Avatamsaka Sutra 2013-07-13 Fifth Ground p.30,31

So, their happiness, what does it say?

温法永月住虚空

They're 四在天王与天众

The god Ishvara and all the other gods,

hearing the Dharma, jump for joy.

They were, their happiness moved them.

We saw this last week.

We had a visit from a three-year-old

Taiwanese three-year-old

who had been raised by a family of performers.

This is our friend, the puppet troupe from Taiwan.

And they are theatrical, they're theater people.

And they're always on stage

and helping young people experience theater

and writing scripts and performing them

and teaching.

Theater arts.

And so this three-year-old, they say,

has been on stage since she was five months old.

She made her stage debut and, you know,

still in diapers.

And so she's a particularly fearless three-year-old.

We were all impressed with how precocious

this young woman was.

Young girl, not a woman, a young girl.

And she, I brought down a puppet, a rabbit,

and had a rabbit in my hand.

And she, I brought down a puppet, a rabbit,

and had a rabbit in my hands.

And some of our Dharma friends here mentioned

that she saw that rabbit and she actually leapt in space.

We have a picture.

Jerry snapped the shutter.

And this young girl is, her feet are not on the ground.

She's flying towards this rabbit, just like that.

And she's not an adult.

She's not sophisticated.

When she feels it, she shows it.

And she was like, you know,

and her,

she's off the ground.

She's, both feet are off the ground,

heading towards the rabbit, jumping for joy.

She was animated to the point where it lifted her off the ground.

And there are some other pictures and she's like,

oh, you know, just all happy.

We're all grumpy adults.

Mm-hmm, that's very nice.

Yes, mm-hmm.

And then we look a couple times out of the corners

because we want to keep our cool.

So she was jumping for joy.

She's three years old.

And...

It was quite wonderful to watch this young girl.

She later performed for us.

She danced.

And all the adults, after about an hour and a half of this,

were kind of sitting down going,

and she was,

I am not tired at all, she said.

And we're like, yeah, we can see that.

Doink, doink, doink.

Oh, my goodness.

To have the energy of a three-year-old.

Wow.

So, quite wonderful to see somebody jump for joy.

And it didn't take much.

It was a rabbit puppet,

but she was off the ground jumping for joy.

So here we have devas who live in the realm of happiness

because, why?

Blessings.

Their blessings are abundant.

And the devas are jumping for joy

because they've gotten something better than a rabbit.

They've got the Buddha Dharma,

which allows them to understand things

they never understood.

They can see further than they've ever seen before.

They make connections that they've never made before.

They know that when they go back,

having heard the Dharma,

they'll be able to say things

that will help people's pain go away

the way they never had before.

It's like a doctor who is now empowered

to treat illnesses that he never was empowered to do before.

Our very own Jason is going up,

to learn root canals.

And one of our other parishioners,

who is also a dentist,

last week after the lecture said,

oh, he said,

I've been a dentist now for 27 years

and I've never done root canals.

You know why?

He said,

he said,

it's very, very, very hard.

Those root,

the nerves are what a root canal is.

I didn't know anything.

Their hair is hair fine.

And they don't go,

they don't go straight.

They go,

they curl around.

Sometimes they loop.

And if you're a dentist doing root canals,

you have to go in there and extract this thing.

It's as fine as a human hair.

You fine as an eyelash,

eyebrow, right?

You can't see any hair here.

Eyebrow.

They're that fine.

And you have to pretty much guess where they go.

If they curl and twist

and you have to get the whole thing out.

And it's extremely difficult.

There's an art to getting root canals out.

I had no idea.

He said,

this is really difficult.

And that's why whenever I have patients who require it,

I send them to a colleague of mine who specializes in it.

And you need special tools and special techniques

and kung fu to do root canals.

And so I thought,

gee,

I had no idea.

So these devas here,

whose lives are very comfortable,

are jumping for joy because now they have learned Dharma

that allows them to do,

psychic root canals.

You get the connection?

Do you like that analogy,

the way I started?

So they are able to extract living beings' afflictions

as fine as a hair.

How wonderful.

Yeah.

So really,

once you understand the dharmas of the fourth ground,

you can wake people up

in a way you never could before.

So,

and they stay aloft in empty space.

And what else?

Pu fang zhong zhong miao guang.

Miao guang yun.

Everywhere,

pu,

they fang,

they send out,

they emit,

they release,

they shoot out,

zhong zhong,

not one,

not two,

but many kinds of miao guang yun,

clouds of wonderful light.

Anybody who can,

can I direct your gaze around behind you

to the facing on the balcony?

It's not clouds of wonderful light,

it's just rays,

rays of wonderful light.

But you can see the green dragon

right here on the facing of the balcony.

And guang yun's halo is over under the clock right there.

And if there were incense in the air,

you would have clouds of wondrous light right there.

Now, it's not miraculous because why?

It's sunlight.

Sun is coming through our stained glass window

at the right angle.

And we're in mid July now.

So it's still eight o'clock,

we still have light.

Come October,

the light's gone by about four.

But tonight we have wonderful light.

And if we,

when we were doing the ceremony,

there were clouds of incense coming across.

So,

you can imagine what it must be like

when the gods themselves put out the lights,

send out these lights.

Gong yang ru lai shi chong bin.

And what are they doing with these lights?

They're making offerings to the Buddhas.

And their happiness pervades.

Shi chong bin, happiness fills up everywhere.

Okay.

One of the main themes in the sutra

that comes up over and over and over again

is giving and its rewards.

That's a foundation of Dharma.

Generosity, giving.

And.

When I first studied this, that took me completely by surprise.

How much the sutra values giving.

It's the start.

It's the first paramita.

It's the first...

It's actually the third of Samantabhadra's vows, giving everywhere.

But it's...

I once did a survey of all the sets of dharmas,

the four of this, the five of this, the six of this, the seven of this, etc.

And of the various lists, giving was first in about six out of eight,

six out of nine of the lists.

Giving is really important.

And there's all kinds of giving.

There's giving up, meaning letting go of, renouncing.

That's a kind of giving.

Things you can do without.

You let go.

You let them go.

There's giving in the sense of charity,

giving to benefit, like clothes, food, dwellings, shelter, and medicine.

