(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. With these understanding it is hoped that they can become more virtuous, nobler, and wiser so that they can be a blessing to all. He gives dhamma talks and holds meditation classes & retreats and weekly Dhamma classes at various meditation centres, Buddhist societies and places that invite him.

For more details of Bro. Teoh’s dharma activities and his Kalyāṇamittaship grouping please visit 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 Dhamma as taught by the Buddha so that they may progress along the path of dharma to become more virtuous, nobler, and wiser human beings to be a blessing to all of humanity and the world.

As these notes were mostly compiled based on a transcript from the recording of the lesson 55 of the Sutra of Infinite Meanings dhamma class (dated 24.6.2021); 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 accordingly adjust themselves 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 visit our http://broteoh.com website under Repository of Dharma material OR Google ‘Bro. Teoh’s Kalyāṇamittas – A Repository of Dharma Material’ to view them.

To view the video of Lesson 55 please visit : https://youtu.be/UyEOHqAHZjc

2 Acknowledgement

It is the donors’ sincere intentions that these dharma transcript notes be shared with 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 in the transcription, formatting, proofreading, publishing etc. to make this free distribution of dharma dāna possible.

Special thanks should be accorded to Sister Lim Eng Bee, Dr Jayanta, Sister Han Poh Cheng and Sister Chew Poh Lian who had volunteered and taken the initiative to help prepare the draft transcripts 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 in one way or another to realize their good and noble wishes/aspirations soonest possible.

With Metta always,

Brother Teoh Kian Koon

(Dated: 30thJuly 2021)

3 Lesson 55 of The Sutra of Infinite Meanings dated 24th June 2021

3.1 Pre Pūjā sharing

Notes:

Black: Brother Teoh sharing (to expand on its deep meaning)

Blue (underlined): is the original texts of the book and

Light Blue (italics): Brother Song’s sharing in Mandarin and English

3.1.1 Awareness based Meditation

Greeting by Brother Teoh: A very good evening to all brothers and sisters in the dhamma. Today is 24th June 2021 (Thursday’s Class). We will continue with our sharing from this book ‘The Essence of Infinite Meanings’ Teachings from the Adapted Verses of The Sutra of Infinite Meanings. We are at page 277.

As usual, we will have our half an hour of awareness-based meditation. We will turn off the lights and you can proceed with your meditation. Just relax the body and mind and maintain some form of attention. To develop this awareness-based meditation is very simple, when you understand. What we need to do is, to silent our mind. Relax the body and mind, then just maintain awareness until the awareness nature becomes very stable. In between, whatever arises; let it arise. It can be a thought, it can be saṅkhāra, it can be whatever form and mind activity, tactile or consciousness. When they arise, just let it be. “Aware – finish! Aware – finish!” Do not continue to create thinking. Do not follow whatever phenomena or activity that arise; any mind state that arises, especially the aggregates of mind (Vedanā, Saññā, Saṅkhāra, and Viññāṇa). As for the movement of thoughts you just relax, maintain awareness and silent everything to just observe them. Understanding will arise.

When developing this awareness-based meditation, just aware, do not try to know, do not try to do anything so that you can realize your true mind (your silent mind). When your awareness nature stabilized, all the saṅkhāra activities (thought processes) will cease. When all the saṅkhāra activities and thought processes ceased, that is your true mind; your silent mind (the awareness nature within). That one, is the unconditioned, unborn. When you are just aware, that is your true mind, your meditative mind that can meditate and insight into phenomena; that can awaken and develop the true understanding. That nature can see and insight into phenomena, can awaken, can observe to understand what is going on within the form and mind. Through all this observation and the awakening, it can come to understanding profoundly: Who we are and what we are? We call that ‘self-discovery’ or ‘self-knowledge’. Through all these understanding we will have a clear understanding of what this form and mind is all about. What the human being is all about, and what is it that is beyond this form and mind, - the nature within. Once you can establish all this with clarity and understanding, you will clearly comprehend the Buddha’s teaching, the Buddha-Dhamma. True Buddha-Dhamma can only arise when you are able to meditate with your silent mind, your true mind.

So, remember the first of the four supports for awareness-based meditation. First support - relax into every mind state that arises. Body and mind relax. Then second support - silent everything to maintain awareness. Third support is to maintain the awareness for as long as you can. Of course, lastly is trust. Trust your own nature to do the meditation. With this I will set the alarm for 30 minutes, and you all can continue with your meditation. After the alarm triggers, I will ring the bell three times. Upon hearing the bell, slowly and mindfully come out of the meditation. Try to maintain whatever inner peace, inner calmness, and inner awareness that you have developed. Use those mind-states to live life, to develop daily mindfulness, to cultivate your daily religious routine. This is how you can maintain your faith, your diligence, and your sincerity to progress along the path of dhamma. Meditation……………………….

Ting! x3 (End of 30 minutes of awareness-based Meditation).

3.2 Post Meditation Dhamma sharing

Okay, you can be seated, we shall continue from where we stopped, we are at page 277, at the adapted verse of this book, “The Essence of Infinite Meanings”. This teaching is very beautiful because all these teachings are from the adapted verses of the “Sutra of Infinite Meanings”. I will read on.

“The dharma is like water” which can wash away defilements. Whether water comes from a well, a pond, a stream, a river, a brook, a channel, or the great ocean. It can cleanse. The dharma-water that washes away defilements is also like this. Though varying in appearance, the nature of water is the same. So, too, is the nature of the Dharma. Though the [appearances of] water differ, all water can still cleanse. [Similarly, Dharma-water] can wash away afflictions and habitual tendencies. Thus, the Buddha turned the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths (3 times) and taught that all things have always been empty and still.”

3.2.1 Empty Nature of Existence

So, this is a very profound teaching. The phenomenal world, within our existential world, is not what you think. Because basically their universal characteristic is empty and still, that is our True Nature. But from there everything arises. That is why when they arise, all these phenomenal worlds of consciousness, they can deceive and delude our mundane mind. So, living beings become entangled because they do not have the clarity of mind, to see all these clearly, to understand what is going on.

They fail to understand creation. How does creation come to be? They are all dependent originating phenomena, condition arising, causal phenomena. Their universal characteristic is impermanent, that is why it is not a permanent unchanging entity, “hey no you, hey no me”. If you attach and cling, (wanting things your way, which is not in accordance with nature's way), suffering will be the result. Because it is impermanent, that is why it is “anattā” - non-self, empty, no reality. “Empty” here does not mean there is nothing. “Empty” here means there are things happening within life and existence, but ultimately it is empty (Empty nature of Existence). Ultimately it is empty, no reality, “hey no you, hey no me”; whatever happens - they are just dependent-originating, conditioned arising phenomena. It arises when there are conditions, it sustains itself when conditions continue to support it, and when conditions cease to be, it ceases to be. Then after that what happens? - no more, Gone! Dead and gone! Right? Hence no reality at all, that is why it is empty.

There is a saying in Mahāyāna Buddhism, which is very good. It said, when we come to this existential world, this universe, we came empty-handed (來也空) (lái yě kōng); then when we leave this universe, when our form and mind disperse, we also leave without taking anything along (去也空) (qù yě kōng). That is why, “you come empty, you go empty”. Then why do living beings, through delusion, grief over emptiness in between. So, this is a very beautiful saying. The Mandarin version (if you can understand) is better. Because the way it is expressed, brings out the meaning.

When I was young, I heard these sayings before - in one of the swordsmanship cinema shows. There was a powerful, and violent elderly swordsman, trapped by three senior monks, down a chamber in the ShaoLin Temple. The senior monks were chanting this Mahāyāna sutra to tame the elderly swordsman, then I came across these above verses. Every day they were chanting this Mahāyāna sutra, for him to develop the understanding to change. They kept on chanting: “來也空，去也空，那么施主何必苦苦，为空流泪呢!” (Lái yě kōng, qù yě kōng, nà me shī zhǔ hé bì kǔ kǔ, wèi kōng liú lèi ne!) It means: when you come, you come empty and when you leave/go, you also leave/go empty; then in between (while living life), why do you grieve over emptiness? This is real DELUSION, isn’t it? After hearing this chanting for some time, this swordsman developed wisdom and change for the better.

So do not cling onto things, hold-on to things. Ultimately, the form, the physical body goes the way of nature. Old age, sickness, and death are nature’s phenomena. These are the realities of life and existence within the conditioned world. We need to experience them; we need to understand their realities. So that we are not deceived by them. So that we will not deludedly cling and hold on to the form and mind; believing that it is what we are. If you do that then it is self-delusion. That is the reason why the Buddha in His final summary of the First Noble Truth, He said: In short, all sufferings arise because of our Self-Delusion. When living beings deludedly cling, grasp and attach to the Five Aggregates of Form and Mind, it will become grasping aggregates, that will condition sufferings. These “upādāna khandha” (grasping aggregates), are sufferings. When you have developed the wisdom, the clear understanding (after having insight into phenomena to clearly awaken to its universal characteristics), then all these will become truly clear to you. Self-Knowledge becomes truly clear. Then we will understand, “who are we, what are we?” What is this form and mind all about? What is this human being all about? When we investigate, what is this human being (as taught by the Buddha) we can develop clear understanding. He sub-divided this (human being) into the five aggregates of Form and Mind (nāma & rūpa).

