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All good-knowing advisors, today is my turn to come
forward to share my experience of being a Buddhist. Being a novice
and lack of knowledge, I look forward to hearing from your
comments and correction on my talk.
The topic of today's talk is “Belief, Vows and Practice”. Although
it was more than 2500 years when Buddha Shakyamuni lived in this
world, his teachings are still applicable and relevantly fresh in
nowadays. The synonyms of Buddha are Supreme Scholar, Heroic Tamer
and Teacher of Gods. In fact, he is not only a great teacher, but
also an engineer of mind and artist of life.
The first thing to learn Buddhism is to believe. When Shakyamuni
Buddha instructed his disciples, he encouraged them to practice
what he taught instead of believing what he said. We beginners,
based on our limited knowledge, surely have doubts about Buddha's
or Venerable Master's instructions. Even though nowadays ‘science’
could not validate or prove what Buddhist teachings are right, it
does not mean they are wrong. In “Hundred Dharma Doors Analects”,
the text states that belief is the first dharma door among 11
beneficial dharma doors, while doubt is one of the causes of 6
afflictions. The “Sutra of Budhisattva's Original Vows” also
states that first is to believe; second is to think; third is to
validate it. We have to believe what Buddhist teachings first and
think afterwards. Doubt arises when we think because it is what we
are taught at school, to suspect what other people say before it
was proved. However suspicion sometimes is a large hindrance for
beginners in learning Buddhism. Third is to prove it by the act.
We need to confirm Buddhist teachings by acting. For instance,
when someone told you that reciting Buddha's name will grant you
such merits and virtues, you may suspect whether it is true.
Similarly while we are reciting mantras such as Great Compassion
Mantra or Shurangama Mantra, we may doubt about their powerful
strength simply because of not knowing the meanings of mantra. We
might ask ourselves “Will I gain benefits by reciting those
unmeaning words to me? ”Indeed that is what belief is. Whatever we
are convinced is true; it is true even thought it may be false.
Whatever we are convinced is false; it is false even though it is
true. Another example is seeing a doctor. A patient may felt cured
without taking any medicine by just seeing a well-known doctor,
simply because of his confidence in this doctor's techniques. Even
though doctor gave him or her some vitamin pills, he or she may
believe that such a famed doctor has cured his illness. In fact
that is why two groups, control and experimental, were used for
testing a new drug. The participants in control group are given a
placebo and experimental group, the real medicine. Likewise the
same medication prescribed from two physicians may get
significantly different results on the same patient.
I have some personal experiences on this. I remembered one time I
picked up a blind lady who needed a ride. It came upon that I was
playing the Great Compassion Mantra in the car and she asked me
what music it was. She said she felt very peaceful and relaxed
after listening to the Mantra. She is an American and I believed
she has never heard any mantra before. Sometimes I play Great
Compassion Mantra during work and my colleagues are curious what
the meanings of the song are. My reply is “I do not know, either”.
They all wonder why I keep playing a song that I do not know what
it is. I think it is what belief is, i.e. to believe it is true
first.
The second is to vow. The power of vow is very important. The
“Sutra of Past Vows of Earth Store Budhisattva” mentions Earth
Store Budhisattva's past vows before he accomplished the
Budhisattvahood. Emperor Liang's Repentance also states the vows
in the text and we recite the three vows in our daily chanting
before meals.
I grew up in Taiwan but I did not have an opportunity to know
proper Dharma until I came to the United States. Whenever I
encounter troubles, I always want to have a quick answer for
solving the problems. Hoping to get help, I personally have tried
practicing external or deviant paths such as asking embodied
divines or ghosts. However the answer I got was against my wish
most of the time. Luckily I did not believe in those, maybe
because I have made such a vow in the past so I would be able to
get acquaintance with proper Dharma in this life.
I had the chance of getting close to Venerable Master's Way Places
when I came to the States. I feel very blessed, just like you, to
have the opportunity of knowing Proper Dharma. By that time, I
realized that all Buddhas and Budhisatttvas have made different
vows in their past lives. Moreover their vows are different from
those of ordinary people who may only wish to have a prosperous
business, making profits and money, a wonderful family and so on.
Vow and strength interacts each other. When we make a vow, we have
the strength. Pure Land is an auspicious and magnificent place,
that is because Amitabha Buddha has made tremendous vows in his
past lives. Venerable Master has made 18 great vows and so does
Medicine Buddha, 12 great vows. They have their similarities, i.e.
hoping all beings to attain bliss and free of suffering.
I remembered one time my son had to breed a caterpillar larva
(silkworm) for his science class. You may know that butterfly has
soft and fragile wings when it just comes out of cocoon. At that
time, my son was holding the newly born butterfly in his palms and
wondering why it did not fly away. Unfortunately his action has
severely injured butterfly's wings and legs such that it could not
even make itself stand up, leaving alone to fly. He called his
teacher and Mom for help. Upon seeing this scene, my wife has
suggested euthanizing the butterfly for getting rid of its
suffering. However my son has a different thought. He has
demonstrated us this poor little butterfly's strong will to live
on by showing us its desire to sip sugar water whenever he fed it.
Just like a small ant, it would run away for its life whenever it is disturbed. Indeed all beings would like to live without any
pain or suffering. That is why Buddhas and Budhisatttvas make
their vows for benefiting all beings, i.e. wish every living being
can leave suffering and attain bliss, but not for the sake of
themselves.
The last is to practice. Confucius said ‘refrain ourselves from
wrong doing by practicing proprieties”. Moses also taught his
disciples the 10 precepts. Shakyamuni Buddha instructed us not to
do any evil but do practice all good deeds. Therefore we come to
the Way Place for practicing cultivation, holding precepts,
reciting Buddha's name and meditating. We all know this is the
most important step cultivation. However I feel very shameful on
discussing this because it is my worst part. Sutra texts say
“ceasing greed, hatred and stupidity” and “do no evils’. Although
I am still far from that state, I would still encourage myself to
come to the Way Place as often as possible so I could be molded
and influenced gradually by the merits of Triple Jewels.
Recently I have read a book called “Stories of Water”, which was
written by a Japanese scholar. He has investigated water
crystallization under different situations. He found it water
created beautiful crystals at low temperature when it was spoken
with decent words. On the contrary, if water was spoken or tagged
with bad or hatred words on the bottle, the crystallization was
awful. Buddhist texts have even illustrated this concept more
thoroughly by stating “A single rise of thought is yet a fault, an
offense.” Our thoughts are the causes of all karmas that we need
to endure in the future. I do not have more comments on this part
because I myself did not put efforts in practicing Buddhism. All
you great advisors with virtue certainly do better than me.
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