Giving to the sangha, kinds of appropriate offerings.

But this is gungyang.

That's what's mentioned here.

This is a special kind of giving that comes from us to, let's say, above.

Now, you can give...

And there's actually a sutra that talks about the benefits of the various kinds of giving.

The comparative benefits.

And it's fascinating because it says,

if you really want a lot of gungda,

if you want a lot of merit and virtue, good results,

then you can give to...

How does it go?

Does it go increasing or decreasing?

I think it goes from low to high.

It says,

you can give to people in need, beggars.

And that's a really blessed thing.

I think it even starts with animals.

You can feed an animal, right?

And that's a really good thing.

If you give food to an animal,

then you've relieved suffering.

But because the animal has a shorter lifespan,

has less of an opportunity to cultivate,

it's not as blessed,

meaning it doesn't generate as much goodness,

as giving to...

a poor person or a crippled person or a sick person.

That kind of giving is said to be an awesome field of blessings.

So if you plant those...

Connie?

Okay, okay.

Can you hang on to that?

Let me do my...

Because I'm in the middle of a thing,

and you can ask it in a minute.

Don't forget.

Okay.

Giving to a homeless person,

giving to somebody who is sick,

is full of blessings,

but it's not as blessed,

as giving to a holder of the five precepts, right?

And giving to somebody who holds the five precepts,

a lay person,

creates a lot of merit and virtue.

But it's not as blessed as, right?

And the sutra goes up and up and up and up and up.

And it even gives the equivalence.

So if you give to...

Ultimately, I think it's a Buddha, I guess is the last one.

The amount of merit and virtue that you create

by giving anything to...

to a fully awakened living being, a Buddha,

is the highest way to plant, feel a blessing.

And it's, you know, you can...

There's a sutra that gives it specifically,

but you can...

If you tell this, you can draw it out to all different degrees.

Why is this true?

And this is why I want to bring this point up.

Here we have the...

Look at our verb here.

公养如来, 喜冲遍.

When you make...

Offerings to the Tathagata,

they made offerings to the Tathagata

and their happiness was filling up everywhere.

喜冲遍.

Their happiness just...

They got happy when they gave.

Check this.

This is the point.

When I grew up, getting was happy, not giving.

I understood that the point of birthdays, holidays,

when grandmother came to visit,

if you were Chinese,

it was 光年.

You know, you got stuff.

New Year's, you got stuff.

That was happy for children and people whose minds are still in that state.

Getting stuff is the point.

And we like to get stuff.

We are trained as consumers.

Getting stuff is good.

It's happy.

The Buddha Dharma turns that on its head and it says,

in fact, happiness comes from giving.

Giving is the source of happiness.

And not only does it make you happy to give,

but if you look at those different kinds of giving,

giving down, which is charity to people who are in need,

so they have sufficiency,

giving at a level, which is sharing things,

birthday gifts, giving a cross,

and then giving up, making offerings,

as well as letting go, renunciation.

Those kind of giving,

those kind of offerings create more and more and more happiness.

So why would a God be filling up space with joy

from making offerings to a Buddha?

Is it because the Buddha wants the stuff?

The Buddha is delighted and is going to be nicer to you

if you give him more stuff?

No, I don't think so.

I thought about this a lot.

I'd like to hear people's views on it.

Why is giving to a Buddha

a generator of more goodness

than giving to who you'd say, you know,

a homeless person on the street?

You would think that, you know,

giving to somebody who's like really suffering

would be the greater field of blessings.

Okay, Connie, do you have an idea on this?

Can you turn that on and talk into it?

Maybe it's because you'll be giving to a doctor

who can supply more to more people.

I didn't quite hear you.

Say it a little louder.

So, like, the Buddha's like a doctor

who needs resources to support him

in order to continue healing more people.

So you'll be giving to one person,

but you'll be giving to many as well.

Yeah, that's an idea.

Anybody else?

Why is giving to a Buddha,

why is planting the Buddha's field of blessings

generating more goodness

than giving to a Buddha?

Than giving, like, healing somebody's illness?

Jerry?

Okay.

It's multiplying the effect.

You said it's similar to what Connie said.

Because when you give to the Buddha,

it allows...

So, let me see if I said it right.

It allows the Buddha to then further teach more people.

So it multiplies.

Is that your point?

Okay, good.

Yeah.

Ellen?

I forgot the name of it too fast,

but I read a story about...

Can we get that mic across here?

Okay.

Mike, Mike, Mike.

Okay.

Do you mind saying it one more time

so everybody can hear?

Otherwise, I have to repeat.

Okay.

I forgot the name of the sutra,

but I remember I read that once.

One of the enlightened disciples of the Buddha

made a sincere offering to the Shakyamuni Buddha.

And then,

at one time,

the Buddha passed on the offering to a dog,

or maybe just kind of shared,

shared some food to the wandering dog.

And then the sutra asks,

so what kind of barrier and virtue

was generated more for these kind of two kinds of offering?

One is the enlightened disciple made offering to the Buddha,

and Buddha passed on something,

shared the food to a dog.

And then the answer was,

when the Buddha feed a wandering dog,

that generate the endless kind of barrier and virtue.

Okay.

And do you recall, did the Buddha explain?

I don't remember that.

Okay.

I just remember that was the case.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, Alan is mentioning another sutra that talks about giving.

Once you discover this, we call it a meme, M-E-M-E,

once you discover this theme of comparative giving

and the benefits of giving, you discover it everywhere.

It's all over Buddhism.

It's the beginning of practice.

How important is it of the paramitas, the perfections,

the ways that bodhisattvas practice?

It's number one, and number two is precepts, right?

And they come in pairs.

So giving and precepts, patience and vigor,

that was number four, samadhi and wisdom.

Those are the six.

They come in pairs, and this is the samadhi.

We're starting number five.

Okay.

So if you think, gee, I want to become a Buddhist.

I would like to find out more about this religion,

about this community, about these teachings.

So to start, you, what do you do?

You give, and you start to, you come closer to the precepts.

Bit by bit, you lead a more virtuous life.

All right, why?

Why those?

Of all the things it could be, why?