3.2.2 The 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind

There are two aspects to the five aggregates of form and mind:

i) First aspect is as a human being. As a human being, we have a physical body, which is the form aggregate (the physical form) and we have the consciousness, trapped inside. In this consciousness, there are four (4) more aggregates of mind. That mind (the mundane mind) or thought consciousness, can feel, perceive, arise activities of mind (saṅkhāra activities) and become conscious (conscious of what we see, hear, smell, etc.). So, we have the feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), mental activities (saṅkhāra) and the consciousness (viññāṇa) aggregates. Whatever the mind can do (all its mental movements and activities), is the contents of consciousness, and this content of consciousness is basically the saṅkhāra Feeling and perception are also part of the saṅkhāra aggregate. Our mind can become emotional, can develop mental states, mental intention, formations, or images, etc. It can also plan, scheme, dream, create thoughts, etc. All these are contents of consciousness. And finally, the mind can also become conscious (Conscious of what we see, hear, smell, taste, tactilely feel and think). So, these are the four aggregates (of mind) and together with the physical form aggregate we have the 1st aspect of the 5 aggregates of Form and Mind. The first aspect of the five aggregates of form and mind, is as a human being. And according to the Buddha, these five aggregates of form and mind are impermanent, they go the way of nature. Because it is impermanent, it is not a permanent unchanging entity that you can cling onto, hold-on to and grasp onto via saying this is me, this is I, and therefore I can own all these things, and all these can be mine. This is sakkāyadiṭṭhi, Self-Delusion, so, please do WAKE UP! This form and mind are just a karmically conditioned vehicle and tool for us to come to this existential world; to live life, to experience life, to go through the karmic process, to fulfil our vows and experience whatever we want to experience, while living in this existence. So do make full use of it, but do not be deluded by it. This form and mind are for us to use. Understand this and see this clearly, then you will understand the secret of life, and you will awaken! Then you will have no more problems, no more suffering. So, meditation is to uncover this secret. When you silence your mind, maintain mindfulness and awareness, you can see them clearly.

ii) 2nd aspect: as the mental 5 aggregates of Form and Mind

This second (2nd) aspect of the five aggregates of form and mind, you can see them, when you are mindful and aware. Because every moment when we are conscious, when we live life; we need to manifest consciousness. Every moment of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and tactile feeling or thought process, this mental consciousness arises. When they arise, if you are mindful and aware, you can see the 2nd aspect of the five aggregates of form and mind very clearly. We know, we need a mind, we need sense bases to arise consciousness. Upon contact, (of course together with the sense data); the respective sense door consciousness arises. But when we are mindful and aware, amid life, in meditation, then we can see all these arising clearly. That is, how it happened following the dependent origination process, the 12 Links (or the Paṭicca Samuppāda) teaching as taught by the Buddha. This is very profound and incredibly beautiful. So, when you see the aggregates of mind, having these four abilities of vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra and viññāṇa then you will also come to understand how the external form enters the mind (through the aggregate of perception).

This aggregate of perception brings the external form into the mind. So, when these five come together, we call it a THOUGHT. This is what the second aspect of the five aggregates of form and mind is all about. It is just a THOUGHT! The consciousness aggregate is the pure consciousness or receptacle before the content of consciousness is input into it to form the thought.

Our true mind is initially just spacious awareness without a Centre that can create and manifest consciousness when there is contact between sense bases, sense data and the true mind. Take for example seeing consciousness – seeing the Buddha rūpa. When we perceive something (can be the Buddha rūpa or anything else) through our seeing, what happens? We shrink our spacious awareness into a small, limited space to perceive the Buddha rūpa then we input our content of consciousness thereby forming a thought. Reason why J Krishnamurti said, thought is limited and Egoic. If you are mindful and aware you can see and understand all these.

That is why if you grasp and cling onto this thought, the five (mental) aggregates, it becomes grasping aggregates, the Buddha called it Sakkāyadiṭṭhi, Self-Delusion. That is how you suffer! That is how you entangle yourself, react to sense experience, and become emotional. You become fearful, unhappy, you think you exist, you think you are real. That is the true Dharma. So, silent your mind, develop mindfulness, to understand all these, to observe all these, leading to Self-Knowledge via Self-Investigation. When you look within, you are aware; then you will come to understand how you function as a human being; how the mundane mind arises and creates all these things. That is why the Buddha said, our mundane mind is the forerunner of all things. When mind arises, all things arise. The Buddha called this “Mano”. Mano is the mundane mind, the thinking mind, and this is Not the real mind, Not the True Mind. There is another nature within us, which is the unconditioned, the unborn, that has the “awareness nature”. But it is not a being, it cannot come out and live life. That is why it is not easy to develop the understanding, it is not a clear-cut thing. To realize the True Mind, the True Nature, is also not easy. You need to meditate, you need to completely silent your mind, until No Thought, No Movement, No Activity until Everything returns (to its original state) and becomes still and tranquil with clarity within. Just aware, that is! This demands a lot of patience. So, this is the summary of what you need to understand. Hopefully, this can help you all to develop the awakening.

We shall go back to the adapted verse. We will read from there (page 277). This adapted verse did not explain all the above, that is the reason why I must explain all these to you so that you all may understand its deep meaning and why the Sutra of Infinite Meanings said, “Basically when the Buddha turned the Dharma Wheel of the Four Noble Truths 3 times, He taught to living beings that all things have always been empty and still”. To understand this is not easy, because it is very profound. That is the reason why I need to explain this to you all, through using the basic Essential Dharma that the Buddha has taught us. Just now, what I had shared (the explanation/summary) is very complete, so hopefully, after the recording comes out, you all can listen to it, to develop a clear understanding, then meditate to realize it. You will become very beautiful, then my nature will rejoice and Sādhu you all.

Okay now we will start reading from the commentaries.

Whether the water is from a well, a pond, or a river, the nature of water is the same. It can wash away filth and dirt. People's true nature is inherently pure (this is very true). However, as it becomes tainted by habitual tendencies, (because this is how delusion sets in until it becomes so habitual) this true nature becomes covered and defiled. It means clouded and defiled. This word “defiled” used here, if you cannot understand, you may think, that ‘Nature’ can become defiled. No, that Nature can only be obscured or clouded but it cannot be defiled. Just like the clouds, when they are there, you cannot see the sun. Or the sun rays cannot shine forth, that is why it is clouded/obscured. But the sun ray is always there, that Nature is always there, ever shining, ever radiating. That Nature is undefiled. The word “defiled” is meant for the mundane mind. The mundane mind through its own delusion, sakkāyadiṭṭhi, gets defiled. When it gets defiled, means it has the wrong view, that can condition evil roots to arise, thereby making them evil because the evil roots are the roots of all evils. When you have the three evil roots of greed, hatred, and delusion, you become evil; the form and mind become evil, the mundane mind becomes evil. That is why the Buddha said, “Mind is the forerunner of all things, Mind is chief….”. When you tend towards evil following dhammapada verse 1, the mind becomes evil. When you develop Heedfulness, Right View, Right Understanding, and tend towards wholesomeness following dhammapada verse 2, the mind becomes wholesome, virtuous, and beautiful.

Just as water can wash away filth and dirt, the Dharma can subdue habitual tendencies and enable everyone’s inherently wholesome nature (true nature/true mind) to appear. (Our inherent true nature is very beautiful, very pristine, fully aware.) Due to the physical restrictions in its environment, there are different names and appearances for water (depending on the condition, it can be) -- streams, springs, brooks, rivers, etc. Although the names and appearances are different, the fundamental nature of water is the same. The nature of the various kinds of Dharma, like the nature of various forms of water, does not differ. “Though the [appearances of] water differ, all water can still cleanse. [Similarly, all Dharma-water] can wash away afflictions and habitual tendencies.” (Although it is used in this way in their description here, in fact, when you develop the cultivation, there is no such thing as “Dharma-water” washing away the filth, defilement, affliction. It is the awakening of the mundane mind. The mundane mind realized itself and awakened then ceased to be deluded. That wisdom is the one that liberates and frees the mundane mind. So here water is just an analogy and the reason why they use “water” is, maybe it is easier for people to understand that water can cleanse. So, in that sense, dharma is also like water, can wash away affliction and habitual tendencies. But when it comes to actual cultivation, it is not about water. It is about wisdom and understanding. So, bear in mind that understanding. Do not be gullible. Like reading the textbook here and becoming confused because: “the textbook said Dharma-water, but how come when I cultivate, I cannot find Dharma-water”. So, you will be doubly confused if you had that type of wrong view or delusion.

I will read on.

