My weakness can be my strength

A good friend once said to me: “Your greatest weakness is your greatness strength.”

In our cultivation we try to recognize the short comings and weaknesses in our nature or character, and try to rectify these flaws.

In one of the dharma talks of Ven. Haiyun Jimeng HeShang, he said that we could make use of our most stubborn habitual tendency. If we can recognize that habitual tendency, transform it, purify it and turn it into a virtue, strengthen and nature this virtue till it reaches perfection, then the rest of our virtues will flourish into complete excellence together.

Knowing is one thing, working on it is another. The problem with Buddhism nowadays is all talk and very little practice. Do not advocate any principle unless you have worked it through or at least try.

So I should try to transform my weakness into my strength. Ah… which one should I start with?

Being Nice

People perform nice or wholesome deeds for many different reasons or aspirations.

Some of the aspirations are:

1. Afraid of the karma.
2. Like the rewards of the good deeds.
3. Out of the desire to gain fame and power.
4. Moral or social norms.
5. Taught to be so.
6. Fooling oneself-” I am a good person as I do good deeds”
   

Due to the differences in aspirations, performing the same wholesome act by different persons will bring totally diverse effects or results.

The best scenario is that a person is nice out of his nature or heart with no impurity.

Through practice, we try to filter out the unwholesome elements in our characters and habitual tendencies so that our mind, speech and body are pure. Only when we are nice out of our nature will our actions be true wholesome deeds.

--

My benevolent dharma friend

A benevolent dharma friend called me yesterday as a surprise. We have not been talking for a while as we have no common ground in our lives besides learning Buddhism. We both started learning Huayen Buddhism years ago at the same time. She is the most diligent practitioner I personally known. She used to call me in the middle of the night and we would talk for hours on our practice, the quest for existential Turth or our small realization.

She does not own a computer, does not watch television and has only dharma friends. She applies her practice twenty-four hours a day. She observes inwards and contemplates on the arising of consciousness. I am her opposite. I spend many hours a day in front of the computer and in doing worldly activities. Every time she talks to me, she reminds me to put my priority into Shamatha and Vipassana.

On our last phone conversation, one of the insights that I have gained is: “Through diligent practice your benevolent dharma friends will show up around you and friends that have bad influences on you will gradually disappear.” People with the same vibe attract each other.

The friendship between she and I is not close, but deep. We talk the same language. She is one of the few persons that I can have a profound dharma discussion with. She makes my Bodhi Path not so lonely. Her response to my comment will be: “Let go of all friendship too! Who am I that is clinging onto friendship?”

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

My friends and I participated in the “Doors Open Toronto” last weekend and visited the gorgeous “BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir” a Hindus Temple.

The experience was great and we all had a good time. One of the tour guides told us that “mandir” meant “the stilling of the mind". I searched on the internet and did not find that definition at all, however I like that meaning very much.

The building was nicely constructed with so many details and careful thoughts put into it. I learnt more about Hinduism. The weather was great. The companies were superb.

When you have time, you should visit it too.

.

God and Heaven

Anthony’s friend wrote:

And, thanks for your comment on Buddhist perspective on after life. Unfortunately, there are many friends who claimed themselves "Buddhists" talked to me about the "World of Supreme Happiness" (極樂世界) which is a version very similar to the Heaven concept and those idealized after-life Utopia that many religion used for luring new believers to believe their religions.

God and Heaven are the two big elements in religions. The former is to explain the unknown of nature and the latter to comfort people from the fear of death.

Certainly, it will take a lot of will power and courage to face death without a religion and to deal with the unknowns.

Life after death

Anthony’s friend wrote:

Thanks Anthony for your detail analysis.

I think Chinese, especially Taoism, have accepted for years that anything known and unknown are part of nature and thus "Tao"?

For Buddhism, they do not emphasis the term "God" who could comfort you when you are in need. Rather they preach that you have to achieve the level of Buddha to have that comfort? (Correct me if I am wrong?)