Okay, here's, I have a theory.

And now, Jerry's answer and Connie's answer

were about increasing the efficacy of the receiver.

I think that giving acts more on the part of the giver.

It's what happens to you when you give that starts things off.

Okay.

Because why?

The Buddha does not need your stuff.

Right?

The Buddha does not need your incense, your flowers, your food, your lamps, your candles,

your bedding, your medicine.

Right?

I mean, the Buddha has a body, and he's a monk.

If you saw him, if he walked in, you'd see this tall monk.

And for sure, he needs four requisites.

What are they?

The four things that people offer to the Sangha.

They offer food and drink, clothing, medicine, and food.

Okay.

praises the giving in Ulumbana

is so that the Sangha

gets offerings to last the year round.

Okay.

So, yes,

those things are important.

The Buddha is beyond,

you know, I need, I want.

Why is giving number one?

It's because every time we give,

we give away part of the self.

That's why it starts things off.

When we can give,

we let go of a little bit

of what I know to be me and mine,

which is what the root of the problem.

The root of the problem of ignorance

that leads to suffering

is this sense of me and mine,

which is right in the center

of almost every single thing I do.

Me and mine.

I'm the most important.

I'm the most important single unit

of the universe for most of us.

And here is absolutely no mistake

the book about people

who do not believe that to be true.

The sutra is about people

who take others as equally important

as the self.

Not that the self is unimportant.

You have to have a driver's license.

You have to have an email address.

You have to get along.

You know, probably not email address,

but you get the point.

However, the Bodhisattva,

all of these grounds are for the purpose

of seeing that the self is an illusory self.

It's not a real permanent thing.

It's changing all the time.

It's a constructed self.

Many conditions come together

to make me who I think I am.

My story.

Okay, don't believe it?

How many of us were born

on the ground that we live on today?

How many of us were born in the place

that we now call our address?

Not very many of us.

And occasionally we ask this question at Teons

and there's always like two out of twenty

who say, I'm still living in the house

that I was born in.

In fact, I live in the same room I was born in.

I was born in Berkeley

and I lived here all my life.

There's usually one or two.

Or San Francisco.

Right?

Most of us

are multiple.

Right?

I am Scots-Irish,

through Canada,

Midwesterner,

born near the Great Lakes,

who has been in California

more than half of my life.

By far.

Okay?

So, I'm multiple.

And if you ask my sister,

she's convinced that someday I'm going to pull a zipper

and this Chinese person is going to jump out from inside.

So, we're all multiple.

We're all like constructed.

Right?

The self that we think is so real and true and permanent

is made up of stuff.

It's changing all the time.

It's as multiple as the clothes in your closet.

Okay?

The body is just one piece of it.

Okay.

So, when we can give pieces of that away,

happily, joyfully, willingly,

with a good heart,

that kind of shakes up

that sense of self.

That's the beginning of cultivation.

So, yes Jerry?

Yeah.

Okay.

So, Jerry's question is about comparative.

Right?

The comparative merits of giving.

And...

Excuse me.

The...

If you look at the way the sutra sketches it out,

it talks about

kunda,

the merit and virtue.

The difference between a Buddha and us

is how much covers our nature

versus how much covers the Buddha nature.

Another way to say it,

this is deep dharma theory.

Okay.

So, go with me to this theory

and see if you can make sense of it.

The process of cultivation

and these people we're reading about,

these bodhisattvas,

they're almost done.

They're way along the road

towards success,

towards the completion of their practice.

And what they have done

that we are still doing

is they've removed the covers

from over what's called their...

their nature.

Their...

The virtue of their own nature.

As a result,

every bit that you give away

or scrape off or cultivate away

allows you to shine.

They say,

with a brighter light.

Now,

you've met people

who somehow seem radiant.

You know,

people who seem magnetic in a way.

People who just...

You feel a kinship.

You feel a connection.

The Chinese say,

yuan fen.

You feel a connection to them.

Organically,

somehow spontaneously.

I would say that possibly

it's because those people are virtuous.

Not just charisma.

It's because they have

some light about them.

And we don't necessarily see it with our own eyes.

Okay.

Can you imagine

what it's like to be in the presence of a Buddha?

Imagine.

What a Buddha would be like.

Somebody who has done that work completely.

What's it like?

I don't know.

Specifically.

But I do know

that the sutra is always talking about

light.

That word comes up all the time.

Here,

what do we have?

Here,

Dave is sending light out

from the body.

So,

a Buddha,

apparently,

when you uncover your nature,

it shines.

They say.

Your nature shines.

And,

when we look at...

Can we look at over here

at Manjushri?

Notice that round thing

around his head.

The round thing around Amitabha.

Okay.

The Buddha standing on our altar here.

The central Buddha who's standing.

That...

kind of...

hard to describe shape.

That leaf-like shape around him.

That's the artist's way of depicting light

that shines from the Buddha,

they say.

Right?

They talk about it as what?

The aura.

Right?

The surround.

The guangjian,

they say in Chinese.

The circle of light.

So,

apparently,

now,

if you and I,

if any of us had our eyes open,

we could probably see that light.

I don't.

I don't see it.

And,

that was...

Shifu used to tease us all the time.

Oh,

you can't see it?

Oh,

so colorful.

You can't?

Huh.

Okay.

You know,

it's like teasing.

And,

what is that light?

It's the light of your nature,

my nature.

Uncovered.

So,

to get back to the question,

when you make an offering

to someone whose nature is

completely uncovered and shining

and brilliant,

you are connecting

to that source.

And,

it increases

your,

your giving away

part,

something,

some material thing

to that source.

And,

you're giving away

some material thing

in order to

move closer

to that source

of light.

So,

that's,

they say,

comparatively,

the merit

of doing that

inside

what it does

to you

as you give

that gift

is,

it brings you

closer,

it's funny,

you go out

so you can come back in

closer

to your nature.

Now,

if you give

to a homeless person,

let's say,

who is,

you know,

I am a homeless person.

There are two homeless people

in the room,

myself and Master Tashi,

right?

I mean,

I am a homeless person,

indeed.

I have an address here

but I don't live here

entirely.

I've lived in many,

many monasteries

around the world.