We engage in spiritual practice precisely, to wash away our afflictions and conquer all the deep-rooted habitual tendencies (the author also knew, it is very difficult to root out habitual tendencies which are deep-rooted. Because it had been there for so long, aeons and aeons of birth and death, habitual tendencies, delusion, the thicket of views, opinions, conditioning, belief system, - they are not easy to root out. To do that you need Dharma understanding, unique wisdom borne of Direct-Seeing leading to direct awakening. That is why you should read the Sabbāsava Sutta, (sutta on all the Defilements/Taints, MN 2) on Knowing and Seeing. According to Lord Buddha, the complete removal or eradication of “āsava” can only happen in one who sees and one who knows or one who knows and one who sees. It can never happen in one who does not see and does not know because this is referring to the Direct-Seeing and the Awakening, the Understanding. So, to completely root out defilement, removal of “āsava”, you need wisdom, nothing else. This aspect is very important.

I will read on.

We engage in spiritual practice precisely, to wash away our afflictions and conquer all the deep-rooted habitual tendencies that we have accumulated through our transmigration in the Six Realms. (This Six Realms transmigration, 六道轮回 [Liùdào lúnhuí]; has happened for very long period; that is why it is described as over aeons and aeons of Cycle of births and deaths or Saṃsāra).

Thus, we are like archaeologists digging out thousand-year-old ruins or stone and bronze tools from layers of sand and dirt. These ancient artefacts were not buried in the ground by humans, they were buried by natural disasters or through the accumulation of sand and dirt over long periods of time. In the desert the environment changes by the second, the formations of sand shift like ocean waves and tides. This is because a grain of sand is so tiny that it can be carried and spread by the wind. When there is a strong wind, sand from the Mongolian desert can be blown to Beijing, or even to Taiwan. So, we can see the potential power of sand and dust. Habitual tendencies are like sand and dust, which will continuously cover our own innate nature. Therefore, we must have firm resolve and perseverance to “wash away all afflictions and habitual tendencies.” (That's why you must make the resolve, the inspiration, the vows, the adhiṭṭhāna, and persevere with faith and sincerity to walk the path of Dharma, to cultivate; otherwise, this spiritual path is not easy. Okay I read on.)

In life, because the mind is influenced by external temptations, (this is very true. If you are a true cultivator, you will understand this. The mind is influenced by external phenomena that tempt you, that lure you; external temptation can lure the living beings, they can cause you to attach, to cling, to grasp and give meaning.) It produces cravings, internal struggles, and other desires, all of which lead to the creation of karma. (That is why they have karmic implications and consequences) But in the end, we are still subject to the laws of nature; (that is why ultimately it is still the laws of nature) all things have always been empty and still, so this physical existence will eventually come to an end. Yet the Buddha taught us that everything and every phenomenon in the universe contains a wondrous intrinsic nature. Although the forms and appearances may differ, this intrinsic nature remains the same. Take burning wood as an example, did the wood ignite the fire or did the fire ignite the wood? It is hard to draw a distinction because they are ultimately of the same essence. The Dharma is truly inconceivable. Actually, wood is just wood, how do we know that it has the potential to produce fire? Even in ancient times, primitive people knew that they could ignite a fire by rubbing wood sticks together. So, it is clear that humans inherently have wisdom; wisdom is not something that only arises after hearing the Buddha's teachings. We all have this wisdom, so after the Buddha attained enlightenment, He simply hoped to guide sentient beings back to their innate nature. (That is why you must realize your true mind, your true nature within) That's why He taught the Four Noble Truths and expounded the Twelve Links of Cyclical Existence. (The Law of Dependent Origination, that explains clearly how our mind functions. This Paṭicca Samuppāda or Law of Dependent Origination, is very profound, very important. When you see (this law) clearly you will awaken! Because everything is dependent originating, condition arising, causal phenomena, not what you think. Empty and still ultimately! His purpose was always for us to penetrate the truths of life, and thus form aspirations to actualize the Six Pāramitās / Perfections in all actions so that we can enter and experience the True Dharma. (This is absolutely true. So, the purpose of the teaching is always for living beings to penetrate the truths of life. To see truth, to see reality, to awaken to the universal characteristics; and after that you make aspirations to walk the Bodhisattva Way, to actualize the six perfections in all actions so that you can enter and experience the True Dharma way. So, these are all very beautiful descriptions of the teaching and the cultivation).

3.2.3 Next Adapted verse preview

Pure water is like the Dhamma. The Dhamma can conform to conditions and capabilities and distinguish between all things. Thus, we realised that pure wisdom is in all places and encompasses all things. A stream, a river, a spring and a well all have different names. The nature of their water is the same; it nourishes and eliminates defilements. However, the Three Dhammas, Four Fruits and Two Paths are not the same.

So, all these are very beautiful. Basically, the dhamma is very beautiful. If you look at the word “dhamma” the understanding is, it is the teaching of the Buddha. That is why we call it the Buddha-Dhamma. But what is Dhamma? Dhamma is truth and truth are nature’s laws that govern life and existence. Whatever that can explain the way things are, is the truth. That is why He taught us the Dhamma (the essential truth), the truth that we need to understand. So Dhamma is especially important.

Pure water is like dhamma. Here the description is very good. Then this dhamma conforms to condition and capabilities and distinguishes between all things. Thus, we realized that pure wisdom is in all places and encompasses all things. This is a very beautiful description of dhamma. Then I would like to add on. Maybe this is for your own understanding. In fact, we need dhamma to have wisdom. We need dhamma to develop understanding, so that we understand life, we understand who we are, what we are. Dhamma is like our spiritual solution or spiritual medicine that can help humanity or living beings overcoming all their life problems or situations. It can help us to understand life and live life to the fullest, experience life to the fullest and give meaning to life.

So, without dhamma, suffering would be the result. Dhamma, if it is so important; why not cultivator or practitioner and Buddhist in general see the beauty and importance of Dhamma! Then go all out to cultivate this Buddha-Dhamma to develop the required understanding, wisdom, and the awakening. So that this dhamma can be your spiritual medicine for you to develop a clear understanding of life and to recover from whatever life problem, affliction, suffering and misery. The best solution is to awaken to the teaching of Dhamma. So Dhamma, if you can see the beauty of it, the importance of it, then you will resolve to cultivate and realize it or awaken to it because it can be of great benefit to living beings, especially human beings. It can bring about great transformation to the individual in the form of having mental clarity, understanding, wisdom, virtue and transformation in our character and personality for the better. Then it will help us understand life, improve our life, and make us beautiful. Then we can become a blessing to all of humanity, environment, and nature. So, this is the part on Dhamma that I wish all Kalyāṇamittas can develop clear understanding.

When you can appreciate dhamma, you will throughout the day cultivate this Buddha-Dhamma; develop the understanding, reflect, contemplate, silent your mind to perfect yourself, to awaken as dhamma is everywhere. When you can see dhamma, you see the Buddha. That is why the Buddha told the monks “He who sees Me, may not see the Dhamma (because that is only the physical form of Lord Buddha). “But He who sees the Dhamma,” The Buddha said, “Sees Me” because the Buddha is the embodiment of His perfection of wisdom and virtue. What is Dhamma? Dhamma is his teaching. When you have it and when you can realise it; you can become the Sammā Sambuddha. You can have the embodiment of wisdom, virtue, and all the perfections that He has perfected. You can become Sammā Sambuddha, the omniscient being who is fully enlightened (well known for his nine great virtues). That is why we chant the salutation to the Buddha: “Iti pi so bhagavā arahaṃ sammā saṃbuddho… and so on”.

So, all the teachings point towards the beauty and importance of Dhamma. Do, keep this in mind; cherish the Buddha-Dhamma, develop the faith (‘Saddhā’), ‘Vīriya’, then sincerely with faith, persevere, cultivate to develop ‘Sati’, stabilise it to become ‘Samādhi’ so that all these spiritual faculties can become very stable. With ‘Sati’ and ‘Samādhi’ developed, wisdom (‘Paññā’) will naturally arise. So, these five spiritual faculties of ‘Saddhā’, ‘Vīriya’, ‘Sati’, ‘Samādhi’ and ‘Paññā’, you must develop them until they become very powerful, unshakable and very stable, until they become bala. I have helped you by putting it into the vows in the four-page Bodhisattva vows yellow card; if you go through it, you will find them, and it is also stated in our chanting book. It can help you make your aspiration until the spiritual faculties become unshakable, through invoking the power of merits etc. Okay, with this, maybe we can end our sharing and we will continue with the second session where we will open for meditation reporting, Q&A, and dhamma sharing on the topic “Dhamma in daily Life”.

3.2.4 Mind must have no dwelling

Brother Teoh: Brother Song, yes... you can continue.

Brother Song: Brother Teoh, I would like to share two experiences. A few nights ago, while I was watching the YouTube video, coincidentally the YouTube was playing the Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng’s video. It is from a serial drama but was shortened like the short video clips we have, which are within 8 minutes. I was watching a scene from the video, regarding the conversation between the nun and Hui Neng; regarding Mahā Nibbāna Sutra（大涅槃经）. As it was a serial drama it followed very closely to the life story of the Sixth Patriarch Platform Sutra (六祖坛经). The conversation was incredibly beautiful. After I finished watching the 1st video, I continued with the next. The second video was about Hui Neng listening to the Diamond Sutra《金刚经》. In this video, the person reciting the sutra was a monk not a merchant. The moment the monk recites a particular stanza, “The Mind must have No Dwelling” [应无所住，而生其心]. I felt a strong vibration within my heart; finally, I understood it.

