Recitation(yeombul )is the True Dharma

 [The Sixth Online Dharma Lecture]

20thJuly,2021,lunarcalendar, 

 

Recitation(yeombul )is the True Dharma

 

Our beloved Buddhists throughout the world!

 Today, I would like to give you a Dharma talk on the subject, “Recitation is the true Dharma,”

 but before I begin, I would like to first hear from you your answers to the question:

 “What is life?” It is a tough life, but what is the nature of it? This is a hard question.

 Among the numerous Buddhist Sutras, the shortest and also the most famous one is The Parable Sutra.

 In this Sutra, the Buddha depicted people’s lives very well with a great parable.

 The story is either titled, ‘Black and White Mice’ or ‘The rattan tree hanging on the brink of a well.’

 Well, here is the story: a man is running away from a mad elephant in the wide open wilderness.

 He is running for his life, and luckily enough, he finds a shabby well.

 Fortunately, a branch from a rattan tree reaches into the well, so he goes down into the well and hangs from the tree, narrowly escaping from the mad elephant.

 Alas, as he looks down he sees four venomous snakes staring up at him, flicking their tongues with their mouths open.

 Thn, he hears a gnawing sound from somewhere.

He looks up, and this time, he sees two mice, one back and one white, nibbling at the rattan branch he is hanging onto.

“Alas! I’m dead now,” he thinks, and almost gives up on the escape.

 At that moment, some liquid drips down on his face out of the blue.

 It turns out to be honey which tastes amazing.

 It is dripping down from the beehive on the swaying tree branch into his mouth as he dangles from the tree, and it tastes breathtakingly sweet.

He is fascinated by the sweetness of it and completely forgets about the perilous situation he is in right then.

 Obsessed by the sweet taste, he does not even realize that his life is now hanging by a thread, and expects more honey to come, thinking, “Wow, it’s so sweet!”

 This story that the Buddha told us is a great analogy for life. Life is just like this.

We humans live our lives being obsessed by the five human desires.

 What a pity! The man is to die anyway, because when the white and black mice finish gnawing the rattan branch, he will fall and be killed by the poisonous snakes.

 If he climbs out of the well, he will be crushed to death by the mad elephant.

 In the end, death is inevitable.

 Human life expectancy is a hundred years at the most. However, sentient beings live in severe competition for better success and greater prosperity as if they were living for thousands or tens of thousands of years.

 We Buddhists should not forget to take time and think about this: How should we live if we are to live our lives wisely?

  Let’s take a moment here to listen to the teachings of our eternal teacher Sakyamuni Buddha, who achieved omniscient wisdom, a total understanding of all things in the universe and possesses omnipotent power that means nothing is impossible.

 “Humans are not such insignificant beings that come to an end when they die.

 Each individual goes through transmigration, repeating the cycle of birth and death throughout the six realms of existence, depending on their karma.

 If you don’t achieve the enlightenment that enables you to never die, you cannot escape from the endless cycle of life and death. Therefore, make sure you do not commit a sin, instead, be a good person, do a lot of virtuous deeds and practice recitation, and eventually, enter the liberated nirvana where you will live happily forever.”

  The reason why sentient beings go through transmigration, and suffer severely in the three evil realms in particular, is because of their own evil karma.

 The sinful karma, as the Buddha mentioned in The Lankavatara Sutra, comes out of excessive greed and attachment, out of lack of wisdom, and out of afflictions and delusions, enslaved by this physical body, that is, the false ‘I.’

 Buddhist Sutras identify five causes of committing sinful karma: put simply, they are craving, which means endless desires, and afflictions caused by the five desires.

 

If one wants to remove the five desires and afflictions by one’s own efforts, the person must enter all the way through the nine stages of Samadhi, but this practice is very difficult.

 When one completes this practice, he attains the stage of an arhat.

 The Buddha, however, can not only remove the roots of these afflictions but also eradicate the bad habits and negative energy that have resulted from committing evil karma.

 Therefore, it is best to pursue the empowerment of the Buddha, that is, ‘the other power,’ when we practice.