So,

if you give to a person

on the street

who

often has

mental

problems,

maybe resulting

from their

experiences

as a veteran

of our many,

many,

many foreign wars

and they were

kicked out of the VA

at a certain point

when their benefits

shrank,

et cetera,

I won't go there tonight.

But,

somebody on the street

who is

unhappy,

who is

often

addicted

in a way to get

through the day,

you know,

substances

in order to

take the pain away,

someone who is

anxious,

someone who is

frightened at night

because

they're

vulnerable to

gangs,

to robbers,

to thieves,

to all kinds of

illness,

you know,

someone whose nature

is afflicted

and covered,

there is

goodness.

There is

human kindness

there.

There is

removing

suffering.

But in terms,

and you're

getting,

letting go of

something,

but

you're not

going back

to a source

of light,

right?

You're

feeding a person

for a meal

whereas

if you could

teach them

to cook

and to grow

food,

you'd feed them

for life

because they could

feed themselves.

So anyway,

that's,

I think that's

the idea.

It's what it does

to you

vis-a-vis

the uncovered

nature of the

person,

the being

you're giving to.

I think that's

how the sutra

goes.

So,

when you,

we got way

down the road

here,

but it's good.

This is good

because I wanted

people to

tune into the

giving that goes

on in the sutra.

Okay,

if you

don't have

the Buddha

in front of you,

you don't have

a Buddha image

at home,

or maybe you do,

but you feel

kind of,

you know,

it's on top

of the TV

and it's

kind of,

you put flowers

in front of it

but it doesn't

really matter

to you.

So,

start there.

Taking care,

they talk about

Tang Shang

Zhen Fo,

right?

They talk about

the Buddha,

the true Buddha

in your own

home,

right?

The,

your mom

is the source

of your

physical life,

your body,

and

she is

there

entirely

to make

your

life

pain-free,

right?

To resist,

to make it hurt less,

to kiss the boo-boo

when you

bang your finger

with a hammer

and make it go away,

right?

That's what moms do.

They do it

naturally,

spontaneously.

They don't think about it,

they just,

this is what moms do.

They feed us,

they raise us,

they make our

ouchies go away,

right?

So,

mostly we just kind of

go down the road,

yeah,

my mom,

you know?

And,

if we ever turn around

and say,

it would be nice

if we could make

our mother's

life

more blessed,

even a little.

Flowers

go a long way.

You ever

give flowers

to your mom

by surprise?

It's like they melt.

Oh,

you shouldn't,

they're so pretty.

You know,

it's like,

yeah,

whoa,

she really likes

those flowers,

you know?

Moms love flowers.

And don't wait

for Mother's Day,

do it by surprise

sometimes.

And,

you know,

if we ever

turn around

to plant in that

field of blessings,

gives you a clue

to what it must be like

when you make an offering

to a Buddha

who

will

shine

when you make

that connection.

Why?

Because he,

the Buddha,

he,

is seeing

someone

who is

wandering

far away

taking one step

closer

to home.

Right?

They talk about

Amitabha

as the kind father.

And,

we are

trying to find

our true home

in the Pure Land.

And we're just kind of

out there wandering.

Today looks pretty good,

tomorrow I'm not so sure.

Today I recite,

tomorrow I forget.

You know,

and the Buddha's going,

okay,

they'll get here

sooner or later,

you know.

And if we can make

that offering,

the Buddha,

Namo Amitabha,

then the Buddha goes,

ah,

welcome home.

Right?

In fact,

the Bodhisattva

Great Strength

and the Sharangama Sutra says,

like a child

who finally remembers

his

mother

after having been

away for a long time.

And,

as soon as the

child returns,

then

they know

they're safe,

they're back home.

Okay,

so this is all,

one more thing

about giving,

then we're going

to move on.

In

our

Avatamsaka Sutra,

our very text,

in the

third

practice of

Samantabhadra,

which is the

last chapter,

they talk about

kinds of

giving.

Here we go.

Here's a place

where we hear about

kinds of

giving.

And it says,

of all the kinds

of giving,

giving of Dharma

is the highest

kind.

Think about that.

It's not a

thing.

And there are

three kinds of

giving traditionally

in Buddhism.

They talk about

things,

they talk about

things,

helping people

through

fear,

saying the right

words when

somebody is

anxious

or terrified,

calming

people who

are

frightened.

That's

the second

best kind

of giving

you can do.

But of all the kinds

of giving,

wealth,

and it could be

diamonds,

keys to

BMWs,

right,

Teslas.

How about a

Tesla?

We'll sell it on

eBay tomorrow and

build a monastery

with the money it

would cost you to

buy a Tesla.

So you can give

Teslas.

You can give

monasteries.

And that's all

good giving of

material goods,

wealth.

That's the first

kind, giving of

wealth.

Second kind of

giving of courage

or fearlessness

is really valuable.

The highest kind

of giving is

the giving of

Dharma,

says the sutra.

Why?

What is that?

I mean,

you think about

what you love.

We had a

roundtable this

week and our

topic was,

if you could take

one thing

with you

because you

were escaping

a fire,

you were moving

to a desert

island,

you were a

refugee,

and you had

one thing

that you could

take, no matter

what it was

that you own

now,

what would it

be?

That's our

question.

You have to

give your

connection to

it.

But the

highest giving

that you can

do is the

giving of

Dharma.

Highest means

best.

Now,

what does that

mean to

give Dharma?

And then the

sutra goes and

explains.

It gives us all

these choices

of what it

means to say

the giving of

Dharma.

And,

what do you

imagine?

The giving of

the teachings.

In other words,

doing what

your teacher

says.

That's the

highest kind

of giving.

For example,

don't get

angry.

If somebody

can say,

I

want

to give

the highest

kind of

giving I

can possibly

give,

I'm going

to change

a bad

habit.

From the

point of

view of

Samantabhadra,

that's worth

$5,000 to

$4,000.

For that

reason,

I am

giving

Dharma

to everyone

who

wants to

give.

That's

a good

thing.

Again,

this

is

about

giving

Dharma.

This

is

not

about

giving

Dharma

to

any

person

One, they say, part in an Upanishad,

the smallest part of the value of changing your bad habits.

