your karmic nature may fall again, then this cycle of ups and down will continue for very long. Then you will have to wait till the next sāsana - provided this sāsana you have done something. But for most of you, most likely you all may have your past cultivation and this sāsana’s window can help you all achieve quite a lot of wholesomeness and good progress. What I want to advice is ‘don’t waste this window of opportunity.’ Make your determination now so that in future whether there is sāsana or no sāsana, your nature is beautiful. And this is what my nature wants to share with the beings of this civilization so that you can have this understanding and you can become beautiful too. Okay, we shall continue.

“Separate from wealth and beauty.” Do you see how clearly it says that you should not covet wealth, or the opposite sex, or fame? …..

This is Master Hsuan Hua’s explanation. He said ‘separate from wealth and beauty’ means don’t get involved. Maybe as a monk, yes but if you live a life of a layperson, you have to understand that the world is still the world. What they call wealth or money is not evil. Even beauty and good food, you can experience it. You can live life to the fullest to experience the pristine beauty and wonders of life. You can have them all if you have the understanding and the condition. You don’t have to separate from it. It’s just like money – it is not the source of all evil. Technology is also not the source of all evil. All these are part of nature’s condition and evolution. That’s why the Heart Sutra said that when you realize true emptiness, life can become wonderful, life can become meaningful and beautiful and all these are possible. So what you have read here is Master Hsuan Hua’s own commentary because his advice is based on his own understanding. We shall read on:

…..That is to be doubly complete, perfect in blessings and wisdom.

His focus is on cultivation which is very good but that part ‘to separate from all things’, it’s just the initial stage when you are under training. But the moment you have awakened, you can transcend duality and you will not be deceived by it, not be deluded by it. Then you can live in the world, like the lotus above the muddy lotus pond. It stands above but it is still connected to the pond. That’s why it can rise above and beyond. It will not be deceived or deluded by it nor attach or cling on to it anymore. But the world is still the world. Condition arising dharma still exists within the condition world. That’s why you must have the wisdom of both sides. Then you can live life beautifully.

We have this ‘form and mind’, which is subject to karma. This ‘form and mind’ of yours which is within the conditioned world is connected to your nature. If you have connected and liberated your mind via meditation it means you have developed the wisdom and chances are you have developed it via your past cultivation and inheritance. Then when you come, with this understanding and the vows, it will connect you to your nature pretty fast. Then this wisdom will unfold and when this wisdom is connected to the ‘form and mind’, it is no longer deluded and deceived. Then the user of this form and mind becomes beautiful.

That’s how you can understand life. That’s how it will enable you to live life to the fullest and that is the true dharma - not to be one-sided, not to just avoid all these things. Avoiding evil is correct. Money, as I had said is not evil. Wealth is not evil. It’s only evil when the user of it is evil. So that part you have to understand. Avoiding all evil means avoiding all evil actions but not the thing you call money and wealth. There is no definition of it as evil because it depends on the user, just like the ‘form and mind’. How can you say all ‘form and mind’ are deluded? If the wisdom is connected to it, then the ‘form and mind’ is enlightened but it’s not you. That’s why you will know how to use it, for the good of the many and to be a blessing to all. You cannot just by a stroke of a pen say all ‘form and mind’ are deluded. There is no such thing. Like our Sister Keat Hoon at our recent Cameron Highlands retreat said, “Isn’t it human nature to be deluded?” When I heard her said that, I understand because she was approaching it from a layperson’s view-point. It’s nothing to do with human nature; it’s a human condition. When there is avijjā (ignorance) you will become like that but to her it’s like human nature, or second nature. No! That’s why, there is such a thing as an enlightened ‘form and mind’, an enlightened being. We shall go on.

Commentary:

“States of defilement” here refers to all social and political situations. You should not be moulded by the society, but rather transform it. Teach living beings; do not be taught by them.

This one is true when you have the wisdom, when you are already enlightened. But when you are also deluded and you teach human beings, you will get yourself into trouble.

Once, when I noticed that one of my students had been talking on the phone for over an hour, I asked her what she was doing. “I’m trying to convert my boyfriend to Buddhism,” she said.

Wow, this one is a very good answer, a very classical one. Then Master Hsuan Hua replied.

“Really? What is he now?” “He’s a Catholic,” she said.

“Be careful and make sure he doesn’t convert you.” I said. “His belief in Catholicism is firm.

Take care that he doesn’t take you across!”

Sure enough, not long afterward she ran off. Now what she believes, whether she saved others or was saved by them, is unknown.

So this is just Master Hsuan Hua’s example.

The non-defilement of the self-nature is called “the honoured among the multitudes.” Living beings are all defiled. If you wish to be an exceptional individual, you must leave desire behind. To separate yourself from desire is to be a great hero and true student of the Buddha dharma. Unless you correct your faults, what little Buddha dharma you do know is useless.

Correcting your faults is constantly acknowledging your delusion, your evil roots of greed, hatred and delusion. Okay, we have finished the commentary part. Do you have any questions? Is there anything that you would like me to clarify? We can stop here for today at page 240. Today’s session is quite easy to understand. It’s just about refuge taking and about cultivation and all those related things. The only thing you have to pay attention to is the finer points of cultivation. Just raise your hand if you have any questions? Yes, Sister Mindy?

Sister Mindy: Brother Teoh, my question is not related to today’s teaching. Actually I was listening to your dharma recording. In one of your talks on consciousness (the conscious and the sub-conscious mind) - do we need to know that at our current level of cultivation?

Bro. Teoh: Later on in your cultivation you will go through a transformation stage where your mindfulness or awareness will become so stable that you can have that state of awareness within your nature that is able to be aware of your subconscious and unconscious mind states even while you are sleeping. If you can do that you are already very good; you would have progressed very far in your cultivation. But don’t worry about that because this ability is not the normal training for normal people. To reach that ability, you must have a very unique and very profound and deep past cultivation. Then only can you have such ability. Then during this life when you come, you will connect to your true nature and inherit your past cultivation early thus enabling you to have such ability after stabilizing your understanding. Then your mundane mind will collapse and your true nature will shine forth. Then your ability to be aware becomes very stable and very natural. Only those types of beings can be aware of the subconscious and the unconscious creations from moment to moment.

