THURSDAY MORNING

KNOWING THE BETTER WAY TO LIVE ALONE (p. 86)

PRAJNAPARAMITA-RATNAGUNASAMCAYAGATHA

The Transcendent Understanding- a store of precious virtues, mother of all the Buddhas.

1. Bodhisattvas who in this life

Would remove all the obstacles and the afflictions and

Give rise to a mind pacified, and confident, dwelling in

the awakened calm.

All should rely on the Transcendent Understanding.

2. All the rivers in the Roseapple Island,

Making beautiful the healing herbs, flowers and fruits

All derive from the power of the Naga king

Who dwells in the cool Manasarowara lake!

3. Just so if the hearer disciples of the Buddha

Use skilful means to teach dharma and help people

Experience joy, have the fruit of happiness, practice the holy life,

All that is due to the sacred power of the Tathagata.

4. The Buddha transmits the eye of the Dharma

His disciples by training according to it,

Practice it, realise it and teach it to others

All that is due to the power and strength of Buddha.

5. The incomparable understanding is not to be grasped,

It is not an object of realisation, it is not the highest awakening

If someone hears this and feels no terror

That person is a Bodhisattva who has understood the Buddha

6. Form, feelings, perception, formations, consciousness; all are empty

The Bodhisattva is not the tiniest bit caught and does not dwell in anything,

Does not abide in any dharma,

And realises the awakening which cannot be grasped.

7. When the Bodhisattva desires to live the homeless life

Shines his insight on the five skandhas as having no true face

Knowing that, he does not seek the peace of nirvana,

That is to realise the wisdom of a Bodhisattva.

8. What is the object realised by this understanding?

It is to throw the light of insight and see that all is empty.

When there is this insight, there is no terror,

The Bodhisattva awakens herself and awakens others.

9. Acting as if the five skandhas are real,

Is not to understand their true nature,

The Bodhisattva sees the skandhas all empty,

And acts accordingly to the signless not expressible.

 

10. The five skandhas are empty,

He does not act caught in them so his action is called signless

When there is action there is not the highest understanding

He does not achieve the signless, the peaceful samadhi.

11. If he can practice the silent awakening like this

All the past Buddhas have entrusted their power to him

He knows the fundamental nature, causes and conditions of things,

Suffering and delight cannot touch him.

12. If when practicing he does not see an object of his practice,

Then he practices according to the wisdom of the Sugata,

If he is able to practice with no object of the practice

Then only is it the highest practice of understanding.

13. This practice which has no object cannot be conceived,

The foolish people are caught in the sign "is" and "is not",

Both "is" and "is not" fail to express the truth.

The Bodhisattva of awakened understanding goes beyond them both.

14. The Bodhisattva who knows that the five skandhas

Are all a magic show,

He is free of all signs, his practice is silent awakening

Which is called the highest practice of understanding.

15. If good teachers and spiritual friends tell them

They are not afraid of hearing the Mother of Buddhas' sutra,

But if bad teachers and friends take them on the wrong path

They are like a clay water pot which has not been fired.

16. Who is it that we call Bodhisattva?

He is no longer caught in practicing to fulfil desire.

He aspires to the fruit of awakening without being caught in it

And thus is called Bodhisattva.

17. Who is it that we call Mahasattva?

They are people who arrive at the "highest meaning"

And are able to destroy mankind's wrong views

That is why they are called great beings.

18. Great generosity, wisdom and virtuous power

He sits on the highest vehicle of the Buddhas

Gives rise to the Awakened Mind to save beings

And is therefore called Mahasattva.

19. Just like a magician at the crossroads,

Gives rise to an illusory crowd and cuts off their heads,

All the worlds are equally illusory

Knowing this the Bodhisattva feels no fear.

20. All five skandhas are fetters which bind

Knowing that they are not real he needs nothing further,

Practices Awakened Mind which is not caught (in objects)

That is called the highest Bodhisattva.

21. Who is it we call a Bodhisattva

Riding on the great vehicle to help all beings

The great vehicle is as extensive as space

On it all ride in joy, safety and ease.

22. The Great Vehicle cannot be grasped

It goes to Nirvana, but Nirvana is everywhere else.

We cannot see where Nirvana is: it is like a fire which has gone out,

That is what we mean when we say "enters Nirvana"

23. The object of a Bodhisattva's practice cannot be grasped

It cannot be found in any of the three times, it is

Purified, calmed, fearless, without reasoning

But it is practice of the highest understanding.

24. When a Bodhisattva engages in the action of great understanding,

And gives rise to great love and compassion to help beings

Never does he think in terms of "sentient beings".

That is the highest understanding in action.

25. When a Bodhisattva gives rise to the notion of "living beings"

And practices austerities caught in the sign "suffering"

Because he is caught in the signs "I" and "living beings"

It is not the highest understanding in action.

26. When he knows clearly his own nature and that of other living beings,

And knows that all dharmas too are of that nature,

Birth and death are not in duality, not to be distinguished from birthless and deathless,

Then it is the highest understanding in action.

27. Abandoning all names and words

For things which are born and die in the world,

When there is this deathless wisdom incomparable,

Then there is the highest understanding in action.

28. When the Bodhisattva has a practice like this,

Knows what skilful means to use and does not need anything,

Knows that these means have no independent existence,

Then there is the practice of the highest understanding.