 All of our karma, good and evil, is reflected in our spirit, our own master.

 The seeds of our past karmic actions of body, speech, and mind cannot be annihilated forever until we receive the due retribution.

 This is called the principle of karma.

 Tere is a limitation to removing the karmic hindrance when practicing by one’s own efforts.

 With the Buddha’s empowerment, however, all one’s karmic hindrance can be eliminated.

 Although one repents deeply of one’s past sinful karma, the karmic hindrance already set by cause and effect cannot be cleared away.

 Even if one practices ascetically deep in the mountains alone, practice by self-power has its limitation. Minor karmic hindrance can be washed away, but grave sinful karma cannot be removed.

 The Buddha, however, can eliminate even the heavy heaviest sinful karmic hindrance.

 Thus, chanting the Buddha’s name, that is to practice by other power, is the best practice because the Buddha eliminates your karmic hindrance.

 Buddhist practice must be conducted under the guidance of a great teacher.

 If one practices without a teacher, there is no way to protect oneself from the external maras such as the heavenly maras, Imae-mangyang, and spirits with the knot of hatred.

 When you take a look at the part of ‘precautions against the fifty maras’ in The Surangama Sutra, where the Buddha explained elaborately about the fifty kinds of devil obstructions or maras a practitioner can encounter, you will realize the importance of having a teacher.

 However, the problem of all these mara hindrances you will encounter while practicing can also be completely resolved with the awesome spiritual powers of the Buddha, believing in his existence and revering him as your master.

  That is why chanting the Buddha’s name and seeking the Buddha is the best way to practice.

 If our two Great Monks of Yongsan Buddhism had not come into the world and preached with a lion’s roar that ‘the Buddha is alive!’ our loyal lay Buddhists would never have known how great and extraordinary Sakyamuni Buddha is.

  I will introduce to you a story about the Buddha that appears in the chapter of ‘the Ten Stages of a Bodhisattva practice’ in The Avatamsaka Sutra.

 In this chapter, the supernatural and awesome spiritual powers of the Dharma-Cloud stage Bodhisattva, the tenth of the ten stages in the Bodhisattva’s path, is expounded in detail. It is the highest-ranking Bodhisattva, and, so, let’s see what abilities this Bodhisattva has?

 The Sutra says, “The Bodhisattva can blow all kinds of winds out of one pore, create a large sea with boundless worlds, present a large lotus flower in the middle of the sea, emit lights and cover the boundless worlds, manifest his body in countless worlds in the ten directions, and shake the countless worlds but never astonish the sentient beings...”

 In addition, the Bodhisattva of Dharma-Cloud stage can freely display hundred, thousands, millions and billions of supernatural powers.

“If this Bodhisattva’s supernatural power and ability are as such, then what, in the world, is the ability of the Buddha like?” asks Haetalwol Boddhisattva.

 Diamond-Store Boddhisattva (Vajragarbha Bodhisattva) replies, “I will tell you in an analogy: let’s say a person looks at a handful of earth in his hand and says,

‘Which is greater, the earth from the lands of countless worlds or the earth in my hand?’

 Your question is just like this comparison. All the earth from the countless worlds can be compared to the Buddha’s wisdom and supernatural power, while the ability of the Dharma-Cloud stage Bodhisattva is like a handful of earth in this hand.

 How is it possible to compare the ability of the Dharma-Cloud stage Bodhisattva with that of the Buddha?” This sutra describes that.

 One day, when the Buddha was conducting the work of eliminating the grave sinful karma of a disciple of Hyonjisa, he said, “This is a karma with which you cannot do anything about even if you practiced for hundreds and thousands of years by your own efforts!”

 Again, on another day, clearing away a disciple’s karmic hindrance, the Buddha said, “I have eliminated the karma that would have taken three thousand years to get rid of if you had practiced by yourself.”

 Our faithful Buddhists throughout the world! This is the reason you should take the path of recitation where you chant the name of the Buddha if you are to practice in earnest.

 In the method of chanting the Buddha’s name, there are two ways – one is to recite a Buddha’s name seeking the substantial nature of the universe as one’s object of practice (實相念佛), and the other is to chant the Buddha’s name, contemplating his virtue and image (觀像念佛).