Of course, the existence of religion is due to the fear of death and they promise a better life after death...but I wonder whether this is self-deceiving?

I would rather accept the concept that you live a good life while you still have a life?

**************

My response:

I just like to correct a misconception.

Buddhism is not about life after death.

Real Buddhism is about finding out the Truth of Life and how to live our lives to the fullest extent at present.

Only when we can fully utilize our potential, we can live a forever good life. In Buddhism we do that through practice and enlightenment.

Happily in love!

A friend of mine just came back from his honeymoon and told me “Everyday will be honeymoon, if one stays grateful to everything one encounters”. I can tell that he is happily in love right now.

Love can provide us with great strength and joy. It is a good source of positive energy. We just have to beware that we do not attach love with desire, lust, craving, clinging and grasping. Also we should expand the love we have for one single entity, to more different aspects, to all surrounding (laterally). And we should transcend our love into compassion, kindness and humanity (vertically).

Love, like everything else, if you know how to make good use of it, is a very beautiful thing.

May we all be happily in love!

The existence of God

The existence of God

Does God exist? What does God represent? What is the definition of God?

We need to tackle the quest for God in three aspects.
1. The essence of God
2. The attributes or manifestation of God
3. The function or usefulness of God

People can argue to no end if each person has a different notion about God. God as the Almighty, the creator of the universe; or God as the Savior, who overlook us; or God as the Absolute, the Abstract, the metaphor of the Truth; each version brings in different level of mentality.

The essence of God is beyond description, impeccable and unexplainable.
The attributes or manifestation of God depend on one’s definition of God.
The function or usefulness of God is obvious. Without Him so many people are in so much pain.

There are gods and there is God

From Anthony:

There are gods and there is God.

The notion of gods exists in all cultures and societies. They are but personification of the natural forces we have to deal with in order tosurvive. The forces could be external, e.g. wind, thunder, etc., or they could be internal, i.e. psychic.

The notion of God is a different animal. It is a belief of the three monotheistic religions, i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam. One characteristic of this belief is the motto 'Mine is the only truth' or more crudely, my way or the highway.

The Vedic and Hindu religious culture of India also had their notion of God, but that is another story.

What is interesting is that the Chinese never developed this anthropomorphic notion of God. We were quite happy to keep it open and abstract and simply call it Tao（道）. The drawback to this is that in time of crisis, we don't have someone upstairs to give us comfort.

Maybe that is why Einstein said belief in God is childish. But in terms of spiritual development, the human race is indeed childish. So in a sense we get the beliefs that we deserve.

Nietzsche once said, "God is dead", but God said, "Nietzsche is dead".

Einstein said, "God is childish", but God said, "Einstein is childish".

So you see, God always has the last word.

Wherever you go, there you are

From Miles:

Nice blog. I look forward to seeing much more of your writing there. Your comments on travel are most enlightening and I can't help but agree.

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To see all the beauty in the world we need look no further than that which is immediately present in our own minds.

As William Blake said,

"To see the world in a grain of sand,

and to see heaven in a wild flower.

To hold infinity in the palm of your hands,

and eternity in an hour".

.

Or as the wit said: "Wherever you go, there you are."

Alternatively,

"When we see truly, there is nothing at all.
There is no person; there is no Buddha.
Innumerable things of the universe
Are just bubbles on the sea.
Wise sages are all like flashes of lightning."

-Yoka Genkaku (665-713 CE), Shodoka

So, too, our troubles, all of our trials and tribulations can be viewed as merely "bubbles on the sea".

Thank you for sharing all of your Dharma wisdom with us.

Your indomitable spirit will continue to find new and innovative ways to express its Buddha-nature.

The Splendid Sky

Betty and I went to China and Taiwan recently. We have been to many beautiful places, met lots of interesting people; it was an “eye-opening” trip. But we both came back with a common conclusion: the gorgeous scenery comes and goes, but it is the people that make an ever-impressive mark in our mind or heart.