Brother Teoh: Yes! You have the ability already. That is why you can have that understanding to appreciate the profound dhamma which is so beautiful.

Brother Song: I was surprised as the stanza was recited, there was a deep insight feeling vibrating as though I have understood (this time not at the thought level) but with a deep sense of understanding from within.

Brother Teoh: It is an understanding because when you have stabilised that aspect (the ability to be aware and silent); then you can know why that phrase (or that stanza) - “The mind must have no dwelling” is so beautiful. That stanza is unbelievably beautiful because the moment the mind dwells, it creates mundane thinking, and saṅkhāra arises. That is what “dwelling is”. Like I always say, our mind; we can do only one thing at a time. Either we are lost in thought with the saṅkhāra; preoccupy with our thinking, our emotion, our reaction to sense experience or we are completely silent and still. When we are completely silent and still there is just the awareness nature that is aware. That is why it does not dwell. That is how we can have this ability to understand. It is only the Specific Phenomena Awareness, meaning the true mind is aware of specific phenomena. Or when it is completely silent without a centre, then it is just the “Oneness Nature”. It can have the ability to be aware of all things. If it wants to know, it can know; otherwise, it is just ‘still’, ‘silent’ and ‘aware’! So, all this is the result of proper cultivation, understanding, and transformation. That is why you can have that ability now because you have gone through quite a lot of the needed training. All these are incredibly beautiful. In fact, if you can relisten to all these attentively, it can bring forth a lot of understanding and wisdom. Even the dialogue between the nun and Hui Neng, at that time I remember, it was so beautiful. Even though the nun, initially when she came to know who Hui Neng is, she was disappointed and unimpressed because when she showed him the sutra, Hui Neng said, he is an illiterate, and he does not know how to read the sutra. Then she said, “If you don’t know how to read, then how can you understand and how can you teach?” But Hui Neng said, ‘if you read to me the sutra, I can help you understand’.

Hui Neng later explained to her. Dhamma is not words, is not concept, is not sutra. It is not based on language. The words are not the truth. Just like the word ‘tree’ in English and the actual tree (which is without word) is not the same. It cannot be understood by pure learning (Intellectual Learning) because all these only point towards the truth (dharma) which is beyond words. You need understanding (wisdom) to awaken. These are truths. These are reality, which is beyond mind, beyond thought. Then he gives some examples to explain its meaning. Words and language are needed for us to communicate, describe, and express the meaning of something. Just like the finger pointing at the thing (can be the moon or anything) that we want to describe, is not that thing (the moon, etc). Then Hui Neng finally said, “Therefore, the Buddha’s heart, the mind dharma, the wonderful principle of Sudden Enlightenment, has nothing to do with the words. Instead, it points directly to the true mind so that we can see our true nature and become Buddha. Since it is not based on language, to understand the sutra, it does not matter whether you can read the words or not”. It was incredibly beautiful and going through that sharing is very meaningful.

Then later when he listened to the Diamond Sutra expounded by the 5th Patriarch, ‘Wow’ that part was the most beautiful. That part is on understanding “the self-nature”, all about that ‘nature’ and the understanding of the purpose of the mundane mind. This mind, he said, “you must know how to use it and yet not be deluded or deceived by it”. That phrase is most profound. That is why at that time my nature also became very different. There was so much joy to express the profoundness of the teaching. In fact, the author who wrote those things may not understand what that deep meaning is; that profound meaning is, but for a cultivator who has the understanding, it is so beautiful. That is what Dhamma is.

Ultimately is to realise that this mundane mind is karmically conditioned for us to come to this existential world to experience life and this is most important. So, do make use of it to live life, to cultivate, to fulfil our vows and do whatever we want to do. You need this karmically conditioned form and mind to arise within the condition world because duality exists within the condition world. Dhamma exists within the condition world. Law of karma exists within the condition world. The condition world recognises relationships even though the ultimate dhamma is Anattā. That is why within the existential world, there is birth and death, there is old age, sickness, and death. There are living beings, there are human beings. When there is life, there is existence, there is Dhamma. So, everything is, - like exists and appears real, which is true basically. That is what the teaching is all about.

But when you awakened and realised the ultimate unconditioned reality or truth then you will understand why Guānyīn under the Heart Sutra mentioned, “In true emptiness, all these that exist within the conditioned world, did not exist” - because that is the unconditioned. That is why in the Heart Sutra, when you recite it, you will understand, - there is no contradiction. So, all these understandings are possible.

Sādhu to you Brother Song. You will have to go through all this. You will start, to see the beauty of all this. That is why, in the early days I remembered I also like to view and follow some of these Sixth Patriarch videos even though I am English educated. I could not really understand the more profound mandarin words because some of the words are beyond what I can understand, then I must check with my wife. When I ask my wife, I only want to know the meaning of the word. I do not want to know the explanation; I will know the meaning once I understand the meaning of the words, then I will know whether it is the truth or not. Then, if it is the truth, the profoundness of that truth becomes very clear to me because my nature already awakens to it long ago. So, what I need is, to know the meaning of the mandarin words expressing the Dhamma. Means the actual understanding of those words because - the Dhamma (the truth) part, my nature has awakened to it from its past life cultivation. That is why this life when I encounter truth, my nature straight away understands. And it is the way I give (like in this life and in the past), is the way I will receive this understanding because of the Law of Karma - you reap what you sow. That is the reason why in this life, I can receive truth extremely fast, I can awaken very fast, and I can understand things very fast. So, all this will be reflected as you walk the path of Dhamma and go through the cultivation.

So, for you (Song), you are going through all these, and you will continue to experience more and more. It will become more and more meaningful, more and more profound. When that stabilises, you will be able to later share and express it out. When you read sutta or whatever that has the truth, you will understand it very differently from what people explain in the commentaries. Because I realised not all commentaries are accurate. Most of them are not accurate. They explain based on their understanding, at their level. So, all these are part and parcel of cultivation, the Buddha-Dhamma. Hopefully with this understanding and explanation, you can develop a clearer and more stable understanding to move on because this is very beautiful.

3.2.5 Penetrative Understanding

Brother Teoh: Yes! You can continue Brother Song. After that what happened?

Brother Song: At that time when we attend Brother Teoh’s class on the Diamond sutra or when we chant the Diamond Sutra and come across these eight wordings:

应无所住(Yīng wú suǒ zhù)

而生其心 (ér shēng qí xīn)

Meaning: - ‘To arise the pure mind, the mind must have no dwelling/abiding)’ – it is as if I understand but at that time, it is only at knowledge level. However, when I heard/read it recently, I immediately can understand it fully and it is no longer at the thought level. It is like a realisation, and I had understood its deep and profound meaning.

Brother Teoh: The more complete version of the above stanzas (from Chapter 10 of the Diamond sutra) is reproduced as below for clearer understanding: -

应如是生清净心 (yīng rú shì shēng qīng jìng xīn)

In true suchness he should thus produce a pure Mind/Heart which is clear and tranquil

不应住色生心(bù yìng zhù sè shēng xīn)

He should not produce a mind that dwell in form

不应住声香味触法生心

(bù yìng zhù shēng xiāng wèi chù fǎ shēng xīn)

He should not produce a mind that dwell in sound, smell, taste, tactile or dharmas

应无所住 (Yīng wú suǒ zhù)

He should instead produce a mind that does not dwell anywhere (mind without dwelling)

而生其心 (ér shēng qí xīn)

Then only such pure mind can arise.

Brother Teoh: Ya, Sādhu! And it is like you have penetrated the Dhamma and it is no longer just knowledge to you anymore because you have penetrated and awakened to the dhamma and the dhamma is so beautiful. It has nothing to do with the thought. Previously when you read or hear all these dhamma, you look at the words and try to get the meaning from the words. That is why it is not an awakening yet. That is not a penetrative understanding. That is still at the contemplation and reflection level, and you are trying to use the intellectual understanding that you have at that time to develop the understanding of it. The real awakening is different - the moment you listen, you awaken. This type of dharma is so beautiful – which means your nature is ready to receive such truth. That is why sometimes people describe it as their ‘aha moment’.

A similar ‘aha moment’ also happened to the late 120-year-old monk, Master Xu Yun. When the attendant poured hot boiling water into his cup, it accidentally spilled onto Master Xu Yun’s hand. As a natural reaction, his hand moved, and the teacup dropped from his hand and cracked on hitting the floor. At that moment, he awakened. His mind freezes and was like pulverised. When he came out of it, he understood everything. All this is possible because at that moment when the boiling water burnt his physical hand, what happened was his thought/thinking stopped. The thought froze, stopped and since he was ready, only needing something (the crack sound) to trigger off awakening. Then the nature awakened. That is why sometimes it is not necessary to believe “only dhamma” can awaken.