But for normal living being, maybe you can maintain some form of mindfulness and understanding too. You can recall or recollect what you go through while you are asleep. You may not have the ability to be aware inside and you cannot follow your subconscious release (via dream states etc.) because you don’t have the stability of the true mind to go inside. But you can recall through memory. As you go through the dream state, the subconscious is released and you can recall some of them. Then you will come to understand why this type of dream arises? Why not other type of dreams? Sometimes the images that come out don’t seem to be connected at all. Then very fast it transforms, transforms and transforms. You will come to know and to understand that these are the subconscious releases and some of the unconscious releases because of attachment. When you reach the stage whereby you get very little of all these subconscious and the unconscious releases, it will become more and more clear to you because by then your sleep and all those releases will become like very fine and very light. It’s like you don’t really have any movement inside but then once a while you can still go into the unconscious or the subconscious mind states. Then within that there are these releases and you will see them arising as dream states because you have some form of memory when they arise. When they arise and you reflect back, you will come to know what they are. Then you will be able to check and come to realize that they are due to your attachment in daily life. These are the subtle attachments that are still there. Not rooted out as yet.

When this subtle one also goes, then finally it will be like normal again, like nothing inside. Then everything is like very still, nothing and no movement at all. It’s just like the calm sea, no wave, nothing. Then as you go deeper into your cultivation, you will start to experience the stillness, the silence. It’s like in the deeper part of the ocean or the deeper part of the lake where the surface wave or, even the very calm surface waves also no more because these surface waves even though relatively calm and mild, still have their movements. But as you go deeper there is no movement at all, no activity at all. So stability of mindfulness, awareness and the true mind is more or less the same. When the superficial mind is no more (especially after the mundane mind has collapsed), then all these gross images and mind states will cease. Then even in your daily life, there is no more of this mundane mind creating mental activities and thinking - absolutely nothing. It’s just the clear nature shining forth. All these, you will come to experience them, as you go through the cultivation. It may take some time, so don’t worry. As it happens, as it transforms, your nature will know, your ‘form and mind’ will also know. Okay, Sadhu for the very good question. Let us rejoice. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu! (Note: She was listening to an earlier recording hence the question.)

Last Thursday’s talk was also very good because there were two new people and I explained the 5 mental hindrances and the 5 spiritual faculties differently (via a different approach). Then somebody asked a question and I answered her with a question: “Do you know the differences between – ‘you are conscious of life but you are not aware of life’? “

Human beings are conscious of life but they are not aware within the moment, hence they are not aware of life. To be conscious and to be aware are 2 totally different things. The moment you wake up, you are already conscious, right? You are conscious of your environment, your body etc. You are conscious of many things but you are not aware within. You are conscious with heedless thinking. You are usually too busy thinking, planning and most of the times, worrying about life so much so, you never really live life. You are never with the moment, with silence inner awareness to experience the reality of the moment; the great pristine, beauty and wonders of life within the moment. Your mind just cannot be quiet, cannot be silent. The moment you wake up, you start to think, you start to recall what you are supposed to do. Sometimes, your tactile consciousness and other types of sense door consciousness will trigger off the mental activity and thinking. And most of the time, you are not aware at all. To cultivate is to be heedful, - constantly meditative and ever mindful. That’s why this mindfulness has to be very stable. Not until you can develop that stability of mindfulness, you have yet to develop the real meditation.

All those formal meditation you do - whether while in a retreat or at any meditation way places, they are mostly just conditioned mind states that make you calm, make you more peaceful, let you experience some fantastic meditative mind states or manifestations of mind. Most people don’t even get to experience that. Most people in fact experience a lot of pain, a lot of what you call mental suffering. It’s like a torture to them. They force themselves to sit through all the discomfort, pain and numbness, the itchiness and the restlessness of mind; with all the mental hindrances. Yet they dare not tell people. Sometimes they try not to even move. Even when they want to release the gas or fart, they are also very embarrassed and scared. All these are happening because they don’t know what meditation is? They think everybody sits, so they must also sit. Everybody doesn’t talk, doesn’t move, they must also not talk and not move. But inside the mind, psychologically there are a lot of negativities, a lot of unhappiness, and a lot of suffering.

Then sometimes you force yourself to sit through or you go into concentration or one-pointedness of mind via methods and techniques, then you will experience some form of peace and calmness. Then the pain seems to go off for a while. Then you thought you have progressed, you thought you were very good and you tried to talk about it, “Wah, I experienced the formless mind because my body is missing; I cannot feel my body.” Let’s say you get to experience all these, so what? Does it give you any understanding or wisdom? Does it allow you to see your defilements to understand the essential dharma? Have you transformed? Chances are you do not have any of these. Even the enlightenment factor is also not there, the right view is also not there. What meditation is, you also don’t understand. You don’t even know what sati is? You also don’t understand the spiritual faculties. All these you also don’t understand and yet you said you meditate. That’s why if you do all these without understanding, you become gullible and it’s very difficult for you to progress. That’s the reason why I have been emphasizing and sharing with you all for the past few months - the importance of having a clear understanding of what is the meditation as taught by the Buddha?  You have to listen to it attentively and then write it out so that you are more focus when it comes to developing the meditation with understanding. Then you make sure you understand all these and put them into practice with understanding.

Phase one of the dharma cultivation is just to understand the teaching via Pariyatti, which is the learning of the teaching. Then when you have developed the clear understanding, you put it into practice. That is phase two, Paṭipatti. Unless you understand it very clearly, it’s very difficult for you to put into practice. Then you will not know or understand what you are doing in the name of meditation because you have become gullible and you think by doing all these is meditation – i.e. by going to retreat, sit there, don’t move or do the noting, walking, sitting and bowing, etc.

As long as you don’t have clear understanding, technically, you are actually wasting your time because the real cultivation when you do with proper understanding, will lead to very fast progress. You will understand it very beautifully and you will have a lot of joy and when your 5 spiritual faculties had stabilized, you will come to understand that the whole of meditation is not what you think, it is completely different, - leading you to the daily mindfulness cultivation. When you start to see all those things clearly and awaken to the characteristics of nature, then you will come to a clear understanding that all these are not what the books say or what people tell you earlier on.