 Either way, as the Buddhas who have attained Buddhahood abide in the Land of Light in the Absolute Realm, and have infinite supernatural powers and compassion, when a person calls one of the Buddhas’ names in earnest yearning for salvation, this Buddha is bound to find his way to the person who seeks him.

   Then, what would the Buddha called upon do? He will clear away the person’s karmic hindrance and bestow empowerments on him to achieve his wishes.

 So chanting the Buddha’s name is the best way of practicing. It is an incomparably outstanding practice method.

 The compassion of the Buddha is boundless. What the Buddhas do is to teach and save sentient beings.

  The Pure Land Sect (淨土宗) of Buddhism only chants Amitabha Buddha.

 Practice by chanting can lead you to be reborn in the Western Pure Land where Amitabha Buddha abides.

It is a wonderful practice method incomparable to practicing by one’s own efforts.

 The fundamental sutras of the Pure Land Sect are The Larger Sutra on Amitayus (無量壽經), The Amitayurdhyana Sutra (觀無量壽經), The Amitabha Buddha Sutra (阿彌陀經), and The Pratyutpanna Sutra (般舟三昧經), and so forth.

 It is true that you can never be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss by your own efforts. If you can earnestly chant Amitabha Buddha with strong faith in the power of his vows, you will definitely be reborn in his Pure Land.

It is desirable to read the The Amitabha Buddha Sutra first, then recite the mantra of Amitabha Buddha to extinguish the sin committed over countless kalpas, and then chant ‘Amitabha Buddha’.

 Once you are reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, you will never fall into the world of transmigration again. There is no suffering, only total bliss.

 The practice of Yongsan Buddhism with the assistance of the other power is to chant ‘Sakyamuni Buddha’, who is the Father and Teacher of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and also who was the very first in the universe to ever attain Buddhahood.

 You should first read the Diamond Sutra, the Buddha’s fundamental Sutra, chant the Buddha’s mantra (Vairocana chong-gui jin-on), solemnly repent of all the evil deeds of the past and request of him what you want to achieve, and then begin to chant Sakyamuni Buddha. It is important to begin by reading the Sutra first.

Sit upright in the half lotus position facing the wall, put your palms together and start chanting.

 When you begin chanting, mentally mark a point on the wall level with your eyes, fix your eyes on that point and enter into chanting practice without any thoughts, free from attachment or discrimination.

 It is desirable to make offerings to the Buddha once in a while with full respect, because the Buddha extinguishes our karmic obstacles.

 Additionally, the true Dharma Buddhist foundation recommends you to practice all filial duties to your deceased parents and ancestors.

 This is because it is extremely difficult for a Buddhist monk to be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha, no matter how hard he practices if his deceased parents and ancestors are suffering in the evil realms of existence.

 If one wishes to be reborn in the Western Pure Land that exists freed from the Three Realms, it is essential to practise the actions of a Bodhisattva, that is the practice of the six Paramitas of almsgiving, morality, patience, devotion, meditation and wisdom.

And in doing so, one has to thoroughly perform numerous selfless actions.

 One can never become a Bodhisattva of the Pure Land practicing solely by one’s own efforts;

 even if as many Bodhisattvas as the grains of sands in the Ganges, all at the irreversible stage, put their heads together in an effort to create a body of liberation in the Pure Land, they could never achieve it. Only the Buddha can do this.

 If you practice chanting the Buddha’s name while pursuing the Noble Eightfold Path as taught by Yongsan Buddhism, you will receive empowerments from the Reward Body of Sakyamuni Buddha. So Bodhisattvas of the Pure Land and a Buddha can be produced here by virtue of these empowerments.

 And what you also have to know is the teaching of the Noble Eightfold Path.

 There are many religions in this world, and if we count the sects that belong to each religion and include new religions and pseudo-religions, the number becomes even greater.

 Under the circumstances, an important criterion that tells us whether a religious foundation is based on the true Dharma or not is to know whether they practice by following the Noble Eightfold Path.