29. If he is not established in form and feelings,

In perceptions, formations and consciousness,

Only dwells in the place of perfect teachings,

Then there is the practice of the highest understanding.

30. Permanent and impermanent, suffering and joy,

Self and selfless, all are empty.

He is not established in a world of compounded or uncompounded things,

He is established in a signless practice as the Buddha was.

31. If you want to aspire to the hearer, or pratyekabuddha enlightenment,

Or to the Buddha enlightenment

If you do not have endurance to practice as above, you cannot arrive.

It is going over a great river of which you cannot see the shore.

(If you cannot accept these teachings on emptiness you will not have the strength to arrive)

32. If you hear these teachings and determine to realise them

To realise the highest awakening, be a witness to awakened mind,

And you see that the nature of all things is your own nature

That is the great wisdom of which the Tathagata spoke.

The practitioner should be established in the four pudgalas (pudgalas are human beings) and they can be said to practice the great wisdom. One is when objects of the mind are wholesome and seen as they are. Two is when the mind cannot be reversed. Three is the arahat who has abandoned defilements, has no afflictions and no needs. Four is the good friend who goes on the same path with those that he helps.

33. A Bodhisattva who practices like this the great wisdom

Does not train as a hearer or pratyekabuddha trains,

He only trains in the sarvajnata of the Tathagata.

True learning is the learning of no learning.

34. He trains in the non-increase and non-decrease of forms

He does not train to acquire them as objects of mind

His only joy is to train according to sarvajnata

The same is true of feelings, perceptions, formations and consciousness.

35. Form is not wisdom, it is not absence of wisdom,

Feelings, perceptions and so on are also like that,

The nature of form is like empty space

Sameness, non-duality, non-discrimination.

36. The basic nature of wrong perception is also emptiness

As is the basic nature of all living beings

The nature of space is without obstructions

So the wisdom of those who understand the world is unobstructed.

37. Wisdom is not form, the Buddha has said

When all clinging to perceptions is given up, Nirvana is there

Whoever has given up clinging to perceptions

That person's mind is said to dwell in suchness.

38. For as many lifetimes as grains of sand in the Ganga's bed

The person who does not hear the Buddha utter "Living Beings"

Born beings are birthless, from the beginning pure and silent

Practices the highest understanding.

39. Since all the words I ever uttered

All contained the meaning of the highest understanding,

The last Buddha transmitted to me the prediction

That I would witness awakening in a future life.

40. If anyone constantly receives and practices this understanding

His action is none other than the action of Buddhas.

Sword, poison, fire and water

And all the sorts of Mara can do him no harm.

WE ARE TRULY PRESENT

(Gatha to be read before beginning Kinh Hanh)

We are truly present our hearts established in mindfulness

For sitting meditation, kinh hanh and reciting the sutras

May the three jewels and the holy nagas

Support this meditation centre with its four sanghas

Protecting them from the eight misfortunes and the three paths of suffering

May the four sounds and the three worlds be permeated by the great favour

May there be no place in the world at war

May the winds be favourable, the rain seasonable and the people’s hearts at peace

May the practice of the sangha be steady and diligent

Ascending the ten bhumis without hardship

May the Sanghakaya live in peace, joy and newness

The refuges and the precepts bringing happiness and wisdom

The wisdom of the Awakened mind shines out like the full moon

The body of the Awakened One is as pure and clear as lapis lazuli

The Awakened One in the world never ceases to save beings from suffering

Nowhere is there Awakened mind which lacks love and compassion

Please sisters establish your mindfulness to recite the name of the Buddha

Namo Sakyamunaye Buddhaya

(stand up and practise circumambulation while recollecting the Buddha)

PROSTRATIONS

Teaching and living the way of awareness in the very midst of suffering and confusion, Sakyamuni Buddha the Awakened One, to whom we bow in gratitude. (B)

Seed of awakening and loving kindness in children, sprouts and all beings, Maitreya, the Buddha to be born, to whom we bow in gratitude. (B)

Cutting through ignorance, awakening our hearts and our minds, Manjusri the bodhisattva of great understanding to whom we bow in gratitude. (B)

Working mindfully, working joyfully for the sake of all beings, Samantabhadra the bodhisattva of great action, to whom we bow in gratitude. (B)

Seeing the Buddha in everyone, Sadaparibhuta, the bodhisattva of constant respect, to whom we bow in gratitude. (B)

Showing the way fearlessly and compassionately the stream of all our ancestral teachers, to whom we bow in gratitude. (BB)

THE REFUGE CHANT p. 126

TAKING REFUGE.

I take refuge in the Buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life.

I take refuge in the Dharma, the way of understanding and love.

I take refuge in the Sangha, the community which lives in harmony and awareness. (B)

Since I have taken refuge in Buddha,

I see clearly a path of beauty in the world.

Since I have taken refuge in Dharma,

I am learning and practising ways of transformation.

Since I have taken refuge in Sangha

I have the Sangha to shine light on my practice

And support me on the path of practice.(B)

Taking refuge in the Buddha in myself,

I aspire that all people

May recognise the awakened nature

And quickly realise bodhicitta

Taking refuge in the Dharma in myself,

I aspire that all people

Can grasp firmly the ways of practice

and together go on the path of transformation.

Taking refuge in the Sangha in myself

I aspire that all people

May build four-part sanghas to transform

The suffering of numerous people. (BBB)