I remember in the first instance, when my nature awakened to the three universal characteristics, I was standing at the side listening to one of my guides teaching a Singaporean about phenomena. Then she asked him to see, and she moved her hand twice. Straight away without thought (because I was mindful and silent and ready), I awakened to the three universal characteristics immediately. There was no dhamma, nothing. She said, “just see” and then she moved her hand. I remember two movements. Then she just asked, “what do you see?”. That person cannot understand what she was trying to explain, but although I was standing at the side and because I was aware, mindful, my nature saw – ‘this is what phenomena is all about’. This is what the Paṭicca Samuppāda is all about. This is what dependent origination is all about, everything is condition arising, causal phenomena (the 4-phase cycle of birth, sustenance, decaying and cessation). That is why, this coming and going apply to all things, all the phenomena within the conditioned world, they all behave the same. All nature’s characteristics are the same. That is why it is a universal characteristic, the phenomenal world of form, and consciousness, everything has become very clear. So, a lot of things in cultivation may not be what you think, even Ajahn Chah also went through something similar. His thoughts were almost absent after he became tired from walking meditation. While resting he went into the stillness; there was silence, and the mind went inward after he heard some drums vibration from the celebration in the village nearby. And suddenly, he was completely still and silent because that “thing" triggered off the awakening. The mind went into cessation. When he came out, he just understood the Dhamma. So, the way people become enlightened or awakened can be in many varied forms.

Even during the times of the Buddha, there were many examples of monks, nuns and all their unique ways of awakening. There was one, I remember, she was washing her feet. As she poured the water, because she was so mindful and aware, before the water reached the end, she became an Arahant. How is this possible? Then there was one monk who cannot even remember one stanza. The Buddha gave him a white cloth and asked him to clean it. Then he realised, the more he wants to clean it the dirtier it becomes. Then, he suddenly awakened and became an Arahant because he realised that the cloth the Buddha gave him originally was already pure. “Pure” here means, it is like our true nature but when he uses his own mundane mind, like trying to clean the cloth via mundane thinking, the more he does it the dirtier it becomes. He realised the defilements come from the memory, come from the brain, the accumulation of knowledge and all those conditionings and belief systems, etc. Then he realised the truth and awakened. He does not need to do anything, just silent to realise that self-nature. Then the mind returned to its original state. That is why a lot of very profound awakening happens, not through listening to the dhamma, they happen because of their unique way of cultivation. Like Venerable Sāriputta, he became a Sotāpanna when he heard the two stanzas dhamma (‘whatever that arises, there are causes and conditions behind and these causes and conditions my teacher had explained’) recited by Venerable Assaji. Most of the monks awaken during that time through hearing the sutta, especially the Fire Sermon. Everything is burning, the eyes are burning, consciousness is burning. So, when you have the dhamma, this one can awaken amazingly fast but there are some who must go through different means. So, you may have to go through and experience all these and come to know what your nature is, what your unique character, way, feature, and past training are. Then, you will see how it unfolds and you will also gain understanding on why all these people can also awaken. This is the beauty of the dharma. So, this part is for you, Song, Poh Cheng and all other Kalyāṇamittas. As they cultivate, they will know. Listen to this recording again, it will give you more understanding and faith. In fact, today's sharing is incredibly good. Even the explanation from our today’s “sutra of infinite meanings” sharing on, - ‘inherently everything is originally still and empty’, is so beautiful. Although you may think that it is the same essential dhamma that I used to go through, but the way I present it this time (because of condition), is quite different. It just comes out like that – straight from the heart. I do not plan anything or prepare anything. It just happened. So, for you, it is good, Song. This is the correct way to develop the understanding. You can continue with your sharing.

3.2.6 Sixth Patriarch’s Poem

Brother Song: I continued to watch the video clip the next morning. There was a part which shows the four stanzas’ poems between Shen Xiu and Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch. The clip was about a junior monk reciting the stanzas by Shen Xiu in the kitchen. The moment they recited, something inside me started to vibrate. Then comes the scene Hui Neng went to the wall near the end part of temple and he requested someone who was beside him to write his stanzas on the wall and when the first stanza ‘菩提本无树’ (Pú tí běn wú shù) – ‘Bodhi is fundamentally without any tree’, was recited, there was this vibration from my nature again. As I see the stanzas being written, the vibration continues.

Brother Teoh: This is because the understanding has become more stable and clearer to you. That is why it shows up, it expresses out that you have penetrated this dhamma. And it is like, your nature can feel it. Then there is this deep joy and deep understanding within.

Brother Song: “When he wrote ‘where can any dust alight’, my tears just rolled down”.

Brother Teoh: That is the ultimate understanding. “Originally it was empty where can the dust alight”. So, if you understand that stanza of Hui Neng, you can see how Hui Neng tears apart Shen Xiu’s poem. Shen Xiu’s poem is not that bad, but he has not awakened, even though he has reached what we call, the gate of enlightenment but he does not know how to cease his mind to realise it. That is why the Fifth Patriarch knew. But to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding, He said, this stanza is not bad. You all can follow it and it can help you develop a lot of understanding and pāramī. So, the Fifth Patriarch told the monks to recite it and learn from it. But that is just the initial way of the Theravāda tradition’s cultivation.

Shen Xiu’s poem said, “The body is a bodhi tree”, 身是菩提树 (Shēn shì pú tí shù)

- which is true because the Buddha realized his enlightenment underneath the bodhi tree. So, our physical body as Shen Xiu realise, is like the bodhi tree (tree of Enlightenment) because from the physical body, he can cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness (kāyānupassanā, vedanānupassanā, cittānupassanā and dhammānupassanā). That is why he said our body is like the bodhi tree and the Buddha also mentioned it very clearly. He said, ‘within this fathom length body of ours, along with mindfulness, perception and thought, he proclaimed the world, the cause of the arising of the world, the cessation of the world and the path that lead to the cessation of the world’. This means Shen Xiu knew what the Buddha was trying to explain that “within this fathom length body along with perception, mindfulness and thought, he can proclaim the Four Noble Truths.” He knew, with this body we can cultivate the Four Foundations of Mindfulness because the four foundations of kāya (our physical body), aggregate of vedanā (feeling), and citta (thoughts) and dhamma are all there and they are important. This is a good understanding.

Then he said, our mind is like a mirror bright on a stand (心如明镜台 Xīn rú míng jìng tái). This part he got it wrong. That is the mundane mind, he has never gone beyond the mundane mind. That is why he clings on to that mind. Then he said, we must constantly and continuously polish this mundane mind until it shines so that no dust can alight “时时勤拂拭，勿使惹尘埃” (Shí shí qín fú shì, wù shǐ rě chén'āi). To him, this is cultivation. This is the Theravāda’s way of cultivation. He actually followed the advice of the Buddha, to avoid all evils, do good but he did not understand what purification of mind is because he did not develop the daily mindfulness leading to heedfulness to realize his self-nature. So, to him he only needs to maintain awareness or that kind of mindfulness. He did not develop the stability of daily mindfulness. He did not know how to relax, maintain awareness, silence everything because he held on to the wrong mind. He wants to be constantly aware, ever mindful but not knowing that this constantly aware or mindfulness nature is a silent mind that is just naturally aware. This silent awareness is capable of observation via the direct seeing to awaken, not to do things, not to look at duality, defilements, always wanting to maintain that alertness, the awareness so that no dust can alight. Like polish till it shines, until no defilement can come near the mundane mind. This means you are still caught in duality,one sided duality.

The moment Hui Neng hears the stanzas of Shen Xiu, he knows Shen Xiu has not realised the true mind. He does not understand what that true mind is. That true mind is the silent mind, that true nature within which is just aware. So, he came out with another poem to tear Shen Xiu’s poem apart. Because of his wisdom, he said, ‘菩提本无树’ (Pú tí běn wú shù) - bodhi or enlightenment is not a tree. It has nothing to do with concept and ideals. It is an awakening. It is an understanding, a wisdom.

Hui Neng’s counter poem is as below:

菩提本无树 (Pú tí běn wú shù) - Bodhi or Enlightenment is fundamentally without any tree

明镜亦非台’ (míng jìng yì fēi tái) - the true mind is neither the stand nor a mirror bright

本来无一物 (běn lái wú yī wù) – originally there was nothing

何处惹尘埃 (hé chù rě chén'āi) – where can the dust alight?

Now you understand why Hui Neng’s above counter poem is so beautiful.

He said, that is not the true mind, because the true mind has nothing to do with the mirror bright on the stand. The true mind is just that awareness nature within. Then he said, ‘within the true mind, originally there was nothing, - no duality, no word, etc. i.e., ‘本来无一物’ (Běn lái wú yī wù) - originally there was nothing. So, if you have realised that self-nature, which is the unconditioned, you will understand. It is just that nature, it is not a being. It cannot come out and live life. It cannot talk, it does not have word, it does not have concept, - nothing. That is why originally it was empty or ‘本来无一物’ (Běn lái wú yī wù). There was nothing inside, and you cannot talk about it, you cannot describe it. So, that is the true mind, ‘本来无一物’ (originally there was nothing), ‘何处惹尘埃’ (Then where can the dust alight?) The dust comes about through your mundane mind that creates the duality. When you create duality, dust arises. Wholesome and unwholesome arise; defilement and non-defilement arise. So, when you are caught in this situation, it is like the stanzas that the Buddha spoke, “imasmiṃ sati idaṃ hoti, imasmiṃ asati idaṃ na hoti” (When this arises that arises, when this ceases that ceases).

