STUDIO GALLARY
The
studio Gallery of Dharma Realm Buddhist University opened two shows
simultaneously on May 10th as part of the festivities honoring
Buddha’s Birthday at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. The main exhibition, entitled “The
Contemporary Buddhist Image” displays innovative and traditional forms of
expressing Buddhist images.
Contributors, both Sangha and laity, artists and students of Buddhism,
are primarily from the California area yet some entries come from as far away
as London, England.
Helping
to clarify the element of personal conception and creativity in the making of
Buddhist images, the Chancellor of Dharma Realm Buddhist University comments:
Creative
expression of Buddhist images is just people’s ideas or personal attachments.
The Buddha cannot be seen by his physical appearance. All appearances are empty and false. If you can see all appearances as no appearance, then you see the
Buddha. As the Vajra Sutra says:
If one sees me in form,
If one seeks me in sounds,
He practices a deviant path
And cannot see the Buddha.
Running
consecutive to this show is a one-woman show titled “For the Sake of All that
lives” – 12 Zodiac Animals. Ceramist
Victoria Whitehand expresses in her work a positive sense of connection she
feels with all living beings and an affirmation of her personal commitment to
the work of conscious and spiritual evolution.
She says, “Forms of life result from our actions and offer us the opportunity
of learning to see with clarify, reverence, and humor; the one in the many, the
timeless in the changeable, the light in us all.”
The shows
will remain through June 30th.
For further information call (707) 462-0939.
BY BHIKSHU HENG K’UNG
Cultivators
gathered from the four directions during the second week of April for the
opening of a recitation session at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Everyone was really fierce in their
recitation of the name of Medicine Master Buddha who Dispels Calamities and
Lengthens Life; Yao Shih Fwo. In the
Ch’an School, it is said that to “recite the Buddhas name and practice Ch’an
meditation as well, is like a “tiger with horns”; that fierce. So when the ‘tiger’ had stalked the ‘City’
for a week, it was capped with horns as an additional week of recitation. Thus the cultivators had an opportunity to
gather in and sharpen the effects of their week of recitation.
Nowhere
in the world can such an opportunity to meet and practice orthodox Buddhism be
found. Only the heartiest cultivator
can keep the hours of the meditation week which ran from 3”00 in the morning to
midnight. Most of the cultivators ate
only one meal at noon; sitting in Ch’an the rest of the time or walking in the
hall to shake off any fatigue that might creep in. Doing this hour after hour really brings to a sharp point all of
ones scattered and confused thoughts.
This is really putting ‘horns’ on one’s head.
As fierce
as this session has been, it is only a practice session for the upcoming ten
consecutive weeks of Ch’an in the Fall of ’82.
In preparation for that autumn’s ten-week meditation session, everyone
should start practicing now and arrange to participate in this fine opportunity
to cultivate. Everyone is welcome. For information write:
The City
of Ten Thousand Buddhas
P.O. Box
217
Talmage,
California 95481
UPASIKA KUO CH’EN
Although
Kuo Ch’ien encountered the Buddhadharma early in life and responded to it with
joy and enthusiasm, karmic hindrances kept her from being able to devote
herself to pure practices and study of the teachings to any large extent. Interference by family and national crisis
intervened. Eventually, Kuo Ch’ien’s
strong ties with the Dharma won out, however, and she convinced her family to
leave Vietnam so they could go to a place where the Buddhadharma was allowed to
prosper.
Their
passage out of Vietnam was not at all easy, but Kuo Ch’ien prayed fervently at
each new and seemingly insurmountable obstacle arose and somehow, invisibly,
the disasters never fell upon them and they made safe passage to free shores.
At one
critical point, their small boat, loaded with 240 people, had to pass through a
dangerous gulf infested with pirates.
Kuo Ch’ien recited the Buddhas’ and Bodhisattvas’ names
unceasingly. As it happened, their boat
arrived just after dusk and the Captain, wise to the ways of pirates doused all
lights onboard. Softly they made their
dark way through the troubled waters unharmed.
Usually the boats were robbed and the passengers killed or harmed in
this gulf. Somehow their boat escaped
safely.
Later,
they were intentionally misguided and sent out to ocean waters instead of in
toward the bay they sought. The sea
waves rose higher than their small craft and the danger was eminent. Puzzled by the sudden change, the Captain
consulted maps and compass and realizing he’d been misdirected, made his way
back to quieter waters. All the time
Kuo Ch’ien kept reciting, praying that if she drowned, that the Sutra she
carried might somehow float and make it safely to shore.