It is through your own self-cultivation, self-realization that brings forth the understanding and that is the real cultivation; which is just to develop the silent mind, which is the meditative mind in sati or awareness leading to the Samadhi to insight into phenomena (Vipassanā insight) via the cultivation of the four foundations of mindfulness. You have to go through and experience them all. Only then can you understand the nature of the true mind, the meditative mind, and how meditation using this true mind can translate into wisdom and awakening via the direct seeing. This is the summary part of the cultivation and hopefully with this understanding, more and more kalyāṇamittas can develop the cultivation with clear understanding.

You all have improved a lot in the actual sense of the word. But in the spiritual sense of the word, true progress demands deeper understanding which is beyond just the superficial essential dharma understanding. You all may see the importance of this teaching and the danger of not cultivating according to this understanding but the difficult part is to put into practice, all those essential dharma like the 4 right efforts, the 4 foundations of mindfulness, the training of the mind to develop the 5 spiritual faculties until they become very stable, until you are mindful most of the time throughout the day is the difficult part. The moment you start to do that, you will progress very fast and you will become very different.

Even the noble 8-fold path cultivation will become different. You will start to reflect and contemplate via the first turning and the second turning of the first path factor, which is right view (the three types of right views). After that you put them into practice. Then all the essential dharma will become very clear and meaningful to you.

Then with the initial understanding of the teaching of what constitutes evil, how to avoid evil, and how to develop the mindfulness to be aware of evil, you can then reflect and contemplate deeper into what actually constitutes evil, especially the subtle evil that you are unable to see before this via the direct seeing and how your 5 mental aggregates of ‘form and mind’ actually arise and pass away following the Law of Dependent Origination. That is true meditation. That is the one you need to go in and develop. That understanding, no one can teach you. Just like what the Buddha said, ‘he can only show you the way and you have to walk the path yourself.’

You have to cultivate yourself. You have to realize and awaken yourself. Then the 3rd right effort, is to cultivate the right thought, right speech, right action which are still not in you. Develop the understanding of what constitutes right thought, right speech and right action. Then how you can arise that right effort to do it so that it can become a living reality – part of your character and personality; so that when you live life, when you communicate with people, when you arise your thoughts, when you develop pure actions in life, you have this understanding and you have the embodiment of all these understandings then your right effort to cultivate them can really materialize until they become a part of your nature, until automatically you become like that. You are incapable of evil, and then everything you do is with understanding, wisdom, wholesomeness, virtue, contentment and respect. All these have become your second nature. These are the virtues that you have developed and you understand that it is not worthwhile to violate all these nature’s laws. Then finally the 4th and last right effort is to refine upon and perfect what you have already developed. That is the perfection of virtues, leading finally to the perfection of the 10 pāramitās to become a sammā Sambuddha. That one, even bodhisattvas also have to do, do for very long because you have to refine upon and perfect them. Like dana pāramī, you have to perfect it. Then you need wisdom to perfect it, the 3 stages. Then you need to perfect the pāramitā of mettā or love, then that of vīriya and the rest like khanti (patience), adhiṭṭhāna (self-determination or affirmation) and so forth.

There are a lot more you can develop when you have taken the Bodhisattva’s vow. The 4 basic vows of the Bodhisattva can help you perfect all these things. You will have the contentment and all the other virtues. The first vow is to enable you to develop love and compassion. The second vow is to help you develop renunciation and contentment. Your ability to endure and severe all suffering means you have renunciation and contentment. To have renunciation is to have wisdom. To have contentment is to have wisdom. Then after that, the 3rd basic vow leads to the perfection of wisdom via realizing and penetrating all dharma. After that, your cultivation will become very different. Then the 4th basic vow can be fulfilled via your ability to renounce samsara at the 4th stage of the Bodhi mind development or Bodhisattva hood training. Then when you have perfected the 4th stage, you will realize the 5th stage, which is the consummate stage, which means you have perfected the 10 pāramitās. Then Buddha hood can be realized which means you can have the same nature as the other sammā Sambuddha. We will stop here and you can have your 30 minutes of meditation.

{Ting! X3…} Okay, for those who still want to meditate, you can continue. For those who have enough, you may slowly and mindfully come out of the meditation. Try to maintain whatever inner peace, inner calmness and inner mindfulness that you have developed for as long as you can. These are the mind states that you have trained. You need to use these trained mind states which are your spiritual faculties, especially sati (mindfulness), to cultivate your daily mindfulness. To be able to be in this state of awareness via the silent mind in sati throughout the day most of the time (whenever you are awake) is a very important aspect of the daily mindfulness training.

3.2.2.  Meditation Reporting and Q&A

Now we will have the meditation reporting session. You can raise your hand to ask any meditation question or report your meditation and I will help you to develop the understanding.

Sister Mindy: Brother Teoh, I understand that during my daily practice, I just need to silent my mind.

Brother Teoh: Yes, just relax; maintain silence then just aware and let whatever happens arises. The awareness will understand.

Sister Mindy: How can I contemplate more on the 12 links of the law of dependent origination?

Brother Teoh: You should come out of the formal meditation then only you do the contemplation. You don’t contemplate during the meditation. When you are doing the meditation, if you try to contemplate, you will cause the thought to arise. This is where a lot of cultivators fail to understand. When you are meditating, you just relax and maintain silence. Unless you can develop the stability of silence until it is so stable and clear - such that when something happens, you can reflect on it and contemplate on it to develop the understanding. But while you are in the formal meditation, don’t do it. When you do it, you are not in the meditative state anymore because that is the active mode of contemplation. That one you should only do when you are out of the formal meditation.

Let’s say you go for a walking meditation; just relax and be in silent awareness. Then you stop somewhere, like while in the Cameron Highlands retreat; you can either walk down towards the staircase or go out to the monastery’s vicinity. You can also walk up to the hilltop or any place that is quiet and you can just look at nature. Then whatever that arises from your nature, just reflect and contemplate. If you want to go through the 4 noble truths; the first noble truth, the first turning, you contemplate and reflect. Then sometimes you can also sit on a bench somewhere quiet, and during that time you can silent your mind and just contemplate. When you contemplate, you just throw the inquiry out - whatever you want to understand like the first noble truth of dukkha. Why did the Buddha say birth, old age, sickness and death are suffering? Separation from love ones, prized possessions and all the things we hold on to dearly is suffering? To be with people whom we don’t like is suffering? When we can’t get what we want, when things don’t go our way, when our expectations in life are not met, also lead to suffering. Then in short, the final summary, etc. - all these you can reflect and contemplate.