This non-duality concept, Shen Xiu did not understand. It talks about duality. It says, when this arises, that arises. That is what duality is. When you create an opposite, meaning like defilement, automatically whatever that is not defilement which is wholesomeness arises. So, you want wholesomeness. You do not want defilement, but both are duality created by the mundane mind. So, how can you cultivate in this way to cease it? You cannot because when you create one, the opposite automatically manifests. That is why “imasmiṃ sati idaṃ hoti” - which means when this arises, that arises. Then, the Buddha continues “imasmiṃ asati idaṃ na hoti” – which means when this cease, that ceases. That is, when you do not create, both the duality never exists. That is why Hui Neng knew originally it was empty. If you do not create, where can the dust alight and that bring about profound understanding and awakening. That is why, when the Fifth Patriarch read their poems, he knew Shen Xiu was not ready – reason why he straight away went to the kitchen and looked for Hui Neng to talk to him. Of course, the way they talk, their words are like camouflage. Though the words were camouflaged, Hui Neng knew the Fifth Patriarch’s message to invite him to come over at the 3rd watch of the night, to hand him the patriarch ship, the final teaching, and the mind seal. In the middle of the night, at the third watch ‘三更’(Sān gēng), he went and meet up with the Fifth Patriarch, Master Hung Ren and received the patriarch ship, the bowl, the robe and the insignia and the teachings. So, that is how the Sixth Patriarch Platform Sutra became so famous, meaningful, and beautiful, and my nature can understand this straight away the moment I heard that poem, though no one taught, described, or explained it to me before. No teacher taught me that or any book write about it in that manner, but my nature awakened, and I knew what it was. That is why it is so beautiful. So, when you understand this: originally there was nothing, where can the dustalight, then do not be foolish and allow the mundane mind to create duality. Do not hold onto things, do not give meaning to things. Because all these pertain to the mundane world, mundane existence. Within our mundane existential world, duality exists, life exists, living beings exist. All these exist but when you awaken and realise profound emptiness, all these do not exist (within the unconditioned). That is why the Heart sutra said, ‘in true emptiness, there is no such thing’. So, this is the profound meaning. Hope you all can understand.

You should reflect, contemplate, and go deep into it and develop your own understanding. Initially, it is like what you have gone through, - wow, it is so beautiful, but you should reflect and contemplate until you can come up with your own understanding as to why it is so beautiful and how when later, he continues to have the dialogue with the Fifth Patriarch and their exchange of words are even more beautiful. So, the profound understanding of that true nature is incredibly beautiful. It clearly explains what the mundane mind is and what the true mind and true nature is and why that type of conversation between two enlightened beings, only the enlightened ones can understand and awaken to. So, hopefully with this detailed explanation, more and more people can develop the understanding and the contemplation to go deeper into all these so that they can share this beautiful teaching with others later.

3.2.7 Direct Pointing to The True Mind

Brother Song: I continued to watch the videos these few days and realised that the conversation of Sixth Patriarch is incredibly good and profound, simple, and direct pointing to the true mind, ‘直指人心’ (Zhí zhǐ rén xīn).

Brother Teoh: He bypassed all the Theravāda type of initial teaching and cultivation involving methods, techniques and mundane dhamma by pointing directly to his first hallmark of ‘无念’ (Wú niàn) cultivation. You must realise your true mind which is without thought. Without thought that is your true mind. Then meditate with your true mind, and nobody can teach like that. That is why thus far, only he teaches like that. He takes you direct to the true mind, the self-nature. That is why his way is so direct and very penetrative and he bypassed all the so-called initial teachings because the initial teaching of the Theravāda tradition, the essential dhamma and all those things are so beautiful, so meaningful but they are all mostly thought and knowledge-based Dharma. That one needs reflection, contemplation, and inquiry to stabilise the understanding. Finally, to awaken, you need the third turning cultivation. You must silent everything to insight into phenomena, to awaken because without mindfulness, without realising the true mind you cannot meditate, you cannot awaken, you cannot understand. That is why his three cultivation hallmarks, No thought, No mark, No dwelling (无念，无相，无住), of Hui Neng are incredibly beautiful. After you have penetrated the “no thought” stage to realise your true mind, then only you can develop the daily mindfulness, the silent mind to develop higher wisdom to realise the “no mark” stage, - that is no mark of a Self-cultivating, no mark of others and no mark of life,existence and dharma which are very profound. It is not easy. You must realise true emptiness to realise the no mark, the 12-Links and all those related understanding of course. The silent mind that observes and comes to understand - like I explained earlier before we start the class - at the beginning of today’s sharing. You must understand the whole thing very clearly and then the teaching becomes so different.

After you can clear the “no mark” stage, you are really very different. Your cultivation is already very advanced. Then, to reach the stage of “no dwelling” is not easy. You need to go the Bodhisattva way and, for the mundane mind to collapse is also not easy. You need to have pāramī and all those understanding. But do not worry, all these can happen except, it depends on the individual's cultivation, their understanding, their perseverance, their sincerity, trust, and faith. Faith is very important. So, all these are very beautiful. More and more Kalyāṇamittas are moving into this direction of cultivation. That is why my sharing also, I realised, I am going into all these in a different and deeper manner. Then, all the explanations that I develop and explain now, are quite easy to understand because there is a lot of clarity. Basically, most of you have already developed the initial basic understanding, stability of mindfulness and cultivation to have the conditions to receive all these types of teachings. All these will prepare you all for the next retreat. The next retreat is going to be very beautiful, and a lot of things are going to happen. Very good and sādhu to you Brother Song.

3.2.8 Thought-Based knowledge is not wisdom

Brother Song: I recently came to realize, even after having attended Brother Teoh’s explanation of the Sixth Patriarch Platform Sutra classes in the early years; the understanding was still mainly at the intellectual and contemplative level. However, this time around when I watched master Hui Neng’s (Sixth Patriarch) short video clip’s conversations again, especially Hui Neng’s explanation, the understanding is so different. It is now so much clearer, and very direct and like, I could fully understand its deep meaning. The disciples of Shen Xiu who came to share and ask Hui Neng questions had not realised their true mind; they were caught in thought-based meditation because their mundane minds are highly active doing and creating dualities, thereby giving rise to a lot of thought-based questions. They use thoughts which are limited and egoic to reason and analyse a situation/problem based on their limited views, opinions, and conditionings.

Brother Teoh: When Shen Xiu taught the Noble 8-Fold Path, it was all thought-based. That is why when the Sixth Patriarch during the exchanges with one of his disciples, asked, “How did your teacher Shen Xiu teach you?” My teacher says, ‘morality is abstaining from doing evil, samādhi is concentration of mind and wisdom is to purify one’s own mind’. After that the Sixth Patriarch answered, “No. The real Noble 8-Fold Path is not like that, it has nothing to do with all those things.” The disciple was shocked when told what they had learned is Dhamma knowledge developed through thought-based cultivation, not the profound teaching from the ‘self-nature’. The profound true teaching of the Noble Eightfold Path is rather different. The right view is based on the penetrative understanding and awakening, developed from the three hallmarks of Hui Neng. You must at least clear the first hallmark of “no thought”, otherwise, you cannot have the direct seeing (leading to the right view). Then when you have the right view, it is not about how to continue to arise right thought, right speech and right actions only, all these are still the initial cultivations. Without a stable sati, wisdom, and stability of understanding, the Noble Eightfold Path cannot become a part of you. You cannot have the embodiment of all the Noble Eightfold Path factors. You need the initial wisdom, the yoniso manasikāra borne of the direct seeing and wisdom borne of direct insight into phenomena. When that one arises, then naturally, the four right efforts can fall into place. When the 3rd turning wisdom, leading to the awakening arises, the wisdom will prompt you at every moment of sense experience. Then you will know what the Buddha meant by yoniso manasikāra after that. That initial wisdom must be there, whereas what Shen Xiu taught them is to use memory, and Dhamma knowledge (via thoughts reasoning and analysis) to try to overcome their defilement and solve their problems. All the explanations given are thought-based. That is why Hui Neng says, ‘if you cultivate like that you are wasting your time’. You cannot awaken. You have to silent your mind to observe, to understand and to awaken. Then only all this becomes possible. Then you must reflect, contemplate until your understanding is very stable. Then from inside at the heart area, it will come out to prompt you. The whole understanding of the awakening is so different. So, if you cannot understand how the real awakening arises, how can you teach people? You cannot! There is no way! You will be stuck in knowledge and thought-based practices; coming out with teachings that are logical and interesting, but not from the direct seeing, and awakening. So, understanding the cultivation is especially important. When you meditate without understanding, it will not lead to awakening. It will make one gullible and lead one to thought-based and knowledge-based Dhamma.

