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CONTENT
1) Generating Bodhicitta Mind
2) Importance of Four Ordinary Foundations
3) Precious Human Life
4) Impermanence
5) Karma Cause and Effect
6) Samara Suffering
7) Conclusion
1. GENERATING BODHICITTA MIND
Good afternoon everyone.
I am very happy to see many students here to receive Ngondro teaching
because Ngondro is extremely important in dharma practice.
When we are learning dharma, the most importance is generating bodhicitta
mind. All of you come here to learn Ngondro and the purpose should not be just for
yourselves. We are here learning Ngondro to bring benefits to all the sentient beings.
All sentient beings are like our mother. You can observe your mother in this life. How
much she cares of us, how much she loves us, how much she concentrates on us.
You should think this way: I wish to take the mother sentient beings to the
enlightenment. That’s the reason I practise four ordinary foundations and four
extraordinary foundations.
Why do we need to generate bodhicitta mind? Because generating bodhicitta
mind and without generating bodhicitta mind when we practise Dharma brings
different result. I can give you an example: with bodhicitta mind, it is like lighting a
candle in a dark room, the brightness can spread to the whole area. Without
generating bodhicitta mind, it is like when you light up a candle covered by a cup, it
only benefits a small area. Generating bodhicitta mind and without generating
bodhicitta mind can make such difference. That’s the reason why generating
bodhicitta mind is extremely important to whatever thing we do. When we do Dharma
practice, when we do charity, whatever we do, if we can have bodhicitta mind, then
everything is pure, everything is beneficial to ourselves and all sentient beings. So,
with bodhicitta mind, you will start receiving the teaching of the four ordinary
foundations.
2. IMPORTANCE OF FOUR ORDINARY FOUNDATIONS
The four ordinary foundations are essential. The foundations are called as
Ngondro. “Ngon” means beginning while “Dro” means practice. In the Sadhana,
there are four ordinary foundations and four extraordinary foundations.
Why should we practise four ordinary foundations? Why do we call them as
foundations? I explain in an ordinary way: For example, when we want to build up a
building, we need a nice land and an engineer. Then, we make structure so we can
build up the building. Then, only we can build up a building of 90 or 100 levels.
Similarly, when we practise dharma, we also need foundation. You can notice that
there are many practitioners who are not very persistent in their practice. Sometimes,
they only practise Dharma occasionally. So, it is paramount that we learn four
ordinary foundations and extraordinary foundations. Even some practitioners who
have been practising dharma for 20 years, 30 years or 40 years, they do not obtain
much benefits. Consequently, they will give up and would rather turn into Christians.
When people turn out to be like this, it’s not dharma’s fault, it is due to the insufficient
foundation practice. When we have enough foundation practice, no matter physical,
mental, external, internal or secret obstacles, no matter what obstacles come, we
can analyse and understand them so we will not give up Dharma easily or turn out to
be the followers of other religions. That’s the reason that it is very important to
practise four ordinary and extraordinary foundations.
Foundation is vital. There are four ordinary and extraordinary foundations. If
we have foundations, we can easily handle many situations. Without foundations, not
only dharma, for example if you study anything without foundations, you are unable
to understand anything. Why do we call them as foundation? I will give you some
illustrations. For instance, you cannot directly go to the university, you have to go
through the kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and then after that you
can go to the university. Similarly, when we practise dharma, we need to understand
all the foundations. Now, we will practise the four ordinary foundations, after that it
comes the four extraordinary foundations. We should purify our body, speech and
mind by practising the first three ordinary foundations so that during the practice of
the fourth extraordinary foundation which is the guru yoga, we can receive blessing.
After that, even when we practise other dharma or Mahamudra meditation, we can
realise them easily and it is very beneficial to us. Without having these foundations, it
will be very difficult to understand the dharma and get good result.