It depends on which one you choose, like birth. Why did the Buddha say birth is suffering? Then you can recall to mind, via mindfully recollecting what the birth process is like? You cannot recall your own birth because you were too young. Then as a mother you can recall how you gave birth to your child. Then before you gave birth, what other things you experienced during the conceiving and confinement stages? Then as you reflect and contemplate, these reflection and contemplation will give rise to an understanding. They call this the recollection phase.

As you recollect, you mindfully go through the birth process. Then all of a sudden, you can recall during that time, you had a lot of pain, morning sickness, vomiting and other side effects of pregnancy. Then sometimes, you have to see the doctor, you have to go for follow-up. As the pregnancy develops, as the baby or the foetus grows, it starts to kick you and give you a lot of other discomfort. Your movement becomes affected as the baby grows, as your womb develops and expands, etc. You recollect all the stages leading to the birth itself. Whatever you can recollect via memory, can help you develop the understanding. Then suddenly you will understand: ‘no wonder the Buddha said that birth is suffering because there is so much suffering that comes with birth.’

After the baby is born, the baby will experience old age, sickness and death and this will lead to suffering. This is the reality; this is the dharma. Then as the baby is born, there is attachment to it: the mother, the parents, the grandparents, and those who have relationship with the child. Then if anything were to happen to the child, the parents and their loved ones will worry for them, and that is attachment leading to suffering. Then when there are complications during birth, it will lead to more suffering. All these, you will start to understand, then you will reflect deeper and further on why the Buddha said ‘this suffering is to be understood under the second turning of the first noble truth.’ The 1st turning of the first noble truth is just the proclamation of truth by the Buddha then the 2nd turning inquiry should be why the Buddha said - birth is suffering? If you have gone through these reflection and contemplation, you will understand why. If you don’t reflect and contemplate you cannot understand the birth process, how it brings about suffering. Then why suffering is to be understood, you have to inquire deeply; why the Buddha said that. If you don’t understand what suffering is, it means when you are caught in suffering you still don’t know that is suffering because you cannot see the attachment. You cannot see how the outcome of birth leads to all these sufferings. As you reflect and contemplate via the second turning, you will develop the understanding to confirm what the Buddha said is very true. Birth is indeed suffering because birth is part of the human condition for the physical form goes the way of nature. You will then come to understand another reality: that these birth, old age, sickness and death are the realities of life and existence. And each and every living being has to experience and confront all these realities when the time comes, if you live long enough. If you have the conditions to confront them and if you confront them without wisdom, you will attach, you will cling, you will grasp, and you will develop the suffering: fear, worry and anxiety and then you will understand how the mind gets itself entangled.

The cause of suffering is attachment, clinging, grasping, thinking that this child really belongs to you, the atta (ego) etc. In reality it’s only a form and mind like yours. The form goes the way of nature and is made up of the 4 elements. The 4 elements are the physical element called Pathavi (or solidity, the hardness and the softness of the form) then the wind element, Vāyo, (like our breath, our pulse of life, and whatever vibration that is within our body); then you have the heat element, which is Tejo. Then you have the water element Apo. Then you realize that these 4 elements are part of nature and their states will fluctuate and they are interchangeable.

When you have excessive heat, you will have fever and you will have problems. When you have too little heat, you will be affected by the weather condition, the external factor because of the climate. When the weather is very cold, very chilly, it will cause your temperature to drop and you will feel the instability within that element. This will lead to suffering in the form and the consciousness that is trapped inside will experience all these. Then without the consciousness, without attachment, you will realize that the elements just go the way of nature.

That’s why when you cultivate kayanupassana’s last category of practice which is the 9 stages of cemetery decomposition - when the form is devoid of consciousness or when the consciousness has come out then this body’s 4 elements (which go the way of nature), it will decay. Then there is no more feeling, no more perception, no more activity of mind or mental states and no more consciousness. That’s why you cannot feel anymore. There is no suffering because there is no more mind to develop the attachment and the suffering. You will understand without the mind, there is nothing. Then you move onto the understanding of the mind. You can then check: Is feeling really me? Are perceptions really me? Are the mental states of mind, mental activities or whatever saṅkhāra that arise really me? Because when they arise and pass away did you die; this nature never dies, so how can they be you? They arise and pass away because they are conditioned arising dharma hence impermanent and not you.

If you attach and cling to feelings, to perception, to mental state, views, opinions and your conditioning, you will suffer. Even when you are attached to consciousness you will also suffer. Then you will come to realize that the final summary as proclaimed by the Buddha is so true. It’s attachment that conditions suffering.  So this part is on contemplation. Then you can move into the other realities of the 1st Noble Truth, the second noble truth, third noble truth, and the fourth noble truth. Again you can go for the first turning, second turning, which is the contemplation and the third turning, which is the meditation because when you really meditate, the wisdom that arises is bhāvanā-maya panna; wisdom borne of bhāvanā, which is the meditative training or the meditation itself. It doesn’t involve the thought or any contemplation. It’s just the silent mind that is aware. It will awaken to the universal characteristics of all phenomena. That’s why you must be aware of the 4 foundations of mindfulness. The first foundation is kāyānupassanā where you first train your mind in ānāpānasati to develop sati then after that you are ready to move on to cultivate the mindfulness of the 4 bodily postures followed by the mindfulness of all your movements in the present moment and that is the daily mindfulness or mindfulness and clear comprehension cultivation. When you develop this, you are cultivating the third turning. You will insight into phenomena, the 3 universal characteristics of impermanence, suffering state and non-self or empty nature.

