Bro Teoh’s 14th Oct 2018 Sunday class

Outline short notes for Sunday class dated 14^th Oct 2018

Brother Teoh’s transcript book: Cultivating the Bodhisattva Way, pages 12-22

1. There are 5 stages of Bodhi mind development leading to Buddhahood.

2. The first stage is to plant the seed of Bodhi, i.e. to determine with strong faith and sincerity to plant the seed of Bodhi to arise the Bodhi mind to walk the Bodhisattva way to realize Buddhahood (in front of the Triple Gem).

3. Bodhisattva consists of two words, Bodhi means enlightened and Sattva refers to the living being. So a Bodhisattva is an Enlightened being walking the Bodhisattva way to realize Buddhahood.

4. There is a misunderstanding that one cannot be an Arahant if one has taken the Bodhisattva vow but that is not true because Arahant is part of the path before reaching the Bodhisattva level.

5. The Bodhisattva path is beyond the Arahant level, i.e. it is much more comprehensive and complete. The Arahant level is likened to a handful of leaves whereas the Bodhisattva path is likened to the leaves in the forest.

6. Not all who has taken the Bodhisattva vows will successfully complete the path.

7. After taking the Bodhisattva vows, our cultivation will be very clear and very different from the sainthood way because our faith and understanding of the cultivation/way are already very different. It will become more refined each time we come back in a form and mind to develop our cultivation to perfect both our spiritual and karmic natures. The path will be easier to walk with each subsequent life’s added experiences.

8. It is the form and mind which becomes enlightened but the form and mind is not you.

9. The 3 sets of pure precepts of the Bodhisattva are more elaborate aspects of the Buddha’s advice to avoid all evil,do good and purify the mind.

10. The form and mind need to connect to the spiritual nature before one can inherit from one’s spiritual nature to finally reach back to the previous level of our cultivation. From there, one will need to continue to cultivate from where we left off. If we have cultivated before, then we will be able to understand the Dharma very fast.

11. Buddha and Bodhisattva have 3 bodies:

    1st is the Nirmanakaya which is the functional body (form and mind) of this segmented life.  It arise from our Karmic nature.

    2nd is the Sambogayakaya which is the spiritual body – perfect of wisdom and virtue. It arise from our spiritual nature.

    3rd is the Dharmakaya or the dharma body which is the transformation body when the Nirmanakaya and the Sambogayakaya come together. The Dharmakaya is the dharma body that can teach the Dharma.

12. The Buddha and Bodhisattva have all these 3 bodies: the functional body, the spiritual body and the Dharma body.

13. The karmic nature and spiritual nature are stored in nature. After Buddhas passed away, they still exist and are ever present in nature. They do not need a form and mind to exist.

14. Daily mindfulness is a must to awaken to the truth unless one has cultivated in previous life before. Then that person can awakened by just hearing to the truth.

15. Sister Tammy asked how to overcome strong defilements/thoughts. Brother Teoh explained that experiences are accumulated and stored in the memory. Negative experiences (e.g. fearful and unhappy experiences) will result in wrong thoughts (recall things which are fearful and miserable). If we believe these thoughts, we will suffer. Thoughts are response to memory.

16. When one meditate following methods and techniques one is following a series of instructions to do the meditation; so one is actually using thoughts to meditate but enlightenment is to realize the dharma (or wisdom) which is beyond mind  and thoughts (akaliko).

17. Just relax and be aware and let whatever thoughts that arise settle down on itself until the natural state of the silent mind before the thinking or stirring returns/arise.

18. If in life, things agitate you, it means you don’t have  wisdom as yet.

19. Abandon unwholesome thoughts through the 5 ways as taught by the Buddha, i.e. (1) Develop the direct opposite wholesome thoughts, (2) Think of the consequence of holding on to your wrong thoughts, (3) Just be aware, (4) Trace the originating factors and retrospectively reverse it via wisdom (after straightening one’s view). (5) Determine with torque against your palate to abandon it using your will power. The 3rd and 4th ways are the most effective and is also the meditative and wisdom way. 

Bye! and with metta always,