So, realising the true mind, the silent mind is paramount, and a pre-requisite to meditate. That is why you must have sati, then stabilise the sati to become ever mindful. Realise the true mind, the silent mind, then from there, develop heedfulness. This is the reason why Hui Neng explained: ‘the dhamma I teach (or speak of) does not depart from the self-nature, for to depart from the self-nature in explaining the dhamma is to speak of marks and continuously confuse the cultivators. You should come to realize that all dhamma arise from the self-nature and this is true Sīla, Samādhi and Paññā. Listen to my verse:

Mind-ground without wrong/evil – implies self-nature morality.

Mind-ground compose, still and without confusion – implies self-nature Samādhi.

Mind-ground without delusion – implies self-nature wisdom.

I do not blame the Theravāda tradition and the other Buddhist traditions for all this lack of understanding because the emphasis is traditionally on memorising the Sutta, chanting and doing all those thought-based sitting, walking, noting, focusing and concentration via various methods and techniques then repeating all that, thinking those are Meditation. All these are very mechanical (repetitive) practices involving thoughts and it will make the mind dull and rigid.

At that time, there was no writing, and it has been like that for so long and they depended heavily on commentaries. Then over the years, the teaching has become distorted. The true teaching is no longer taught by enlightened beings. That is why you need the real cultivators who have the awakening to really bring back the authentic, penetrative teaching to teach and share the true dhamma. That is the reason why initially when I wanted to come out to share, I find it difficult to teach you all because you all are so conditioned by all the various Theravāda methods, techniques, and way of teachings; the sutta text, and commentary-based teachings. Whereas the true understanding is from the silent mind, the true mind, the awareness nature, and I do not know why the meaning of sati was also not explained to people in a clear manner. That one, I think maybe over the years, it must have been lost, when they translate to another language, it becomes more difficult. At least what Bodhidhamma brought over to China, that one is still incredibly good and authentic. In the Mahāyāna tradition, they know what that sati “正念” (zhèng niàn) is. I believe a lot of the Zen traditions they do know what the daily mindfulness is, what the awareness nature is, what that true nature is, but the real teachers, who have such understanding, transformation and realization may not be that many nowadays, - maybe only the Patriarchs and their close disciples. That is why this type of teaching is not easy to come by. So, what we have developed over the years are incredibly beautiful. Especially now with our website, the short videos, the transcripted books, and the various other valuable sharing. All these are going to help future generations and a lot of Kalyāṇamittas. If you can sincerely spend time listening to all these, you can awaken. Try to write it down; (what I say, write it down and read through it again). Sometimes you may think you know because when you listen, the words are there for you to follow, that is as if it is incredibly beautiful. But when you close the book or do not refer to anything, just listen, you realise you cannot remember because your wisdom inside, is still not stable, yet. There is understanding, but it is not stable yet. So, you need to write it down somewhere, then the meaning can stand out and become incredibly beautiful. All this understanding that my nature, and other true cultivators went through can arise is because we have cultivated them for exceptionally long time/periods. Then when we share it just comes out straight from the heart naturally. Then when you listen, it is like quite simple, quite easy because everything has been summarised and clearly laid out. But when you write it down, the understanding is clearer; that is why the transcript is useful and good. You read the transcript then you realise all these are so beautiful and that is why today’s sharing, if you can do the transcript, it is going to be incredibly beautiful, especially my earlier explanation. I realised these adapted verses sharing from this book (Essence of Infinite Meanings), so far there is no transcript yet. So, if you all have the time or have the interest, you should start with this, because today’s sharing is incredibly good. Okay Brother Song you can continue. I do not want to take up much of your time.

3.2.9 Clarity of Two Minds (the true mind and the mundane mind)

Brother Song shared that the understanding of this path must be clear. If it were the old me, in the past I would immediately ask about my experience. “Why like that?” I would ask Brother Teoh and Brother Teoh would say, it is still the “thought” that wants to know. During that time, there were lots of efforts to cultivate. And I only realised that recently I could truly differentiate between the two minds. Thought wants to know why, and many “why?” in the past. The questions of “why” were amazingly fast and these habitual tendencies would take over to stir the mundane mind.

Brother Teoh: That is the basic mistake of cultivators. Because they do not know how to differentiate between these two minds. They always go back to the mundane mind which has the memories, views, opinions, conditionings, the habitual thinking, and scars of memories etc. And acting according to all these are thought-based actions (borne of accumulated memories) because they are not wisdom borne of the direct seeing by the silent/true mind. That is why I always tell you, that is from the thought. It is from the thought again! It has come back through the back door. The thought is still active behind (in the background). (Who wants to know? The thought wants to know). Unless you can understand what J Krishnamurti says about the limitation of thought, you will continue to use thought. Unless you can understand the danger of how thought divides and creates duality, through concept and words, you will never stop using thought. To you, thought is so beautiful, so useful, and wonderful. But thought has its purpose and its place because to come to this existential world to live life you need thought. Thought is an instrument for communication, for expression, for learning the technical thing, the arts, the science etc. But when it comes to psychological memories and emotions, you cannot use thought. Because it is a waste of energy. Energy gets dissipated amazingly fast through thought. It will create stress, emotions, and negativity of mind states. So thought has its purpose and thought is responds to memory. It has its purpose but not to apply it to psychological problems. Psychological problems need Dhamma, Dhamma medicine. But to study technical, science subjects, mathematical subjects, IT (Information Technology) and everything else, you need to have thought. Without thought, the logical mind cannot function, and the logical mind needs to think. You must think with clarity. That is why the Four Bases of Success will ensure mundane successes if you know how to develop them. The first base is passion or “chanda” - for you to be successful in whatever you want to excel in, you must have the passion to do it, to understand it. Then you go all out to do it and that is “vīriya” (strong tenacity/zeal to do). Then “citta”, the will power to drive you to success. That one you need thought, you use thought. Then finally the investigation part, “vīmaṃsā”, to continuously review and improve. So, understanding all this is not easy.

That is why when I started to come out to share and teach, I realized the traditional dhamma commonly taught is extremely limited, and very dogmatic. They cannot expand into all this to develop the understanding, so that is the reason why I knew they will fail because I understood: “acting according to memory, or according to Sutta knowledge is not acting at all”. You need to develop insight, wisdom and awakening to act. Then only you can penetrate all this. And to penetrate all this, is not easy because you need the silent mind and this silent mind’s understanding, I have been trying to teach for so long. Only recently (in the last few years), it started to take shape and bear fruit. Then like what you mentioned, last time you still cannot understand all this, because a lot of your questions came from the thought. And basically, those thought processes arise from the mundane mind which is still deluded hence limited and egoic. If you cannot differentiate between the two minds, and develop the clear understanding, then you cannot free. So, for you Song, this understanding is incredibly good. But do reflect, contemplate, and realise the big difference between the mundane mind and the true mind. You must have a clear understanding of these two minds. Otherwise, you will continue to fall back to the mundane mind. Like you say habitual tendencies, deep rooted habitual tendencies which recently, you came to realize. It is not easy to root out all these habitual tendencies. You must combine what I had shared with you and J Krishnamurti’s teaching. It is very good of J Krishnamurti to point out that thought is limited but he didn’t go into the details to explain it. I have explained to you what “thought” is.

Basically, when we are with the true mind, it is just spacious awareness because there is no content of consciousness yet. That is why thought cannot arise. There is just awareness. But when you use your memory to perceive, then perception brings in the external form, then your views, opinions, and conditionings enable your content of consciousness to go in. Then it creates a thought. Obviously that thought is limited because whenever you perceive something, you shrink that pure awareness/consciousness into that limited (or narrow) field/space like the Buddha image, you zoom into that. Then the content of consciousness (which is mainly your views, opinions, conditionings, and comments, etc,) goes in. Then it becomes a thought. So that is why thought is limited. And that thought is egoic because it comes from delusion. So, that is the reason why, not until you are enlightened, you do not know how to use thought. That is why the user of thought is particularly important. When the user of thought has Dhamma, has wisdom then thought becomes right thought, wholesome thought, beautiful thought, then you can use thought. Then thoughts become your friend, a tool to serve you, no more problem. Otherwise, it will condition attachment, craving, clinging, grasping and self-delusion (sakkāyadiṭṭhi). Then you will always revert to thought because that is the only instrument that deluded human beings understand. So, see all these clearly, understand all these clearly, then, you will never revert to using thought to deal with psychological problems. Then, you will know why thought has its place in life, in society but not in the psychological world, not for Dhamma awakening and understanding, not for cultivation. When it comes to Cultivation you must realize the truth, which is beyond thought, beyond mind. So, you must understand all these very clearly, then only you can have the true penetrative, clarity and understanding to cultivate accordingly. With all these explanations, I hope you all can understand. It is not easy to understand this teaching because it is not what you think. So, this is incredibly beautiful.