When you have that initial understanding, then you will start to have an understanding of why Buddha said that the 5 aggregates of form and mind are impermanent leading to suffering. Hence, non-self, empty, not me! That is the beginning of the cultivation of no mark, no mark of a self. If you don’t even exist, how can others exist? That’s why no mark of others, no mark of your loved ones and all those things. Then there is no reality, no mark of a life. Everything is dependent originating; condition arising and just a causal phenomena - a phenomenal world of consciousness: mind-made are they, hence no reality. Then when this understanding deepens as you silent your mind to awaken to their universal characteristics you will become different. After that you can reflect and contemplate until your understanding becomes very clear and stable. Then in the midst of your daily life, as you continue to be silent, aware and mindful; all of a sudden one day, you will come upon an insight that will allow you to understand deeply and clearly the 3 universal characteristics. That is all of a sudden, you will awaken to these 3 universal characteristics because everything is just the way it is.

All phenomena be they physical, mental or nature’s phenomena, exhibit these characteristics. Then you will start to understand that truth is everywhere - in the midst of life and nature, the universal characteristics of impermanence, suffering and non-self or empty nature characteristics are everywhere. This is the truth, the reality - which is everywhere in the midst of life and nature. Why can’t you see?  For those who see, the enlightened ones, they always see. Ah, that is the final awakening leading to liberation of mind from all bondage.

When you have that understanding after the awakening, it means your mindfulness is already very stable. Then in the midst of life and nature, the characteristics of nature are everywhere, so clear, so vivid, and so beautiful. And that will allow you to further develop the contemplative wisdom until this understanding becomes very stable. Then there is no more doubt. That’s how you liberate your mind. When there is no more doubt, you would have at least cleared the first stage of sainthood, which means the first 3 fetters that bind living beings to this world are already severed. There are a total of 10 fetters.

The first one is self-delusion. The second is rites and rituals; you won’t believe in all these anymore because you have understood that there is no permanent unchanging entity within the form and mind that we can call, “this is ‘me’, this is ‘I’, and therefore all these can be mine“. Then even if people were to tell you, “After you die, you will become what and what….” You will know that there is no such thing because this is only a ‘form and mind’, hence not me and no reality. This form and mind is never me because there is no more self-delusion. You won’t believe in rites and rituals and you will not be gullible anymore. The third fetter is your faith in the teaching, the Triple Gem, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; it will become unshakeable because by then the understanding is already so clear. Nature’s laws, the existential law and all of the 5 universal orders will also become very clear to you. That’s why you will have no more doubt and your faith will be unshakeable.

And you will come to understand that the Triple Gem with the teachings of the 4 Noble Truths is the secret of life. You will understand them; you will have no more doubt in this teaching because it’s all about truth, the 4 Noble Truths. These 4 Noble Truths is a universal truth because the moment you understand them, you can become enlightened. It’s like the secret of life. When you understand the secret of life, you know how to live life, and then you are not deluded or deceived by the form and mind anymore because you know this is not you but only a karmically conditioned form and mind or ‘vehicle and tool’ for you to come to this existential world.

Likewise, all other living beings are the same. For everything is dependent originating, conditioned arising and a causal phenomenon. All these will become very clear to you. So when you meditate during formal meditation, don’t contemplate but when you come out of it, you can contemplate. Sometimes, like I said, if within that silent formal meditation, all of a sudden something happen, then you can decide to come out of it to reflect and contemplate on it. If that is the case, even while in the meditative state, you can also reflect and contemplate provided you can do it mindfully, then no problem. But you have to be very clear about the conscious decision that you have made and you can be mindful of what you are doing. If you decide to contemplate, then you are not meditating; you reflect and contemplate to develop a deeper understanding of what has happened. But the things you want to contemplate must be from the 4 Noble Truths because contemplation is about the 2nd turning of the first, second, third or fourth noble truth. These are the cultivation processes. So don’t worry.

When you are in the formal meditation, just relax, be silent and maintain awareness of body and mind. Formal meditation is to train the heedless thinking mind until it is very quiet to realize the silent mind, then to make it very stable. Then when you come out of it, all these movements, your mindfulness, your awareness is like magnified. The slightest movement is like magnified into a very big movement. Even the subtle breathing will become very clear to you. When your mindfulness has become very stable and when it has become a part of you, it means your mind has entered sati, you mind is already in sati. This stability of mindfulness donates that your 3rd spiritual faculty of sati has been stabilized and established. And when the mind is in sati, even when you come out of the formal meditation, that mind is always aware of all the movements and activities. It’s very clear. Then all these movements will be like magnified. Even when you sit, the subtle breathing and movements are like magnified. You are very calm, peaceful and very still because your passaddhi (tranquillity of mind) is already established and always there.

As you come out of the meditation and go into life, you will come to realize that every moment of hearing you are in sati. Every contact, the moment of smell, taste, tactile you are very mindful and always in sati. Then every moment of seeing, the mind is in sati. That’s why you can see things as they are. The specific phenomena awareness and the spacious awareness without a center, has become a part of your nature because of that stability of mindfulness. When your mind is in sati, everything you do in life you are aware. So you don’t have to learn to be aware. You only need to train until it is very stable and until that stability has become part of your nature, which means mindfulness has been developed and stabilized until your mind has entered sati.

When your mind enters sati, technically, you no longer need an object of meditation. You don’t need to train this mind anymore because this mind is already trained. It’s just like playing badminton, or learning cooking or running, swimming or any game you are good at; if you have trained until you are so skilful, you don’t need to train anymore because it has already become a part of you and you just know how to execute it and it’s always spontaneous, without thought. It has becomes so graceful, so easy, just like the case of badminton; you will know how to return the shot naturally. The only thing lacking is whether you have the stamina to do it or not. But with mindfulness it doesn’t need that much stamina. The moment you are silent without thought you are already mindful. And mindfulness when developed continuously will become power. It has the ability to develop wisdom and understanding. And mindfulness will develop a very strong mind state that is very different because this mind is just aware. It can insight into phenomena and understand many things. It can see things as they are. It can give rise to wisdom.

Mindfulness by itself has nothing inside there. It’s just an awareness state that arises when the mundane mind doesn’t stir, when there is no interference from the thought process. So all these, as you go through your cultivation, you will start to understand. But to understand until that stability where you can share and teach is not easy. It will take a while. So don’t worry. Initially, after you have connected and awakened, it’s like you still don’t know anything. Then you may try to remember what you have understood. But don’t do that, don’t try to remember anything. The moment you are awakened, the understanding is already there, connected to the form and mind. It won’t disappear unless the form and mind die. When it’s there, every time you encounter something, the understanding will manifest. It will know what to do. It’s not knowledge anymore. It’s not from memory. It just understands by itself. Okay? Sadhu to you for arising such good conditions for me to share all these rather beautiful teaching. Does anybody else want to report your meditation so that I can advise you on how to develop it further? Where is Brother Chin How? Has he gone back? He texted me a question from Sister Sandra Chan of Singapore and Sandra would like her question answered in the class.