That's what it says.

So here's a comparison it makes.

This kind of giving is more important.

Changing your bad habit.

That's rare.

That's valuable.

Why?

Why does it say that?

Ian, right?

Yeah.

I think a lot of the time you can get people to change their bad habits for a day

or by face value make it seem outwardly that they have changed,

but then a few days later they'll revert back to their old ways

and their habit will not have actually changed,

but it was a short-term difference.

Are you speaking personally?

To some extent.

I know what you're saying.

I guess I'll admit that.

Okay, okay, okay.

That's true.

Probably if you pass the mic, we could all say the same.

You're right.

Because why?

Habits are hard to change.

But that's part of it.

There's another part of it, which is this.

It's that if we can actually ourselves uncover a bit of that light of our own nature,

we're closer to Buddhahood.

We are further along the path,

and the Buddha's work of waking up,

waking us up advances, right?

Think about that.

How much light do I release when I quit getting angry?

You think, not very much?

Well, from the Buddha's point of view, it's huge.

And if you think about that, that's how long it takes to become a Buddha.

Because there's so much stuff I don't know.

I am thoroughly coated in wuming, ignorance, right?

We all are.

Otherwise, we would figure stuff out.

We wouldn't be so confused about stuff, okay?

So yeah, but still, that's the highest giving.

Doing things the way you're taught, right?

Yijiao fengxing, practicing the way we're taught.

That's one.

That's one kind of giving.

Another one is, how does it go?

Fengxiu rongyang.

It's a returning to principle they say.

In other words, cause and effect.

If everything you do, before you do it, you say to yourself, this is going to come back

to me, I'm planting a seed.

Do I want this when it comes ripe?

I won't do it otherwise.

What's it, Golden Rule?

The Golden Rule, if you live according to the Golden Rule, you are?

Cultivating.

Cultivating the giving of Dharma, right?

You are cultivating 法不失法供养, 主供养中法供养, right?

Golden rule, right?

I'm going to only do things that I want done to me.

Golden rule.

I am not going to do things I don't want done to me.

Like what?

Lying.

Who likes to be lied to?

Nobody.

I won't do it.

Because I don't want to be lied to.

So I'm not going to lie.

There's the giving of Dharma, right?

You connect cause and effect.

That's one of them.

There's like five different kinds of giving of Dharma.

So that's in terms of giving.

We talked about letting go of stuff, throwing stuff away.

That's a kind of giving, right?

You give it away to the dumpster.

But what about renunciation?

Boy, I really like coffee.

But I know that when I drink a lot of coffee, I tend to speed.

You know, and I miss details because I'm going so fast.

Maybe I'll give up coffee.

Why?

Because I like stillness.

I've been meditating and I don't eat coffee so much.

Right?

No, no.

That's just a suggestion.

I'm sorry.

I'm not suggesting.

Oh, no.

He mentioned coffee.

Now I've got to think about it.

No, no, no.

I drink coffee.

All right?

And I'm not going to give it up until we get to Oregon.

Or maybe not until later.

So coffee has its value if you're driving a vehicle.

It helps you stay awake.

Okay?

That's just an example.

How about cigarettes?

Right?

Cigarettes pretty much get a bad rap these days, no matter what Liggett and Myers would

like you to believe, the tobacco manufacturers.

So I will give up cigarettes.

Why?

Because I know it would be better for me.

I'll live longer if I can.

That's renunciation.

That's hard.

Okay?

So that's that kind of giving.

There's sharing is a kind of giving.

I have enough.

I'll share with someone else.

I will.

Give even when I don't have to.

There's joy there.

Okay?

Then there's offering up.

Taking something that is valuable and sharing it with giving it to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,

giving it to sages, giving it to Dharma teachers.

Okay?

You see, that's comparatively a higher kind of giving.

And where are we now?

We are back.

Okay?

We are back.

This is the first verse of the Sutra.

What are the Devas doing?

The Devas are cung yang ru lai si chung bian .

They're making offerings to the Tagata and their joy is unbounded.

Okay.

Think about that, man.

We come to Buddhism.

Why?

We like to meditate.

Mostly.

In this country.

People like to meditate.

Why do you come to Buddhism?

My parents are Buddhist.

That's all I knew.

We were always Buddhist.

I come because that's what we did.

It says some of us, right?

Other people, I come to Buddhism because I kind of like the feeling.

I like peacefulness.

I like the calm.

All these different reasons.

Who do you know who says, I come to Buddhism because I want to be a better giver.

I want to learn to be more generous.

Nobody connects that, right?

It's huge in the sutra.

Giving.

Everywhere.

Sanmon tikkun, right?

The giving of wealth.

Giving of fearlessness.

Courage.

Giving of dharma.

You give, but you empty out the giver.

You empty out the gift.

There's no gift.

There's no giver.

There's no receiver.

Wow, that's profound.

What does that mean, right?

So giving is a huge part of Buddhism.

I've never heard anybody say, I became a Buddhist so I could be really generous.

What do you think is the best way of breaking the rift of feeling like

you need the best?

I think the biggest divide between people having things and being able to freely give

things away is feeling like they need things more for themselves than, like feeling like

I would benefit more having these things than giving them away.

Some of my friends, they're able to purchase really large amounts of food, give them away

to homeless people in the park, and they share it with each other and do these things, and

it seems like you have to have a certain state of mind that you build up in your mind that

you build up over time or something like that, but what do you think is the best way to develop

that?

Yeah, okay, that's a good question.

Here's what's at stake.

We live in a society that tells us that more is good and the most is the best, right?

We live in a consumer society that encourages greed, right?

We do, you know.

One of the most powerful examples was Bernard Madoff, this financier in New York City,

who consciously, knowingly, on purpose, willingly, cheated people out of their pensions.

He took entire, not just individuals, he was, he created these funds.

He created these funds.

He took over a bank account.

He took over the bank in New York with his bank account.

He took over the bank at the time.

He took over the bank and bought it.

He paid for it in his bank account.

He was a rich and successful businessman, and got rich out of it, and he was able to

do money, and eventually gave it to a couple of people.