Nearly
their destination, their boat was fired upon because the Island they sought was
already overrun with ten to twenty thousand refugees. Since their craft was too weak to stay afloat longer, they had to
chance landing. For some strange reason
the shooting stopped and their boat was allowed to dock. The 240 passengers, weak and close to death
from lack of water and food, were all taken ashore. Later they learned that the only reason it had been so easy for
them was that just as their boat arrived, a “Representative Group of
International Inspectors” had arrived on the scene and the local patrol guards
dared not prevent the boat from docking lest it make worldwide publicity.
Because
they had no one to guarantee them, Kuo Ch’ien and their family had to remain on
that overcrowded island for a year.
Then one day Kuo Ch’ien suddenly remembered the Venerable Abbot whom she
had first seen in Vietnam in 1974 when he was lecturing on tour. At that time everyone was given a Gold
Mountain card and Kuo Ch’ien had kept hers.
Upon making he appropriate contacts, Kuo Ch’ien and her family were
sponsored to come to America. Kuo Ch’ien made a vow to recite the Great
Compassion Mantra 10,000 times and to bow to the Greatly Compassionate Kuan Yin
Bodhisattva 30,000 times to express some measure of her gratitude.
One
unusual incident occurred while on the Island which inspired faith in Kuo
Ch’ien mother. They were sitting one
day by a mountain stream washing their clothes and it was the usual spot where
they sat. For some reason Kuo Ch’ien
suddenly got restless and got up to take a walk. Just after she left the spot, a huge tree, which some people had
succeeded in felling, came crashing down and its trunk landed in exactly the
spot which Kuo Ch’ien had just left.
Her mother, sitting to one side of the spot recounts:
“When the
tree fell, some of the branches were big and heavy and I could see them coming
down on my head. I closed my eyes, waiting to be struck, and not knowing
whether I would be killed or just injured.
But then I felt something above my head protecting me and I was not hit
by the big branch at all.”
Kuo Ch’en
gives thanks to the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin.
She and
her family arrived at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas on August 14, 1980. Joyful to be in a pure Way-place, Kuo Ch’ien
asked to leave the home life and wants to remain in this place from now on to
cultivate and practice the Buddhadharma. She feels being allowed to leave home
is like gaining a wonderful new opportunity to eradicate her karmic obstacles
and faults, to get rid of the bad and go toward the good. She hopes she can be good and thereby be
able to influence people and do her part to help make the world more peaceful
so human beings can lessen their sufferings and increase their happiness and
brightness.
WRITTEN BY THE VENERABLE ABBOT HUA IN THE HALL OF NO WORDS
TRANSLATED BY BHIKSHUNI HENG TAO
TEXT:
Of people
who are born into this world, some have come to repay their debts. Some have come to contract debts. Some have come to cultivate the Way. Some have come to create karma. Some have come for fame. Some have come for profit. Some have come for food. Some have come for sex. They themselves do not know the cause and
effect of their past existences nor how to cut off delusions and put a strop to
the flow. Moreover, they do not wish to
understand the good or evil karmic conditions of their past lives, to change
their faults and turn over a new leaf.
Instead they discharge their responsibilities in a perfunctory manner,
and act in reckless ways. Even for
people endowed with wisdom – who wish to know their past lives and to
perpetuate supreme causes – this is not easy.
Nor is it easy for them to suddenly arrive at an understanding, remain
forever unchanging, and endure suffering and toil. Why is this? It is because ignorance is hard to break
through, and obstructions pile up layer upon layer. The outflows of existence are hard to plug up, and doubts billow
like thick clouds.
Those who
truly wish to understand, must seek within themselves when things don’t go
their way. They shouldn’t gripe to
heaven or blame other people. Instead
they should subdue themselves and return to propriety. They should not contend, not be greedy, not
seek, not be selfish, and not seek for self-benefit. In encountering any state
–even adverse conditions – they should take things in stride. Toward all people they should be friendly
and humble. They should endure what
others cannot endure, yield what others cannot yield, eat what others cannot
eat, and accept what others cannot accept.
Moreover,
you should surely know that most worldly people repay virtuous deeds with
enmity. But they are the very ones who help us perfect the strength of our
patience. Whenever oppressions and
difficulties pile up to the point that others slander us, know that those are
good knowing advisors come to aid us in increasing our virtue and cultivating
the Way.
A verse
says,
Face to face with adverse conditions, accept them graciously – this is Paramita.
Devadatts
is just the good knowing advisor who comes to aid us.