Sister Sandra: Bro. Teoh, I have challenges like everyone else. I still have a lot of āsava and saṅkhāra. Your book, “Knowing and seeing” has helped to point out the way for me to overcome them. The mundane mind is very active especially in my workplace and during meetings. When the mind is silent it can sees the 3 characteristics of nature.

Brother Teoh: She quoted what I said, “All is impermanent. More importantly is to take care of karma at all times.” Then she said, “It’s easy to say but to cultivate there are challenges.” See this is what I mean. You may think you know but cultivation is different.

Phase 1 of dharma is Pariyatti which is the understanding of the essential teaching. After you have understood the teaching, you must put it into practice under phase 2 of dharma which is Paṭipatti. You know you have to avoid evil and do good but how to avoid all evil? You have to keep the precepts. Are you doing it? How to keep the precepts? You must understand what constitutes precepts? Why do you keep these precepts? Then what constitutes evil? Those who violates the precepts they have the evil roots. That’s why you have to reflect on them and when you understand them, then only you can go deep into the understanding of the essential dharma of what constitutes evil, the 3 evil roots etc.  You have to expand on it. Then only can you develop the mindfulness to do it. All these need understanding and cultivation and cultivation or meditation needs to be done with understanding. I came to realize, a lot of cultivators never go into (or reflect and contemplate on) all these. So Sandra knew these are challenges. Then she continued.

Sister Sandra: I am tasked to manage a staff who has not been performing in his job. My management wants me to axe him but it is very difficult for me to do so. I have given tasks for the staff to do but he failed to do so. He still goes back to his old ways even though he has been put on performance improvement programme.

Brother Teoh: Sandra just mentioned all these. She didn’t ask specific questions. From the way she asked, I think what she wanted is some advice on how to deal with the staff she is supposed to take action on it.

You see, meditation is to train your mind, to develop the ability to meditate and to awaken to the truth so that you can realize the requisite wisdom and understanding to know who you are, what you are and to allow you to have the understanding to understand the secret of life, the 4 noble truths. And then from there you will know how to live life and this is what meditation is all about. This is what the dharma is all about. Without those understanding, it is very difficult for you to understand life and to live life; to apply what you have understood, to help you understand life, to help you overcome all of life sufferings and problems. So what she has brought up is a typical life problem - one of the challenges that she is facing in the office. How do you approach all these? Via the dharma way is very important. That’s why she herself realizes that when you develop the meditation, when you are silent, you can insight into the 3 universal characteristics of nature, then you will come to understand that these are the things you have to do but her challenges are that she doesn’t know how to go into it. So this is where her problem is.

If you cannot penetrate the dharma, it’s very difficult for you to apply the dharma. It’s like the chicken and egg story. Before you have the dharma, you still have to go through life, you still have problems and every time you have problems, what do you do, like her case? Of course, to seek advice is very important but seeking advice is like meditation. You don’t go and ask what must I do, do you understand? If you do that, you will never learn because you have not developed the understanding and cultivation as yet. So what people advise you is based on their understanding and cultivation. Then you will ask, ‘so in my case, what must I do?’

After putting this particular staff that has problems, in that performance improvement programme, he still has not changed and the management puts pressure on him to axe him. This is a very normal or common problem of society, right? But if you have the dharma you will know what to do and that’s the reason why I have to make the assumption and ask, ‘if you have the dharma, how will you act in such a situation?’ How would you deal with such a situation? You can act in the mundane way via getting angry. You want me to axe and you can say, ‘I will axe him, via giving him a ‘love letter’ and finish with it!’ But is that the way to act? If that is not the way to act, then how should you act?

Comment from a kalyāṇamitta: Identify the problem with the staff, whether there is weakness in his skill and attitude.

Brother Teoh: Yes, you can do that and that is analysis, do you understand? The mundane approach is to analyze. Let’s say you analyze, based on what? - based on your views and opinions of him. You are not going to solve the problem because it’s based on your views and opinions. Then you come out with an idea. This guy must change just like what Sandra did. But he continued to behave the way he is and he has not changed. Then she said he has a problem. If you perceive him with negativity, then it becomes a problem. Can you see this? The management wants you to axe him; they have already come to a conclusion. But you want to be fair to him. You try to give him a chance but the management is not going to give him a chance so you try your approach via telling him ‘you cannot do like that, you have to change for the better and you have to do it like this, or like that’. And all these are mundane approaches.

When you have the dharma you don’t do things that way anymore. That’s why you have to act differently. You have to act according to the noble 8-fold path with understanding and your approach will be different. Every condition is different. Everyone is different. I cannot advise you on how to act. You yourself have to reflect and contemplate on the teachings and use your own understanding to assess the ‘form and mind’. He is just the way he is. There are causes and conditions behind, and many other things involved, could be karmic too. That’s why it’s not a straightforward thing. There are a lot of possibilities involved. That’s why without that wisdom and understanding, you cannot act.

What she is trying to do is, to use the mundane mind to analyze, then through her views and opinions, she comes out with a solution or she may follow the company’s procedure and take action against this person. This is one of the probable approaches which normal living being will do or which society will do. But when you have the dharma it’s totally different and I cannot be specific here because there are not enough details. I don’t have enough information about that person and you cannot ask me question like before, “So Bro. Teoh, what must I do?” It’s like meditation, after I had explained the dharma part, then you asked me, “So, what must I do?”