So, you know, his bank account was an excellent example of what's going to happen in the

future, but at the same time, I think there's a big risk that he would go to, like, for

example, the, let's say, the California Teacher's Association, CTA.

California Teacher's Association has dues that its members pay, right?

You pay dues, union dues, for example, or dues in your club.

CTA would take its dues and they would hire financial analysts to take that money and

CTA would take its dues and they would hire a financial analyst

to take that money and invest it.

Instead of just sitting in an account that gets like 1.5% a year,

their MBA treasurer would say,

hey, there's a fund that if I invest it here, we can get 6% a year.

Well, if they invested in Bernard Madoff's securities,

they wound up losing it all, right?

School systems went out of business.

They went bankrupt, right?

City governments do this.

The entire government invests their monies in this guy.

He's one of many who took the money and moved it around schemes

so that there never was any money behind it.

He would just move it and ship it off overseas to his own private account.

So that's greed, right?

And somehow in America, we have gotten to a place,

not just America, but certainly it's strong in America,

where greed is good.

We feel that if you get more, it's yours, right?

Hold on.

I think I think this through.

So, okay, your friends and your first question.

What about your friend?

What do you do to get to a place where you can give,

food to the homeless and think this is good, right?

It's because you, the answer is, you see clearly.

Because you see through that wind in America, that tide.

You know how tides come?

Tell the tide to stop rolling in.

It won't.

The tide comes in.

We have a tide of greed in America.

There is a,

a thought in our country, alive in our society right now,

that says more is good, the most is best.

We have a situation of economic disparity where 1% of the population has

wealth equal to the entire wealth of small nations, right?

There's, what is it?

They, I haven't seen the figure.

It's something like 6,000 people in America combined have more money than 40%

of the rest of the world.

The two wealthiest men in the world have a higher GDP than the 40 or 50% of the world.

Correct, correct.

Yeah, and that's called out of balance.

That doesn't work.

Okay, but why?

We have created a system that rewards them.

All right, so, say it's not true.

No, it's true.

It's true.

Why are we doing this?

It's because, one word, greed.

And in Buddha Dharma, it's, the Buddha talked, he laid it right out.

He said,

No, this is called poison.

Greed is a poison.

So, how do you deal with it?

One is, you look ahead.

You say, okay, today I ate so much food.

Suppose today I ate twice as much food as that.

What would happen?

You'd be sick.

You'd be rolling on the floor.

You'd probably have to get a stomach pump or you'd have to move it out pretty quickly.

We can only swallow so much food per day.

Tonight, the bed you're going to sleep in, how big is it?

Well, it's the same size, right?

Maybe six and a half feet, a little longer than your body, maybe.

Suppose you slept in a bed that was three times that big.

Could you sleep in all of that bed?

You'd have to roll all night back to cover the whole bed, right?

So, we still take that much bed.

We still eat that much food.

And yet, if we follow the trend, the tide, we need houses with multiple bedrooms.

Right?

We need bigger beds.

We need better and better quality food.

Well, the Buddha said that takes that view of self

and it distorts it.

We will not find freedom and liberation

by pursuing that.

In fact, it will poison us.

So how do you do it?

You see through it.

And then, this is key,

you have to have somebody show you.

You have to have a role model.

Somebody who gives.

I have a friend from Malaysia

who is involved with,

who's a Buddhist,

and who,

I don't know if it's Suji connection or not,

but really cares for his parents

and sees that his parents are confused about stuff.

Parents are money, money, money, money, money, right?

All about money.

Talk about,

think about money,

work about money.

Among their siblings and their uncles and aunts,

they talk about money only.

So the friend said,

I really want my parents to be more than name Buddhists.

I want them to be Buddhists in practice.

So what does she do?

He talked about it,

got his parents to one day

buy about 100 bientang.

Bientang is bentou.

Bientou in Japan, right?

Bientang is a lunchbox, a box lunch.

And it was styrofoam and it had some mifen,

it had some doufugan,

it had some broccoli and some baozi.

And they got some vegetable or fruit juice

and they took it down to a park in KL

and set it, set up on a table

and then they got it.

Then stood there and waited

and said, you know, we have some food for you.

And at first, there was nobody, you know.

And then one person came over

and saw this table stacked with food

and said, what are you doing with that?

He said, well, we would like to offer you a lunch.

Do you have any friends who could use that?

He said, I don't care about them.

I'd like some food though.

You know, the person was like, give me.

He said, no.

Oh, we won't give until you find two more.

Oh, okay.

So running on, came back with three or four more people's food, lunch, right?

So they said, okay, can each of you bring two?

So they all went back and they said,

we're going to offer this food at noon.

So it was now 1130.

Come back.

They came back and there was like 200 people, you know, coming back.

And they all started rushing the table.

And my friend, you know, and his dad,

the point was the parents were there seeing this.

The dad stood in front and said, wait, wait, wait, this isn't right.

You know, first of all, we're going to recite the Buddha's name.

No, he didn't say anything about that.

Crap, I want to do that for you.

No, we want to recite the Buddha's name because, you know,

this is a really good thing.

It makes it very special.

Okay, you know how to do that?

No, I don't do that.

No, no, no.

I'm Muslim.

Okay, right.

And that's okay.

You can, you know.

So they, everybody get in line and recite the Buddha's name.

And then they gave.

They gave them the Bindang.

And the friend looked at his dad.

And his dad was radiant.

Why?

He was now in the role of benefactor, of donor, of giver.

Someone who was, and he saw in the faces of these hungry people,

the joy of receiving a gift.

And it was food and it filled the need, right?

And so they went back home.

And this son, you know,

he said, well, what was that like?

Mom and dad said, let's do it again only 200 next time.

Let's get more and do it again.

That was really good, you know.

And so I'm saying you need a role model.

You need somebody to lead the way.

When you see the joy of giving,

it touches something true and genuine inside.

It's a, it's watering our sprouts of goodness.

Our merit and virtue.

So think, can you imagine

Guanyin Bodhisattva's happiness?

Right?

Thousands and thousands of hands and eyes.

42.

Thousands, right?

And everyone is like,

Namo Guanyin Pusa.

You need this.

Namo Guanyin Pusa.

Saved you.

Now, is Guanyin Pusa a real being?