3. PRECIOUS HUMAN LIFE
Now, let’s look at page 6 of the Sadhana. When we start practising the 4
ordinary foundations, we should firstly understand the precious human life. After
reading the four sentences, we can start meditating. The meaning of the first line is
as following: it is very difficult to get a wish-fulfilling jewel. When we get the wish-
fulfilling jewel, whatever we homage or wish can be fulfilled. However, it is more
difficult to obtain a precious human life than the wish-fulfilling jewel. How do we get
the precious human lives? For many lives, many eons of human lives, due to the
accumulation of merit, we get the good result of becoming a human. Are we qualified
to be a human? If we are, it means for many lives, we have accumulated merit and
this is the cause of good result. We have these precious human lives and if we
practise very diligently, we will be able to achieve enlightenment. Such a good
opportunity is in our hand, we should not simply waste our precious human lives.
How can we make it meaningful? Practise dharma. We have to practise diligently
without wasting our lives, not even one hour, one minute or one second. There are
many ways to make our lives meaningful for example meditation, visualisation,
recitation, prostrations.
Why should we think so? Because there are only a few people know how
precious to get human life. We can think of the three lower realms and compare
them to the human realm. We have to think: how many sentient beings in the six
realms can really practise dharma, frankly speaking, not many. Only human beings
have the capabilities to listen to the dharma and let the dharma to enter into our mind.
If we are reborn into three realms, we don’t have the opportunity to learn dharma, we
don’t even can hear a single word. Luckily, we are not born into the three realms. So,
we have to know how precious the human life compare to the other realms is. Some
animals are extremely intelligent but they are unable to understand dharma, no
matter how much you try to explain or how hard you try to teach them that we can
liberate to the Amitabha pure land, they can’t understand it, not even a single word.
So for the human beings, we are very smart, we understand it, we appreciate and we
can practise dharma to make our lives more meaningful.
Without understanding the precious human life, it is very difficult to have the
devotion to maintain diligence of dharma practice. Nowadays, the people who have
money and position are reluctant to practise dharma, they would rather enjoy their
lives. We should not think like that because we do not know when will the next
impermanence comes. Before impermanence comes, day by day, month by month,
year by year, we have to prepare for our death. We know all of us are born from
mother womb and we all die. That’s the reason it brings to the second part of the
preliminary practice, which is the impermanence.
4. IMPERMANENCE
Now we understand how precious this body, this human life is. Secondly, we
should know that even though we have this precious human life, it is not permanent.
Buddha says, “Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is unchangeable, everything is
changeable.” This leads to the second part.
The external world, up to the universe, everything is magical. Even now, we
can see the cloud and sky is changing every day and even every minute. Nowadays,
some cold area becomes hot, some hot area becomes cold. Impermanence also
includes all the enlightened beings, like Buddha Shakyamuni. Buddha was born in
Nepal and eventually entered parinirvana. So, even all the enlightened beings, Vajra
bodies, when they are reborn from the mother’s womb, they will finally enter the
parinirvana. Our bodies are very similar to the water bubble. Without mother’s care,
we might die immediately. All the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and the enlightened beings
talk about the impermanence, especially Shantideva. He said, “I cannot really
guarantee if I’m going to die today.” So, we don’t know when will the impermanence
comes, when will we die. That is how much our bodies are impermanent. Some
Kadampa lamas say: our lives are much like candle on the roof. We don’t know the
direction of wind. However, unfortunately, we don’t really realise that. We always do
some preparations, thinking that we have long lives, never think that we are going to
die. Whatever preparations that we do, building house and so on, we always think
that things last long, but in reality, they don’t. In Kuala Lumpur, many buildings are
still here but the builders are no longer here, this is because our lives will not last
longer than those buildings. 80 or 90 years old is already a very rare case nowadays.
Why should we contemplate about impermanence? Without thinking impermanence,
it is very unlikely that we will practise dharma. We will always exclude something due
to laziness. Therefore, we should practise impermanence. Shantideva says, “When
we breathe in and out, it is amazing! When evening we go to bed and we still can
wake up in the next morning, it is amazing!” This has illustrated how well Shantideva
thinks about impermanence. Thus, before impermanence comes, we have to
practise dharma very diligently. We can also think: how many people who are
younger than us have already passed away; how many people who are older than us
have already passed away; how many people who have same age with us have
already passed away. If we contemplate it very seriously, the impermanence is
actually shown very profoundly. Without realising ourselves, friends and some
relatives die, we will think that these incidents are just like history but not something
that will happen on us. That’s the reason we are still stuck in the samsara. If we have
the renunciation towards samsara, we will practise dharma very diligently. Then, we
are no longer stuck in the samsara.