You don’t want to investigate yourself and you don’t even want to understand what I had taught you – this will make you gullible, do you understand? Then if I were to give you an answer and you take my answer as what you perceive then I will become equally gullible. You may say, “Ya, Brother Teoh said not to care about him or just tell him off via giving him a warning, etc.” There is no meaning, right? This is something I cannot teach you because it’s the wisdom part where you have to develop your own understanding. You can approach it from the dharma way, like I used to explain. The Noble 8-fold path will lead to the end of all suffering so I act with Noble 8-fold path, then I will not suffer. So what is Noble 8-fold path? I am not acting from memory. I am not acting from my conditioning. I am not trying to analyze anything. He is just the way he is. These are the things that have happened already. So based on right views, there are causes and conditions behind, it’s mainly karmic. So it’s not about helping this person anymore unless there is condition to help. Then let him learn the dharma, advise him to ask for forgiveness, etc. and change following Noble 8-fold path. But this thing is not happening because this person that is involved in this karmic thing does not understand dharma and you are just a staff working there.

With this Noble 8-fold path, you have to act with the understanding that he is what he is and because of karmic conditioning, he becomes like that. So what I have to do is to arise the right thought. I have to have sympathy, love and compassion. Then I have to talk to this person. I have to be sincere and explain to this person via saying: “I have a duty to explain all these to you. Otherwise, the company is going to take action against you.” So this is the dharma part. This dharma part you must know how to express it via the right speech, the right action, the right way to attend to this thing and the right thought that you have to arise, meaning the love, the compassion and the understanding that I had explained just now. This can be one of the ways but it depends on that person. If that person has karmic negativity and is not listening, then there is not much point because you are just wasting your time. Then you have to approach it differently but it depends on his condition then. If he is willing to listen, because you had said it in such a way (following the right speech, right action and right thought), he will feel better. Just like how I started just now. You have to call him in a very friendly manner. Then explain to him this is a company that he is working in, and he has done something that is against the company Acts, rules or policies. Maybe he came to office late, or whatever job that was given to him, he didn’t even try his best, etc. I don’t know what the problem is, so I cannot be specific. I can only teach you how to apply the dharma.

So applying the dharma is very simple, approach him with right speech, right action and right thought and explain to him very nicely what’s happening because it is going to affect his future; his job is at stake, they may want to dismiss him if he continues his way, if he does not make an effort to change, if he doesn’t recognize that what he has done is not in accordance with the company rules and principles. If he tries to argue with you, then you have to explain to him, it’s not about right or wrong anymore. It’s not about you arguing with me anymore because I am tasked to review and explain to you what you have done and what the company is going to do to you. That’s it, finished. How you take it, is your decision because it involves you, your life, your career, your job, etc. So if you can explain to people in a very nice and easy to understand manner, then it’s like you are not taking action against him, you are not biased against him and you are not angry with him. You still treat him as your staff, like any other staff but because there is a condition involved, the company wants to take action and axe him. So you have to approach it with understanding so that there is no karmic negativity. You don’t get angry; you don’t have selfish intention behind what you do. You are not emotional. So greed, hatred and delusion are not there. You have the embodiment of the Noble 8-fold path. You have the right speech leading to right thought and right action. That is true action.

After you have applied the Dharma action with understanding, you can then advise him as follow, “They are willing to give you a chance. That’s why they put you on this performance programme. So if you can prove yourself to be otherwise, then there is a possibility that they will retain your service and give you a chance. Otherwise, there is nothing much we can do because this is a company policy.”

Always remember that if that person has karmic negativity to argue and quarrel with you, you have to maintain your understanding and composure, i.e. no more emotional negativity, no more wrong speech, wrong thought and wrong action. Just have to understand him and feel for him and talk to him in a very nice way via saying, “Yes I understand your condition is pretty difficult. You have a dilemma but you are not the only one affected. There are others who have to go through the same review. Only those who are willing to change can be given a second chance. Those who are not willing to change, the company has to take action and you may have to go. If you are not happy, you can go for arbitration or you can report to the industrial court and file for unfair dismissal. All these are your rights.”

You have to advise them this way so that they know their rights, and they know you have been sincere; you have been helpful and you have no selfish interest. You are not causing him fear. If you don’t know how to approach him, if you just give him a ‘love’ letter and then tell him off. Or if when he approaches you, and you just get angry and speak your mind; it’s not going to help. It will only create more misunderstanding and problems.

Life is just the way it is. People are different. Conditions are different but when you have the dharma, you will know how to act. So what I have shared with you is just the dharma part, the understanding part but if you have not cultivated or developed the training, you cannot arise that type of right thought, right speech, right action or the right understanding via right view. It’s very difficult to apply the dharma when you yourself have not developed the understanding, especially so if you have not cultivated it. Of course you can try. That’s why you have to start the cultivation by actually trying it out.

After you have heard what I had explained, you can start your cultivation but what is more important is unless you have developed the cultivation you cannot attend to and help solve these problems. You will also come to understand what I meant by everyone is different because conditions are always different. Just like meditation, you must understand what meditation is for you to have the ability to just meditate with understanding. Of course, you can ask for guidance. You can report your meditation so that I can advise you but you have to start the cultivation process.  As you do and encounter problems, you can ask, then I can advise you. But if you have not even done it, you just listen to theory then you ask a lot of questions and you are not interested in developing the understanding yourself via doing the actual cultivation, then no amount of questions can help you because every time people explain to you, you are not listening. You are trying to use your own knowledge to understand it or to counter it and to argue. You can continue to repeat all those things. It’s not going to free you but if you are willing to learn and listen attentively to understand the message and put it into practice and cultivate it, then you will develop the understanding. You will transform and progress.

These are more useful and more tangible advice. So hopefully with this you can develop clearer understanding to put in the hard work to develop the cultivation yourself. Just like meditation, if you understand what meditation is, you can put it to practice. If you understand life, you will know how to live life. Then you can deal with all these, which are normal life situations or problems. For these are the realities of life and existence. These are career related, realities. Career means involving your job, your work, your livelihood, etc.

We will stop here. It’s better for you all to write down your questions if you have any. You can ask but make sure you have done some cultivation before asking. Otherwise you can just report your meditation and I can guide you as to where you have gone wrong; I can also explain to you why when you do this so called meditation without understanding, you are being gullible and actually wasting your time.

Unfortunately and unknowingly, a lot of meditators just do all these noting, labelling, verbalizing, focusing and concentrating, etc. in the name of meditation thinking that they are meditating because they have never really understood the teaching and the message of the Buddha - especially on what is the meditation as taught by the Buddha? If you don’t understand what is the meditation as taught by the Buddha, you cannot start and you cannot put into practice. You need understanding to develop this type of meditation. As I have explained many times before you should inquire - why are you not peaceful? You have to understand the essential dharma; the 5 mental hindrances and the 5 spiritual faculties, then from there: the right view and the rest. Then you put them into proper structured flow charts by writing them down for you to go through it, reflect on it until it is very clear then only can you put into practice efficiently.

