Salvation through Complete Reviance on the Power of True Victor
PART I
Brain Waves Reveal the Complete Process of Meditation
When the Fundamental ideas of Mind, Speech and Action Differ
We move our minds, speak and act unconsciously in the flow of time while living in this busy world .But we are aware that this very fact of moving our minds, speaking and acting increases our suffering . You may not like to hear such a conclusive, blunt statement .But this is what the saints in the past concluded and I am also here to tell you that undeniably true.
However, there are beings who move their minds, speak and act just as you do, yet they increase their happiness .They are the beings called Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas can be translated as a being who is destined to attain true wisdom. What do they then understand with this true wisdom? They understand everything .Does it mean that they understand the phenomena of this world just in the way scientists do? No.Scientists may understand everything in the narrow sense of the world, but what I mean is far greater than that. Bodhisattvas possess knowledge the word they have true wisdom.
Why do they increase their wisdom and become happy by moving their minds, speaking and acting as we all do? The reason is that the conditions which form the basis of the working of the mind, speech and action of Bodhisattvas are completely opposite to those of ordinary people.
This can be expressed as follows. Let�s say we have some ice, and suppose someone is suffering from high fever. It would help this person to put the ice on his head and cool it. But suppose there is another who in short on energy. His temperature has gone down and body is chilled. What happens if we cool him with the ice? Naturally, his condition will become worse and his life may be shortened. In both cases it is ice that is used.
Let us represent the working of our mind with M, speech with S, and action with A. For both Bodhisattvas and ordinary people MSA is the basis of their activities. However, for ordinary people, it is based on their attachment, hatred and obscuration in other words, they use it to restrain the object of their attachment, or to hate them , or to pursue merely pleasure and enjoy the consumption of their merit.
As long as MSA is based on these three root poisons, (i.e. attachment, hatred and obscuration), we are attracted to this world of desire, increase the conflictive feeling of hatred and enhance the consumption of merit through our ignorance.
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That about Bodhisattvas ? A Bodhisattva�s MSA is based on the four great states of an enlightenment mind: Divine Loving Kindness (Benevolence), Divine Pity (Compassion), Divine Praise and Divine Detachment.
The practice of Divine Loving Kindness increases the aspects of love and nourishing in a Bodhisattva�s MSA. Divine Pity increases the part of Bodhisattva�s MSA which pity on people�s suffering and attempts to remove it. Divine Praise increases the part of a Bodhisattva�s MSA which strengthens his connections with superior. That of Divine Detachment increases the part which washes off his evil karma. Therefore, the mere thought, speech and action of Bodhisattvas function to increase their virtue and merit.
Attachment, Hatred and Obscuration Increase Suffering
Let�s discuss here the terms attachment, hatred, obscuration and Divine Loving Kindness, Divine Pity, Divine Praise and Divine Detachment.
What is attachment? In classical Buddhism, attachment is an affliction called greed. Greed is an attachment to objects beyond necessary. Attachment to a certain object, we are bound to the world of that particular object. Let�s take an example. It is commonly believed that an average Japanese adult needs between 1,800 to 2,400 calories per day in order to sustain his /her body. This should vary with weight, age and sex, of course, but by becoming attached to taste and overeating, we may suffer diseases such as diabetes. Or suppose you fell in love with someone and you finally gave yourselves to each other. But if you get passionately attached to that person, you will their freedom away and the relationship will not last long. Even if it lasts,you will suffer tremendously at the end of the relationship, when death comes to take that person away. And eventually, you will be reborn into world where your partner is, which is human world, the fourth world from the bottom in the realm of desire . Thus, MSA based on attachment brings nothing but suffering.
Let�s look at hatred next. In classical Buddhism, hatred is an affliction known as anger. Anger is a working of the mind which attempts to destroy the object. Hatred not only makes us unable to look at things as they are, but makes us consume a lot of energy.Let�s take an example. When someone hates someone, his mind is concentrated on hatred and spends a lot of time in his life accumulation of his mental element will be naturally hatred-dominant. Thus hatred brings on such things as estrangement, separation and conflict. There qualities become the central elements of his life. Since the next life is determined by the accumulation of mental elements, he will be reborn into the world that is a collection of beings who have same elements.
What kind of an affliction is obscuration? Obscuration is expressed as ignorance in classical Buddhism. What is ignorance? Ignorance is a state in which we do not understand the truth of this world and of the three realms (the realm of desire, the realm of form and realm of non-form).The mind is captured by the pleasure of the moment. �live for today,� �happiness is momentary pleasure,� �I want to enjoy life as much as possible while I am still alive�-three are all workings of ignorance. Thus, by experiencing the heights of pleasure, MSA based on ignorance consumes merit and becomes the cause of falling.
You can see very clearly how MSA based on attachment, hatred and obscuration leads to misery.
The Four Bases of a Bodhisattva�s Enlightenment Mind
Now what are a Bodhisattva�s basic principles of action? As I mentioned earlier, it is Divine Loving Kindness, Divine Pity, Divine Praise and Divine Detachment.
What is Divine Loving Kindness? This is the working of the mind which loves every being in the universe. What is the difference between Loving Kindness and attachment? Attachment is one�s mental disposition and means being attached to the object beyond necessity. Loving Kindness, however, is loving in accordance with a certain law ,the law which possesses all energy beyond this universe.
Based on this law, or �Truth�, Loving Kindness means to value the attempt by beings to attain higher worlds or the cessation of afflictions. It means to be happy that they are striving to attain these states, and to love and encourage them. Therefore, MSA based on Divine Loving Kindness increase spiritual love; which results in the veneration of many people.
What is Divine Pity, the second basis of Bodhisattva�s enlightened mind? Divine Pity is a practice of having true pity for an object, after understanding the cause of its suffering. There beings that have karmic connections with the Bodhisattva are unable to practice the truth and deny it because of their past evil deeds or their lack of virtue. Therefore they are suffering now in this world, or will suffer in the future. Or they will be reborn in the Hill of Atrocious Pain, or the animal realm or the realm of inferior spirits, the essence of the world of suffering. In the short, it is to feel sorry for the object from the heart. It is �Great Sorrow� exercised on a solid logical basis. The Bodhisattva may use at times severe method when approaching beings due to practice, but their MSA will never bring disadvantage to there beings. It can only benefit them. Thus a Bodhisattva�s MSA is justified and they gain great benefit again.
The third bases of a Bodhisattva�s enlightened mind are Divine Praise. Divine Praise is the practice of praising someone when he or she is superior to you in terms of virtuous deeds, meritorious deeds, the practice of peace and the practice of the law. By this practice, the Bodhisattva establishes the path himself. This should be easy to understand. Praise is a kind of memory fixation of the object, to meditate on the object over and over. In this way, you imitate the virtuous deeds, the practice of peace and the practice of the truth of that object. Thus the Bodhisattva eventually becomes the same as the object superior to himself.
The fourth basis is Divine Detachment. Divine Detachment does not mean that you can do anything you want. Divine Detachment is the practice of not being attached to the joy gained as a result of three great practices which I have just mentioned: Divine Loving Kindness, Divine Pity and Praise. And it means not moving your mind at all if your past un virtuous deeds manifest, the un virtuous deeds before you committed yourself to path of the truth. It is remaining detached no matter how much you are hurt mentally, verbally and physically, and counting to do the three great practices. This ultimate teaching is explicitly expressed in the short player vow �I make my suffering my joy, and I make the others� suffering my own suffering.� What happens as a result of this practice? The great amount of merit acquired by the three great accumulates in our Fire Constituents, which is, Form-Appearance, Sensation, Imagery, Formation of Experience and Discrimination.