I've had, I've had experiences when I've,

somebody helped out, you know,

right on time.

Just what I needed.

But imagine, you know,

what joy, why do Buddhas look so

peaceful and calm?

Buddhas are happy beings

because of the giving that they can do.

Imagine if you can give in a way that ends suffering.

Wow.

Now, mind you,

often,

people don't get it.

Right?

Often people turn right around and

say the power of habits.

Right?

So there's lots of suffering.

If you could see into the hells,

you wouldn't have that smiling face.

But,

first door Bodhisattva pulls people out

of where the suffering is.

The worst.

So, the joy of giving.

It's once you see it,

it's really here.

And it's as simple as letting go of greed.

As simple as flowers for mom,

or breakfast in bed,

or simply letting her know that you're okay.

Right?

Moms are satisfied with very little.

You know, it doesn't take much to please mom.

And if she knows that you're okay,

that's often,

you know, how much the more if she knows you're really fine,

you're really happy and you can't fool her.

You know, you're sending her the message that you're okay.

That's pretty satisfying.

Can you imagine when you're the mom?

I can't, because I will never be a mom.

But, you know, when you're the mom,

what do you want your kid to be?

Satisfied.

Okay.

Not needy, greedy, unhappy, grasping, frustrated, angry.

Right?

So, that's giving of Dharma.

If the mom is the field of blessing.

Okay.

We have Deva's giving.

What are they giving?

Let's go down to paragraph two.

Next line.

Li Tian Ren Zhe Jou Nai Jian.

Comely goddesses played celestial music.

They sang the Buddha's praises in melody and lyrics.

All due to the Bodhisattva's magnificent spirit.

Then, they spoke these words.

The Buddha's vows at last now reach fulfillment.

Buddhahood finally has been realized.

Shakyamuni Buddha has come to heaven's halls.

At last, we behold.

The benefactor of humans and devas.

So, there we have.

That's our window.

We have a comely goddess playing celestial music.

Right?

Celestial music.

Imagine what that sounds like.

What are the, the, we have pentatonic and diatonic music.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do.

Diatonic.

Right?

We have those seven notes that repeat.

And what is the scale in the heavens?

Wow.

Imagine what a heavenly, what a celestial violin sounds.

A celestial Qin.

Oh, Master Da Xing and I saw a video recently.

Of, the video was called Guan Shi Yin.

It was about Buddhist musicians.

And not, no.

It was about music, traditional classical spiritual music in Japan.

Somebody had done research and gone through Japan and found places where people are keeping

old music alive.

One was the music of no drama, right?

N-O-H.

Nung in Chinese.

No drama.

The music that they play.

The drum.

Deng.

Weird, old music they play.

And, then they had somebody who played the Shang.

The Chinese Shang.

And it's called the Sho in Japanese.

And this is a woman.

She looks like she might be a secretary in the Steno pool.

She doesn't look distinguished in any particular way.

But she plays the Shang.

And the Shang is this pipe organ.

0050. dès?

vertical pipes it looks like a phoenix with the tails you know like that and it's got reeds and

you go i i can't do it because it's polyphonic

and it's got you know all these different different uh um unison octaves of high low

it's kind of like it's if you can imagine it's got a reed so it's like a clarinet or a saxophone

only it's like a harmonica um very celestial i'm telling you this because why

the this woman who plays she improvises she's totally untutored she says that her teacher

and the tradition says this is what deva music sounds like she says

you say there's deva music and she goes into like caves that have these echoes and goes

her

and and it's uh it's a very uh ethereal really amazing sound now some people when you play the

shung badly it's a it's a lot like bagpipes play badly something you just want to like

stop that please you know the dogs go because it's like oh you know so you have to play the

shung in a celestial way but oh anybody we have a bagpiper in our neighborhood you know that

we have a

guy who's about two blocks over uh who pulls out his bagpipes and practices about two or three

times a week and it's always in the afternoon and the neighbors have come to live with it

it is so loud you can hear it blocks and blocks away and this piper is just going at it playing

all these scottish airs and reels and jigs and i you know like it i like bagpipes but

i'm not i'm two blocks away i think if i were any closer probably i would like it a little less

but uh this piper just gives the whole neighborhood a concert two or three times a week it's quite

wonderful so here we have comely goddesses playing celestial music on their celestial bagpipes

and they sing the buddha's praises and melodies and lyrics

amitabha's body is the color of gold the splendor of his hallmarks has no fear right

amitabha

have all these wonderful uh praises the chinese tradition has beautiful incredible praises

that we don't get to hear very often because they're a lot of them are are good they're songs

that are only sung kind of outside the buddha hall

they're not they're not they're not they're not they're not they're not they're not they're not

liturgical they're not for the ceremonies and we have some nuns in taiwan who are really good at

these they they play them they sing them uh very beautifully and um i i think there's no fear that

they're going to vanish in the next couple centuries they're they're there to stay but

coming to this country they um they're kind of a curiosity because there's no root for chinese

music in the wind and the water and they're not going to vanish in the next couple centuries

they're going to vanish in the water of of this continent so we have to come up with our own we have to have our own praises and uh we're on our way to buddha root farm where our our focus is medicine buddha and i'm going to early on encourage people to uh think about new praises for medicine buddha how are we going to praise him all due to the buddha's mag to the bodhisattva's magnificent spirit these devas

play their music and praise praise the buddha and okay this next stanza notice there is a jo

it's not only jo it's yeah it's jo long time

for yen buddha's vows jo yen long time and long running naiman jin naiman now finally full

the buddha's vows

jo yen for a very long time have been running but now they're full for dao the buddha's path

jo yen for a very long time long time coming jin naiman now finally has been accomplished we got it

realized it shakya muni for buddha that's the buddha's name

has come to our place

the palace of heaven our celestial halls heavens halls

benefiting davis and humans one jo na jian finally we get to see we get to see the buddha finally

okay what is that that's that's what a god sings and prays we're hearing contemporary

not

not CCM, Contemporary Christian Music,

we're hearing contemporary CBM,

Contemporary Buddhist Music,

as sung by gods.

These are devas praising, not just us.

Usually we praise God, right?

We praise the Buddha.