If you need to train the mind, then train it. If your spiritual faculties are still not there then develop them. You must have a clear focus and understanding of the teaching so that you know what to do while meditating. Then as you do the meditation according to understanding, you will progress. Don’t be influenced by what people say. Like, “Oh, they meditate that way and I must follow them.” If you do that it means you are being gullible and you don’t understand. You think their meditation is more superior. But what is that meditation? It’s just one of the methods and techniques; the usual noting and verbalizing type of thought based meditation. That is not meditation at all because methods and techniques, as you already know never define the meditation. All these doing will create more delusion because the thoughts are rather active and yet you can still become gullible. People may tell you, “If you use this technique or method to meditate you can progress very fast because that person who has taught this type of meditation is an enlightened person.” Then you lose your focus of what is meditation. You are more interested in what people tell you and you become gullible. Then you may say, “Oh, I think I must give it a try.” Then everything you try like good food, initially you find it interesting but after a while, what happens. When it is repeated, it’s no longer special. It’s no longer good to you anymore. That’s why you develop the same problem over and over again because you are chasing after method, technique, teacher and meditation and you meditate without understanding. This is not what the Buddha taught. What the Buddha taught are the essential dharmas. If you have understood the essential dharmas then you can relate to all these teachings that people have said to you.

They don’t understand. If they understand, they won’t teach that way. It’s as simple as that. So this part you really need to develop your own understanding. Understand it clearly; make sure you write it down. If you can write it down and express it very clearly based on what has been taught then you can apply it by putting it into practice via phase 2 of the dharma which is paṭipatti. After pariyatti (phase 1 of the dharma), you go on to the cultivation which is Paṭipatti. Then you will progress very fast. You will be amazed at how fast you progress and how fast you can understand the teaching. What you do now is completely different from what other people do because you no longer rely on those traditional methods, techniques and so called gullible thought-based teaching to meditate.

You just do what you have to do base on your understanding of the essential dharma. If you need to train the heedless thinking mind, then train it via any skilful means that you are familiar with. After that, use it (the trained mind) to meditate because these are the spiritual faculties that you have developed. The most important spiritual faculty is sati. You have to stabilize it. For saddhā, and vīriya, you have to contemplate to develop them whereas, for sati you have to do the daily mindfulness and the bowing etc. to establish and stabilize it. After you have developed some form of stability of sati in your daily life, then you have to stabilize it in the formal meditation. That’s why you do the lying down and formal sitting meditation. Just relax, silent and aware, let whatever arise to just arise. Do not try to resist or suppress or control them. If you find your legs are hurting you when age catches up, then sit on a chair, a couch or just lie down. Then develop the posture that you are most comfortable with to meditate. If you are using Ānāpānasati (mindfulness of the in and out breathe) to stabilize your sati then you have to relax into it and let it develop until it is very stable. This stabilizing of sati is very important. You have to stabilize it until the breathing becomes very subtle. Until the object of meditation which is the breath becomes so quiet and so subtle like there is no more movement. This is the mind entering passaddhi. When you have reached this stage of tranquillity of mind, stillness of mind, the silent mind will arise, then don’t do anything. Just silent everything and relax into it, while maintaining the awareness within. Then the mind will finally enter sati. That is the mind that can be mindful in the midst of life. That is the mind that can develop the daily mindfulness.

You are supposed to develop the meditation with all these understanding and not to do all the other thought based things like noting, verbalizing, focusing, concentrating, chasing after nimitta, Jhānas, nana etc. thus deviating. Even the mantra chanting is the same; it is just for you to develop the faith (saddhā), vīriya and the sati or mindfulness. After the sati has stabilized and become passaddhi, technically the object of meditation is no longer required and you don’t have to hold on to it anymore then you just silent your mind and don’t do anything. You chant until that chanting and the awareness become one. Until no one is chanting. The chanting can manifest by itself through your subconscious and unconscious mind states. Then your mindfulness and awareness is just with it. That will stabilize your mindfulness. Doing it is just like doing the lying down meditation to stabilize your awareness. Then throughout the day you will have this, “阿弥陀佛 (Amítófó), 阿弥陀佛,…..” chanting arising - But it is not you chanting. It’s the awareness that is aware of the chanting. The chanting will come out by itself. Then you have to inquire who is chanting the Buddha’s name, 谁在念佛 (shuí zài niàn fó)? In fact there is nobody chanting.

The Buddha is in your heart, 佛在心头 (fó zài xīn tóu); it’s within your true mind. Only the awareness is aware of the chanting and there is nobody chanting. You will come to realize that - it’s exactly what the Buddha teaches. So this true mind is to be realized. This clarity has to be very stable. Then only can you be mindful in the midst of life itself. That’s the daily mindfulness leading to the real meditation; the beginning of the real satipaṭṭhāna practices. If you cannot do that and need to rely on formal sitting to have some form of good meditative experiences and stability of mindfulness then you can forget about doing it right. If you don’t believe, you can try it out. You can repeat this for many lives yet it’s not going to transform you unless you have cultivated in your past life before. Then you will know how to release the concentration energy and go back to the daily mindfulness practices. End of the day it is the daily mindfulness practices and nothing else. If you cannot be heedful in the midst of life via daily mindfulness then you don‘t stand a chance because according to dhammapada verse 21 of the Buddha, ‘The heedless are as if dead.’

3.3  Closing

Now you can rejoice, Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

We will do the sharing and transference of merits. After that you can pay respects to all the great beings and worthy ones, then we end.

Table of Contents

46th Lesson of the Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra

White Board Note of 46th Lesson of Sixth Patriarch Platform Sutra

Biodata of Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

1. Preface

2. Acknowledgement

3. 46th Lesson Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra dated 14th May 2017

3.1. Pūjā

3.2. Dharma Sharing By Bro. Teoh

3.2.1 Chapter VI Repentance and Reform (page 236)

3.2.2. Meditation Reporting and Q&A

3.3 Closing