Brother Song, thank you so much for bringing out all these conditions for my nature to explain all these. This part is difficult to understand and very profound but slowly, there is condition already because otherwise the sharing will not have all these clear and profound understanding that I just shared.

To recap this is for you to understand clearly why the mundane mind is egoic and has its limitation. Why is it limited and why is it egoic? Why you cannot use it to cultivate Dhamma and apply it to solve your life problem, especially psychological problem. When you act according to memory, you are not acting according to understanding or wisdom (mainly because you do not have yoniso manasikāra yet), then your whole cultivation goes haywire. That is why people tend to always use their intellect, Dhamma knowledge to try to practise dhamma; - you cannot. So, all these understanding will become truly clear when you cultivate correctly from the self-nature. Okay Song. Sādhu! To you.

Brother Song: Yes, Sādhu! Brother Teoh.

3.2.10 All these are part of the cultivation

Brother Song: Today's sharing is incredibly good. Therefore, all Kalyāṇamittas must put in efforts, have faith and understanding to cultivate diligently and accordingly. While meditating, we train the mundane mind to be silent. Whatever experience you went through, is always part of the cultivation. Just let it be. If we do not understand the training, we will deviate and fall back into seeking good meditative experiences. We want to know what the meaning and significance of all these experiences are. In fact, we only need to understand, all the experiences that arise during the meditative training are part of the way then our understanding is there. Then you can just let things be. Just be silent, and whatever mind states that arise just “aware”. Do not need to react. Slowly, we can start cultivating with this understanding for about 15mins or 20mins, via training the mind to be just aware then the understanding and faith can arise.

Brother Teoh: Yes! Develop the mind and let it be more and more quiet, still, and aware so that it (the mind) does not think. That is especially important. That is mindfulness leading to heedfulness. When you are heedful most of the time, you are just aware. You only need to arise the thought when you need to use the thought for living life or understanding or sharing or whatever. Apart from that you are most of the time silent and just aware. You must reach this stability of training. And when you are developing the cultivation that you mentioned, whatever that happened, all your meditative experiences (jìngjiè 境界) - no matter how fantastic or special that arise (even including those from watching YouTube short video); those experiences are not important because they are all part of the way. Yes, what is important is; does it give rise to wisdom? If it gives rise to wisdom, contemplative, reflection, inquiry or direct seeing that is useful. It is the wisdom that frees your mind, straightens our views, and let you understand. When more and more understanding is there, wisdom arises naturally.

That is why you need to silent your mind to observe, to be completely silent to develop the ability to be aware of what is going on within your form and mind and in life. Then only can you have self-knowledge, to know who you are, what you are. Then you can understand how your mundane mind arises, how it stirs, how it creates all those dualities borne of saṅkhāra’s heedless thinking. Then also what thought is, see the limitation of thought, how thought divides and creates all this conflict, and misunderstanding, and the evil roots; this can only be understood through a very stable mindfulness, and awareness (through the internal awareness that sees all these movements). If you cannot do that, you cannot meditate, then it becomes thought-based doing. Thought is continually active because thought is trying to meditate, or thought is trying to know or trying to do the noting, focusing, and chanting. All these are thought-based. It cannot give rise to true understanding or wisdom. It is not the ‘self-nature’ observing. So, if thought is trying to understand thought then how can you be free from thought? Basically, thought is trying to control thought. The controller is the controlled. That is how J. Krishnamurti puts it. The controller which is thought is trying to control anger, emotion, etc., but anger and emotion is also thought. You do not separate them because when you are aware, you clearly see the delusion of thought because thought cannot go beyond thought. Thought is limited, egoic and has all these problems. Thought has its place in existence and life but thought is not for us to use to cultivate the Dhamma because thought cannot penetrate beyond thought to realise the Dhamma which is beyond thought, beyond mind. So thought-based meditation, thought-based knowledge does not serve much purpose because it cannot lead to awakening. Thought-based knowledge is not Dhamma, not the true Dhamma! It is not the real cultivation! So, see all these. Understand all these. Then you become different.

So, today’s main sharing point is to lead you all deeper into the true cultivation because unless you understand what that true cultivation is; you all can still be trapped at the mundane mind, thought level because the mundane mind is the only instrument that people can understand and use a lot. That is why you need to reverse all these, through training the mind to be silent, to be aware. Then you can see how it (the mundane mind) stirs, to arise the defilements, how it becomes emotional, fearful, insecure, frightful. How the views, opinions and the conditionings come in and create conflict, and misunderstanding. Then you start to understand why the Buddha says, the mind is the forerunner of all things, mind is chief. If you give attention to the wrong thing (things which are unfit for attention) then the defilement, the āsava becomes more and more. The un-arisen (defilement) arises and the arisen (defilement) will proliferate and become more powerful. But when you pay attention following the Sabbāsava Sutta, by attending to the Four Noble Truths and its three turnings, the Dhamma understanding arises, then you will come to realise the arisen āsava ceases to be. The un-arisen defilement cannot arise because you are basically contemplating, reflecting, and silencing your mind to develop the wisdom, the Dhamma understanding. That is why you must pay attention to Dhamma. When you reflect on the three turnings of the Four Noble Truths, when you cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path, the essential Dhamma; - all these are right attention, which means you apply the thought to the right things that are fit for attention. You are not paying attention to negative things, emotional things, frightful things, leading to fear, worry, anxiety and insecurities. That is why when the faith is no more there, you will develop the opposite negativity of mind states of fear, worry, anxiety, doubt, sorrow, and lamentation. These are all the mental hindrances that arise because the opposite 5 spiritual faculties are not there. So, all this understanding you must have. Then understand it clearly, write it down (if you need to) so that it is no more just dhamma knowledge. Initially you need to learn the teaching, then try to put it into practice. When you put into practice, initially the thought-based thinking keeps on coming in to interfere because the thought which is so conditioned, and habitual is so active. Then you need to continue to relax, maintain awareness and remain silent. That is why that part is particularly important. If you do not do that you cannot realise the true mind. You cannot develop the stability of awareness. Then you cannot do anything to stop your thinking mind, the mundane mind from being heedless. Then according to Lord Buddha, the heedless think a lot whereas the heedful never think (or very seldom think), most of the time they are just aware. Since heedfulness is the path to the deathless. So, you must train your mind to be heedful. To be heedful you must be aware. Stabilise it, then make it ever mindful. Then use it to cultivate; so that all the essential Dhamma can fall into place. That is the reason why your cultivation should be done with understanding. Follow all these steps: relax and maintain awareness, stabilise that to become ever mindful and then use it to cultivate the three turnings of the Four Noble Truths, and the essential Dhamma. Then constantly listening to the Dhamma, reflect, contemplate, develop the faith, “saddhā”, then arise the initial wisdom, yoniso manasikāra; develop awareness with clear comprehension (satisampajañña) following the 10 steps of Avijjā Sutta. All these will fall into place, they are all connected, linked. So, this understanding is particularly important. What Song wanted to explain today is very beautiful but because now for Song’s case, he has not developed the stability and clarity of understanding yet, that’s why he still cannot put into words clearly yet, but he basically knows what all these are. So, as a recap, if you experience anything or whatever arise during cultivation, always remember it is all part of the way. If you are sincere, you have faith and you persevere, the Dhamma will unfold. So, do not go and create doubt, worry, via asking “am I doing it correctly or not”? All these are mental hindrances arising from the thought. Have faith, be sincere and persevere. Just do! Then continue to silent your mind, observe, dwell in the Dhamma, attend to the Dhamma, the three turnings of the Four Noble Truths, the essential Dhamma, the dhamma will unfold. Including all these: - the daily religious routine (covering everything that I have taught you), the daily mindfulness, etc. you will definitely progress. You will become incredibly beautiful. Okay Song, Sādhu!

Brother Song: Sādhu Brother Teoh!

Brother Teoh: Sādhu! It is already 10:43 pm. Thank you so much, Song for bringing out the condition for today’s good sharing. So, do listen to today’s sharing. It can help a lot of people; the cultivation is all there. The understanding is all there. Slowly, slowly write it down and develop the clear understanding.

Okay so we shall end our today’s sharing. Let us rejoice one more time. Sādhu! Sādhu! Sādhu!

Table of Contents

(Biodata of Bro. Teoh Kian Koon)

1 Preface

2 Acknowledgement

3 Lesson 55 of The Sutra of Infinite Meanings dated 24th June 2021

3.1 Pre Pūjā sharing

3.1.1 Awareness based Meditation

3.2 Post Meditation Dhamma sharing

3.2.1 Empty Nature of Existence

3.2.2 The 5 Aggregates of Form and Mind

3.2.3 Next Adapted verse preview

3.2.4 Mind must have no dwelling

3.2.5 Penetrative Understanding

3.2.6 Sixth Patriarch’s Poem

3.2.7 Direct Pointing to The True Mind

3.2.8 Thought-Based knowledge is not wisdom

3.2.9 Clarity of Two Minds (the true mind and the mundane mind)

3.2.10 All these are part of the cultivation