 The Buddha once said that if they do not practice by using the Noble Eightfold Path, it can never be called the true Dharma. The Noble Eightfold Path consists of the three disciplines (三學) of precepts (戒), meditative concentration (定) and wisdom (慧), and the three disciplines are based on the right view (正見).

 The right view means the correct point of view on the basis of the Four Noble Truths (四聖諦).

 It is to have the insight that sees through the Four Noble Truths, the holy truths.

 The oble Eightfold Path allows those who practice to keep the precepts thoroughly and focus their thought on one point and to enter into meditative concentration which can then lead them to the path of wisdom where they can achieve the Dharma of Selflessness by looking at the truth of the universe correctly.

  As Yongsan Buddhism practices chanting the sacred name of the Buddha based on the Noble Eightfold Path, we call our practice method, ‘Recitation of the sacred name of the Buddha while practicing the Noble Eightfold Path (the Six Paramitas)’.

 Then, how can we define the True Dharma?

 It is ‘killing myself and saving others’, that is, acting for the benefit of others (利他行).

 Sentient beings mistake the Five Aggregates (form, feeling, perception, impulse, consciousness), the five components of intelligent beings, as ‘I’ and get attached to it.

 However, this ‘I’ is just a ‘false I’, not the ‘real I’.

 Therefore, giving up on this ‘I’ and giving away all that I have whole-heartedly and willingly, for the benefit of those countless sentient beings, that is, acting selflessly for the benefit of others, without the thought of I, is the True Dharma.

Thus, performing selfless actions of a Bodhisattva, we practise the recitation of the Buddha’s name and follow the Noble Eightfold Path.

 This is the true Dharma. This is the only true Dharma enabling one to become a Bodhisattva and ultimately a Buddha.

 In The Diamond Sutra, the Buddha said that those who aspire to become a Bodhisattva should make great vows to save all sentient beings, but if anyone accepts any concept of saving sentient beings, he is not a true Bodhisattva. This is the true Dharma of Mahayana Buddhism.

 Every time I have given a Dharma talk, I have emphasised that no one had previously known of where the Buddha abides.

Existing Buddhist circles have cultivated various practice methods only through one’s own efforts that could produce liberated saints at the level of an arhat.

 Of course, they take that level of achievement in practice as having attained Buddhahood.

 However, they were unaware of the existence of the Buddha who has immeasurable wisdom, compassion, blessed virtues, countless supernatural powers, awesome spiritual powers, universal salvation power, and the power of endless vows to save all sentient beings.

 They did not know the existence of the Reward Body Buddha, who is made up of Light and has a human character.

 They only knew of the Transformation Body of Sakyamuni Buddha 2,600 years ago, namely of the greatness of the Transformation Body Buddha of that time.

 The Mahayana sutras such as The Lotus Sutra (法華經), The Avatamsaka Sutra (華嚴經), etc. admire how rare the Buddha is. They have thought and been teaching the descriptions in the Mahayana sutras as being symbolic, analogical and expedient.

This is wrong, and it is to constitute significant evil Karma, despising the Buddhist sutras and disdaining the Buddha.

 Manjusri Bodhisattva once said that “All the Buddha’s teachings in Buddhist Sutras are true and not vain, and there are no teachings that are not Dharma or the truth.”

 The two Great Monks at Hyonjisa have long been practicing the recitation of the Buddha’s sacred name, and met with the Buddha in person in deep Buddha-recitation Samadhi and practiced earnestly under the guidance of the Buddha. As the two Great Monks have learned and identified so much of the wisdom and awesome spiritual powers of Sakyamuni Buddha, we can now tell vividly about the infinite ability and real existence of the Buddha beyond the description of The Avatamsaka Sutra.

One example of how the Buddha uses his awesome spiritual powers is to create a new Buddha.

 When the time has come for his precious disciple to become a Buddha, and the disciple receives a human body, the Buddha Body with a human character made of Light, namely the Reward Body Buddha manifests his Transformed Reward Body and comes to the place where his disciple resides.