5. KARMA CAUSE AND EFFECT
Firstly, precious human life, secondly, impermanence. Thirdly, it is the karma
cause and effect. A lot of people talk about karma, however, the people who really
understand or believe how karma works are very rare. Whatever we do, say or show
action has its own karma effect. Last time, when I was in America giving meditation
teaching, a little boy asked me, “Many people talk about karma, what you think?”
Then, he continued, “Many people don’t know how karma works, but I understand it
precisely.” Then, I asked him, “How does it work?” He said, “Karma is like playing
basketball, when you hit a ball towards a wall, the ball will come back to you.
Therefore, whatever you create, good or bad, it comes back to you, and it is not
going to be shared by your father, mother or your family.” It is very true, he can
understand it very deeply. Unfortunately, not many people understand it. Sometimes
when you see people fall down on a slippery road, you will say, “Oh, this is your
karma!” Poor karma. You talk about karma without understanding it! However,
everything is related to karma.
When we put barley seed into ground, barley plants will come out; when we
put rice into ground, barley will not be grown there. Whatever we create, the negative
karma will make us suffer; whatever we create, the positive karma can bring us good
result, happiness, and good health. If we create negative karma, we are reborn into
the three realms, even after that, we are reborn into human realm, we will be
suffering physically, mentally or financially. When we undergo the 10 virtue actions, it
will result in the rebirth in precious human life and eventually leads to enlightenment.
Whoever engages in negative thoughts, those thoughts create negative karma. If we
undergo 10 virtue actions every day, in future, we are reborn into the precious
human life and possess good qualities. We can not only hear the karma effects, but
also see the karma effects clearly. In this earth, if we just talk about human beings,
you can notice some people live in luxurious conditions and have successful lives
due to the duty of positive karma in the past lives. Some people who are not rich but
not really having difficult lives, they did not create much negative karma and they did
something good in the past lives. That’s why they have a stable life. There is another
kind of people: No matter how hard they try, everything fails. They have
unsuccessful lives, they always fall sick and have family as well as financial problem.
This is not others’ fault, this is not the Earth’s fault. Due to the duty of the negative
karma, this can result in very difficult conditions. Every karma cause and effect can
be seen very clearly. That’s why Buddhas and bodhisattvas say that the karma is as
indestructible and determined as Vajra. Even if we create a very small karma, it can
turn out to be a very big result. That’s why we have to purify our karma.
6. SAMSARA SUFFERING
After we understand the karma cause and effect, it comes to the fourth part,
which is the suffering of samsara. “Kye Ma” means sadly. Why do we feel sad?
Because there are so much sufferings, three types and four types of sufferings. We
always think that we are the most intelligent beings. However, we put the effort in the
wrong place, in the ordinary way. From 18 years old, for 40 or 50 years, if that much
of effort is put into dharma, then we are very profound practitioners. However, we do
not. We put the effort in the ordinary ways like family, ordinary education, ordinary
work and meanwhile, we create so much negative karma for instance, cheating, lying
and all the bad things. All the effort which is put into the ordinary lives, it might be
beneficial to our living but it is not beneficial to our death. We create so much
negative karma and that’s why we are reborn in the samsara. All the efforts are
meaningless. So, what things we can do to make our lives more meaningful? Only if
we practise dharma very diligently and understand dharma very precisely. From the
beginning, so many lifetimes, we are reborn and dead, all the things we do are really
meaningless. From now on, we cannot believe the ordinary things. In contrast, we
should believe in dharma and practise dharma very diligently and wish to free from
suffering. We should think that way. So, these are the four ordinary foundations.
Why do we say samsara is full of suffering? The six realms, especially the
three realms, when you compare them to the precious human lives, you can see how
much difference there are. Although we can’t see through the hell realms, we can
imagine and see the animal realm. For example, the sea animals. Humans catch
them and then put them into containers. They have no chance to breathe and eat.