Kindness
and animosity from past lives, we ought to repay.
Grievances
and feuds from distance kalpas are now
being cleared up.
Acknowledge
your accounts and debts; do not delay repayment.
Establish
merit and atone for your offenses – do not pass your life in vain.
Clearly
understand good and evil; be careful about case and effect.
The deep
abyss and thin ice – how can one easily escape them?
COMMENTARY:
What
are adverse conditions? They are
anything that you don’t like to have happen to you; things that go against
you. If there are things that you like,
then they’re not considered adverse conditions. But the things that you don’t like, or the situations that go
against your grain, are called adverse.
For
example, there may be things you don’t like to hear but people will say exactly
those things to you. There may be
things you don’t like to eat, but they’ll give you that very food. There may be things you absolutely can’t
bear, but you have to bear them.
Face
to face with adverse conditions, accept them graciously. This means accepting them harmoniously in an
according manner.
For
example, if someone scolds you, you should think, “Oh, this person is singing a
song for me. And I should gladly listen to this song.” What’s so bad about
getting a scolding? Just accept it
graciously and happily. From this you can cultivate the strength of your patience.
Adverse
conditions create heroes. Situations
can be either favorable or adverse. But
if things go against you, they are the very things that increase your
resolution and your will power, so you will bring forth the determination to be
a true person. That’s the meaning behind “adverse conditions create
heroes.” When you cultivate, you
shouldn’t be greedy for people to make offerings to you, thinking, “Oh, if
people would give me food and clothes, that’d be very good. That’s a pretty meaningless attitude. Rather you should think, “There’s nobody making offerings to me, and
I should be happy about that. If I
don’t have food to eat, I’ll just go on a fast, I’ll just fortify my body so
that I’m not turned by either the cold or heat. I can bear it. And if I
don’t have a place to stay, I can live under a tree.” You should train yourself that way. You shouldn’t be greedy for other people to make offerings to
you. You shouldn’t be greedy for people
to give you things, or get happy if you get some little thing from them. If you don’t have Way-virtue, and you accept
offerings from other people, it’s not easy to digest them. So it says, “If you’re not done with the three
minds, it’s hard to digest even water.”
The three minds are the mind of the past, the mind of the present, and
the mind of the future. If you always
have those three minds and strike up a lot of false thinking, then even if you
were to drink just one swallow of water offered by people, you couldn’t digest
it. So it says,
“A
single grain of rice from the donor is as heavy as Mt. Sumeru.
If,
having eaten it, one doesn’t cultivate the Way,
One
will have to repay it with a coat of fur and horns.”
ACHAAN BUDDHASA
Abbot of
Wat Suan Moke, a large monastery in Southern Thailand, Achaan Buddhasa, whose
name translates as “Servant of the Buddha,” is a well-known Thai monk and
scholar who has served the Buddha by translating portions of the Thai Tripitake
and by writing numerous books about the Buddha’s teaching. Achaan Buddhadasa’s oratory style provides a
unique interpretation of the Buddhadharma and had inspired many Thai and
Western people. Under his guidance,
students come to appreciate the integration of meditation with study of the
Thervadan Tripitaka.
BY DHARMA MASTER HENG K’UNG
EVERYDAY
THERE IS NOT A single person who does not practice3 meditation, but most simply
do not realize it. For example, a
person reading a book who comes to an interesting passage, whose breath becomes
faint and heart beat become almost non-existent; or a mechanic putting the fine
details of a job in order; or even a person intently searching for a lost
object; all of these are engaged in meditation. Whenever we become absorbed in any particular work to the extent
that our minds fall silent and our bodily processes are temporarily stilled, we
are engaged in meditation. If this is
so, then why should we make a special practice of meditation?
Meditation
is a conscious effort to prolong and deepen the intentness of mind described
above, because when the mind is absorbed, it is nourished and its natural
capacity for happiness is increased. In
everyday life, few of us experience such concentration without frequent
complementary lapses into dull states of unawareness; what we have gained is
quickly dispersed when we slip into this idleness. Through the practice of meditation, we gradually develop a mental
alertness that prevents this loss from occurring.
Meditation produces within us a natural inclination towards productive use of the mind. Even when we are off the meditation cushion, we feel a natural disinclination for idleness. This manifests in many productive ways; a more efficient business; a more unified and happy home life, and a richer appreciation of life in general. Meditation stimulates creativity, and creativity makes the mind happy, nourishes the mind, and develops it.