Maybe we are both getting old, visiting places (be it modern, cultural or historical), do not interest us as much any more. It is the interactive encountering among human nature, cultures, geographic backgrounds and pure minds that fascinate us.

If we want to see the natural wonder of the universe or striking scenery, just lift up our head and look up in the sky. The clouds are forever changing and are so magnificent. Have you ever enjoyed the splendid sky? It does not cost you any money and you do not need to travel far. Yet we are so occupied with our busy life that we miss all the natural beauty in front of us.

Appreciate your surrounding, your relationship and your consciousness while you can.

So I am taking this moment to thank all sentient beings that I have encountered, thank you for making a difference in my life towards the attainment of enlightenment.

May we all live our lives as splendid as the sky...

Thank you for being a friend

I received the following email from a very good dharma friend of mine:


Congratulations!

I have heard your inner voice, and it is beautiful.

Setbacks are sometimes blessing in disguise. They force you to look deeply inside yourself to find the true cause of your malaise. What is it that makes me unhappy? What are my dominant negative emotions? What do I have to do in order to transcend my current situation?

We need that still point in our mind to see things clearly. We Buddhist call them shamatha and vispassana. And that still point can only be developed through solitude and utmost honesty with yourself. Only the brave and the loving ones would come out unscathed. Without courage we cannot face the pain and without compassion we cannot transcend the bitterness.

When I am mired in bitterness and resentment, which is too often, I always ask myself, ‘What is my original face?’

The recent episode is doing you good, my friend. It is just a small test on the road to Great Bodhi.



My response:

Thank you, my dear, for being a good friend.

Thank you for your wise advice, for caring and for being there when I need you.

All phenomena are impermanent, so I like to express my appreciation and gratitude before it is too late. Friendship like this gives us positive energy to strive for The Utmost Complete Perfection (anuttara-samyak-sambodi).

May the blessing of the Triple Gems reach us all...

Lung Zhi

Huayen practitioners should get into the habit of reading a bit of the Sutra every day

From Tony:

The Avatamsaka Sutra (Huayen Sutra) includes all the wisdom of all the other sutras and contains within it the solutions to all the world's problems, both personal and global, if we are only willing to look for them.

If Huayen practitioners could get into the habit of reading a bit of the Sutra every day, for example, and of thinking carefully about what the Sutra is saying, I'm sure it would protect them from a lot of mistakes.

In any case, as Buddhists we should avoid becoming too attached to personalities and organizations and try instead to focus on the Dharma and to work out how we can realize Enlightenment in order to communicate it to others: to "seek the Buddha's wisdom with all our heart, focus our energies on that and think of nothing else", as the Sutra says. (一心求佛智，專精無異念.)

If we can do that we will eventually be able to find out a way to turn all our obstacles into stepping stones.

A zen story

Anthony wrote to me:

There is this Zen story about So Dong Po. The Zen master wrote about him,

'So he claims not to be moved by the eight winds,
But a single fart blows him across the river.'

Times of disappointment are good opportunities to observe yourself, to learn about yourself and make yourself stronger and wiser. So what is it that we are attached to?

There is a supplication prayer that says:

Non-attachment is the foot of meditation as is taught,
To this meditator who is not attached to food and wealth,.....
Grant your blessing that I have no attachment to honour and gain.

Devotion is the head of meditation as is taught,
To the meditator who always supplicates you,
Grant your blessing that genuine devotion is born within.

Non-distraction is the body of meditation as is taught,
Whatever arises is fresh, the nature of realization,
To the meditator who rests simply in naturalness,
Grant your blessing that meditation is free from conception.

Being unattached to the highs and lows of human follies is a pre-requisite for practicing the dharma. So you should be happy you had a chance to make a contribution and when the opportunity arises again you will be ready.

The story of So Dong Po did not end there. In a spark of insight, he said to the Zen master, ' I had enough of your fake dharma, So Don't Bo-ther me.'

After all, the world still turns and the toilet still flushes in a counter-clockwise direction (an insider joke among Beverly, Anthony and me).