 Then, the Buddha clears away the disciple’s karmic hindrance accumulated over countless kalpas of lives, protects him from the external maras such as heavenly maras, etc., drives away the spirits with the knot of hatred, and leads him to enter into Samadhi.

The Buddha creates the Buddha Body of his disciple, turns the disciple’s four spiritual bodies into a mass of Immeasurable Light, and then he combines the disciple’s Buddha Body and the four spiritual bodies together to produce a Buddha.

 When the time he is meant to depart from the Saha world comes, the Buddha takes him to the Absolute Realm.

 A rare incidence like this would occur once in a kalpa or so.

 Recitation is the surest way to be liberated from the cycle of life and death.

 Even those who live in the worldly life can realize their worldly wishes by virtue of the Buddha’s empowerment, if they practice chanting the sacred name of a Buddha, such as Manjusri Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and Maitreya Bodhisattva.

 However, if one aspires to escape from the cycle of birth and death; become a Bodhisattva and then a Buddha, the one should practice the recitation of a Buddha’s name as offered by Yongsan Buddhism.

 Numerous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have accomplished the fruit of their practicing through chanting the sacred name of the Buddha.

 This chanting practice is the Dharma that will allow us to live permanently, the only Dharma that will enable us to live in happiness and bliss until the end of all time without dying.

 The wealth and prosperity people enjoy do not last long.

 Just as in the story I told you at the beginning of this discourse with the man hanging on the branch of the rattan tree in the well, who, even in the face of death, completely forgot about the poisonous snakes right below him, but was instead fascinated by the sweetness of worldly desire. This is the reality of our lives, and the nature of humans.

 On July 21th, 2020, a daily paper in Hong Kong reported news about Ajahn Siripanyo, the son of a Malaysian billionaire, who had chosen to become a monk instead of being the heir to the huge wealth that amounted to five billion dollars (six trillion Korean won).

  Siripanyo, whose mother is a Thai, is said to have visited Thailand to meet his mother’s family when he was eighteen, and became interested in living as a monk at the Thai temple he visited.

 Since that experience, he has been living as a monk for more than twenty years now, and currently he is a superior of a monastery located in the woods of Thailand.

I think he is quite admirable, and would like to give monk Siripanyo a big hand as he willingly opted for the path of hard practice, even though he could have chosen to be an heir to a billionaire and lived his life more comfortably than anyone else, enjoying huge wealth and prosperity.

 If you are being carried away by the sweetness of honey like the man in the well, the lifeline you are hanging onto will snap at any moment and you will dive right into the mouth of the viper. Why chase after the worldly pleasure of the five desires, when could you find the Dharma of immortality?

 Our faithful Buddhists!

 ecitation, recitation of the Buddha’s name while practicing the Noble Eightfold Path to be precise, is the Dharma of immortality and is the True Dharma. This, I, Jajae Manhyon announce in a lion’s roar in front of all Buddhists around the world.

 If you observe the precepts, at least the five basic precepts as the Buddha taught, do a lot of good deeds and become a sincere Buddhist who earnestly recites the sacred name of the Buddha from this moment on, although you have committed a grave sin in the past, you will be able to achieve all your wishes.

In closing, I would like to introduce the words of Sakyamuni Buddha about the importance of having faith as a Buddhist.

 

If you truly believe in my teaching, never lose one thing, faith.

Then I will bestow the other ninety-nine things.

Even if you possessed all the ninety-nine things,

if you do not have the single most important thing, faith,.

you will lose everything.

I wish to ask our Buddhists to deeply repent the wrongdoings of your past life. I hope that you will be a sincere Buddhist, believing that the Buddha is alive and chanting the sacred name of the Buddha.

 Only those who are greatly fortunate can listen to the true Dharma and be blessed.

  This has been a Dharma talk from Hyonjisa, Yongsan Buddhism.

 Namas, I take refuge in Sakyamuni Buddha who attained Buddhahood countless kalpas ago.

 Sogga-moni-bul, Sogga-moni-bul, Sogga-moni-bul,

 

 

Jajae Manhyon

Hyonjisa

Yongsan Buddhism