People should not be dissuaded from practicing meditation because the spiritual and mystical aspects of it seem so distant and unattainable. It is, in reality, a very practical method of mental discipline from which any person can benefit. Let us investigate it and see for ourselves.
INSTRUCTIONAL TALK GIVEN AT KAO MONASTERY ON THE 4TH DAY
OF THE SECOND WEEK OF A TEN WEEK CH’AN SESSION. 10/21/42
TRANSLATED BY BHIKSHU HENG KUAN
To
exhaustively investigate Ch’an, the emphasis is on the single word PRACTICE,
actually doing it. If you don’t practice,
then you don’t count as one who investigate Ch’an; and not doing it, but only
talking about investigating Ch’an, does not count as understanding it.
In our
teaching, the word “practice” is the most important. Nevertheless, not only
have people of the present age misunderstood it, but from the time of the
ancient worthies until the present, those who have misunderstood the word
practice have not been few. All of them
have thought that just to get a glimpse counts as understanding. It is quite likely that their comprehension
of this affair is that because it (the enlightened nature) is inherent in
everyone, one need not avail himself of cultivation to certify to
enlightenment. If the substance is
already complete, what do you want to practice for? They have thought that practice is superfluous.
This
teaching’s (the Ch’an School’s) emphasis on practice is on actual practice
which does not bring about misunderstanding.
You should understand that the gate into this tradition is the highest
gate, and the practice of this teaching is the unsurpassed teaching. If you want to reach the goal, you should
first know a few things:
From
limitless aeons past up until this present day, we have come here because of
our actions,* and it is certainly not the case that we exist for no reason at
all; nor is it the case that someone has sent you into existence. Ascending to the halls of heaven is all your
doing,* and plunging into the hells is also your doing. Going into a cow’s womb or a horse’s belly
is your doing, and being here today as the person you are is also just your own
doing. In general, everything is like
this. You never meet anyone who will
hand you over to the gods, and you will never see anyone who will drag you into
the hells. Using this analogy to
express the principle, it applies whenever there is a birth or death of any
creature.
Since we
know that everything is what we make it, that everything comes from each
individual’s actions, is it conceivable that today you will return to the
origin and go back to the source? That
just talking about it a bit is the same as arriving home? That comprehending it is all there is to it?
When you
arrived here, you have traveled through countless years, incalculable
generations – you have come from so far!
Now today you want to return to your origin, and go back to the source
from which you came; naturally, you should take the old road back home.
Putting
it another way, concerning the activity of your minds and hearts, all of you
know that afflictions are no good, that false thoughts are rotten things, and
that karmic obstacles can’t be seen through.
Well, since you know that afflictions are no good, get rid of them! Since you know that false thoughts are
rotten things, throw them out! But in
actual fact, are you capable of casting them out? If you’ve cast them out, if, standing right here you’ve; just
gotten rid of them, that’s excellent!
You talk about getting rid of them, so do it! Generally speaking, however, even if resources greater than
heaven’s were at your disposal, I fear that you would not be capable of doing
this, of doing just what you’ve said!
Since you are not able to do it, since you are incapable for finishing
the matter off, reflect for a moment on the kind of investigation we have been
doing here; this one word, “practice” is one which you cannot slight even in
the smallest way.
Speaking
of those of us whose potential is average or inferior, the practice is the same
as walking a road; from however far we have come, we must still travel that far
again to return to our original home.
For example, if a person who has walked here from more than a thousand
miles is to return today, he must still walk more than a thousand miles to
return to where he came from. If he can
go one hundred miles in a day, then he must travel for more than ten days to be
able to finish his journey. If he were
to travel one day less, or one mile too few, then he wouldn’t be able to get
home. This principle is quite definite.
But
according to the guiding principle of our teaching, it is not like this for
those of you who have some potential.
What is the practice of our teaching like? You’ve come here from one thousand miles, but today, not only is
it unnecessary for you to walk one thousand miles in order to arrive back home,
you can’t even arrive at the name of this thousand mile road. If you can’t even get the name of the road,
is it still necessary for you to walk it?
Just turn your head around and that’s it! Don’t move either foot, just turn around and you’ve arrived!
You think
about it. Is there any other method
more direct than this? You should
understand that people with superior potential are not just born with superior
roots, they too came from those who, like us, have average and inferior potentiality. From inferior potential you make average
potential, and from average potential, you make superior roots. Having arrived
here with superior potential, when you hear just once, you will have one
thousand enlightenments! Who is mindful
of the Buddha? MEDITATE!