When they bring the sea animals to the seafood restaurant, people think the food is
very delicious and fresh. Then, they order the seafood. The chef put the sea animals
into hot water or boiling oil so they can cook. If we have this experience, you can
imagine how much we can take that, how can we bear the suffering? That’s the
reason why Buddha says the samsara is full of suffering. Moreover, we can observe
the wild animal. When we watch the National Geographic, we can see that within 24
hours, the animals are eating, chasing and haunting each other. They cannot even
swallow water peacefully because they are afraid of being hunted. When they are
eating fresh grass, they are also constantly worried. That kind of life, how unbearable
it is! That’s the reason Buddha calls it samsara. Even in the precious human life, we
also have so much suffering. When we are reborn from the mother’s womb, even
though we cannot really remember that moment, mother and child are very close to
death. Without mother, we cannot survive. There are so much sufferings. We are
constantly suffering until we are grown up. When we grow up, we experience
sickness suffering. Sometimes you can see someone says, “If I have a great chance
to free from the sickness, I can visit my friends and family, I can eat this and that.”
There are so much sufferings until that person feels that the days and nights are so
long. When we are getting older, it is even worse. When we are not able to hear, to
see a great distance and cannot walk smoothly, there are so much suffering.
Milarepa says, “When we are old, we can feel that hundreds of kilos of salt are
carried at our back as we sit down, we feel that our feet are pulled out from the
ground when we stand.” We can notice, whoever lies in the hospital, especially those
who don’t have dharma mind, don’t listen to the dharma or have no experience in
dharma practice, when they are sick and die, there are so much suffering. It is not
like water being dropped onto the ground or light being switched off. It’s not that easy!
All channels in our bodies will break down each time when our breath stops. We will
have that experience very strongly. That’s the reason why people’s teeth can nearly
cut the tongue and lips and all the dirty things come out. It is because of the
nervousness to death. That’s the suffering of the samsara. So, would we like to
rebirth into the samsara again and again? If we are reborn in the precious human
lives and we practise dharma very diligently, we can end the samsara. We have
precious human lives. There are many masters who practise dharma, especially the
four ordinary foundations. So, we should strengthen our devotion to practise dharma
by having a strong feeling of escaping from the samsara.
7. CONCLUSION
That’s the reason we should understand the four ordinary foundations.
Without good understanding, we cannot realise the precious human life,
impermanence, karma cause and effect and the suffering of samsara. Some of us
cannot understand how much sufering and exists of samsara. Therefore, we should
practise four ordinary foundations. When we practise this four ordinary foundations
during morning or evening, we can contemplate about each of the ordinary
foundations and meditate 7 minutes. You can think or read from book and meditate.
We should practise four ordinary foundations, firstly, the precious human life,
secondly, impermanence, thirdly, karma cause and effect, fourthly, the suffering of
samsara, or else, your dharma practice will be very unstable. Why? Because we
don’t understand the four ordinary foundations very precisely. If we practise four
ordinary foundations, no matter physical, mental or financial, all these will be in good
condition.
I can tell you a story, it is a true story in America. I do not make it up. In 2010,
the economy in America is very bad, one lama has two disciples, and both of them
are businessmen. When the economy is in crisis, the businesses of that two men are
affected also and they even went bankrupt. One of the lama students is a very
profound practitioner. He always take dharma seriously. On the other hand, another
disciple did not practise very diligently, he is not a very profound practitioner. During
bankruptcy, they are very depressed, especially the one who did not take dharma
very seriously. He has many negative thoughts in his mind and even tried to commit
suicide many times. However, many people tried to stop him and he did not suicide
successfully. The practitioner who practise dharma very diligently is more optimistic.
Buddha says, “Everything is impermanent, everything is changeable, and nothing is
unchangeable.” The disciple said, “Now I can realise impermanence, the failure does
not matter. No matter how much wealth I have built up, I will eventually leave this life
with empty hands. Now, I can truly know Buddha’s teaching.” Despite the hardship
that he faced, he can still be happy and smile. Otherwise, if one does not understand
impermanence, he or she will commit suicide and do the negative things.