Here are the devas praising the Buddha.

How interesting.

Is everybody aware of Contemporary Christian Music?

Is anybody aware of Contemporary Christian Music?

Connie, Angela, Bill, good.

Okay, young guys do.

They know.

All right, what is that?

If you don't know what Contemporary Christian Music is,

get in your car and drive east

and punch on the radio.

You can't avoid it.

It fills the airwaves through mid-America.

About halfway to Sacramento it starts, right?

There aren't very many CCM stations in the Bay Area.

There aren't very many country stations

in the Bay Area.

If you want to hear country music,

you've got to start heading north to Santa Rosa.

Then you meet it, right?

You have to go past the Marin Civic Center

and then you get Froggy 92.9.

25 in a row.

Country music never stops.

The hits keep on rolling.

Froggy 92.9.

You don't believe me?

Punch in 92.9 on your way to City of 10,000 Buddhas.

And I should say, and don't thank me.

I mean it.

Don't thank me because you won't want to listen.

Country music is another world.

Contemporary Christian music is another world.

The reason I bring it up is it is huge.

Many, many, many people in this country

are Christian, self-identified as Christian.

And there's a lot of young folks

who don't want to listen to hip-hop.

They don't want to listen.

to sticky pop they don't know where to listen because those lyrics are advocating

unchristian behavior let's say so where do they go they listen to christian music which sounds

every bit like regular rock and roll only the lyrics are praising jesus

praising god that's what they do it's this right only this is our buddhist flavor

it's the second of samantha badra's vows praising the thus come one only you

you pick your your deity right contemporary christian music when i say all you do is head

east and turn your radio on the entire country and canada is blanketed

you can't do that you can't do that you can't do that you can't do that

with the station after station of what sounds like rock and roll but if you listen carefully

they're talking about praise his name praise jesus which is fine you know it's a whole genre

and there are stars and there are you know ads it's just it's a world of commerce commercial music

focused on praising god we buddhists are kind of slow we have you know

uh

upon the earth below the sky the buddha has no fear right let's praise the buddha we have

amitabha's body is the color of gold tomorrow we're going to be singing medicine master thus

come one namo namo praise praising the buddha right so we have earth store bodhisattva wonderful

beyond come

that one praise of earth store we have

in our yellow book that's the guanyin pray so we have them we have the beginnings of praise but

it's nothing like contemporary christian music which is millions millions of hits right no

exaggeration so there we go what have we learned we've learned about giving we've

learned about giving we've learned about giving we've learned about giving we've learned about

praising because why that's what davis do what do the gods do in heaven they cultivate what do they

cultivate giving praising their virtue is extended they're going to be gods for a long time

all right so we will be back on page 30 and 31 at the bottom next saturday night

and should we

um be

a little

late

it's because we are on the road not that i'm predicting we will be i hope we pretty pretty

we've been pretty good so far making it back but we start saturday morning very very early

in near reeds port oregon turn the car south and come rolling down highway five to get back and

uh so far barring any you know unforeseen we should be here by about five and uh dashing

faschar will be uh keeping the monastery rolling along as normal for that week so um if for any reason

we don't make it back dashing fascher will be here lecturing on the avatam no he'll be helping us

meditate and we'll we will know it's not that we won't show up if if for any reason we're late we'll

let you know but i suspect that all will be well and we'll be continuing our meditation as normal so

then we'll have to get back to the monastery and let's get ready for our day so next week no we'll be Heilungang

continuing our investigation of the Avatamsaka Sutra.

Okay, shall we transfer the merit?

Avatamsaka Sutra

We went around the room,

in the dining room, and asked where people were from.

We thought we had the farthest when we said,

who's from London, England?

And half the room raised their hand,

five or six people raised their hand,

and then we found out we had people from Italy.

All the way from Genoa who had come.

And we had uncles and aunts from Los Angeles

here for the wedding today.

And we had people coming from New York

all the way to hear the Dharma.

So,

quite wonderful to see

so many folks

gathering from all over the world

just to be here,

to spread their, share their light.

Sorry, we're not there yet.

Twelve strings, you know.

When you hear this woman play the shung,

the Japanese woman, it's quite amazing.

This film came about

as part of the International Buddhist Film Festival.

Our friend, Gaitano Maeda,

encouraged this film and is distributing it.

Some of the music is Buddhist, but not all.

Theерыh, that's the one we're missing, right there,

there.

One of the better scenes in the movie is

this Buddhist monk,

who, I'm not sure the tradition,

Shingon or something.

And he's doing a fire ceremony,

and he's asking God, who knows?

The Buddha is saying he wants to pray.

If he wants to, why not?

the Buddha is saying he wants to pray.

And if he wants to pray, he wants to pray.

And he's lighting incense and got the robes on

and he's chanting in Japanese and very, very austere

and this incense smoke curls up like this.

Then he stands up, takes off his robe

and goes over to a turntable, turns it on,

picks up the mic and starts beatboxing and doing DJ.

Like that.

And so it's all the different kinds of sacred music

happening in Japan at the time.

Okay, we're tuned up and we're ready.

So please make a wish.

How you would like to heal things that are broken in the world.

And it's your wish and your virtue that goes out

to people who can use that light.

So let's do that now.

Let's do that.

Lines as one and radiant with light

Share the fruits of peace

With hearts of goodness, luminous and bright

If people hear and see

How hands and hearts can find in giving unity

May their minds awake

To great compassion, wisdom and to joy

May kindness find reward

May all who sorrow leave their grief and grief

May this boundless life

Break the darkness of their endless night

Because our hearts are one

This world of pain turns into paradise

May all become compassionate and wise

May all become kind

Okay, next Saturday, usually on Saturdays,

we have our Buddha recitation,

our Universal Door chapter or repentance next Saturday.

Because so many people are away,

we're going to skip that Saturday.

So, just to let you know.

So, I wanted to give you an interesting place

that contemporary Buddhist music might go.

It's not contemporary, it's from the Tang Dynasty,

so it's 1300 years old.

But it's called the Song of Enlightenment,

Zheng Dao Ge.

And it's sung, it was sung back then.

Master Hua can recite all 62 verses from memory.

He does it every day.

And when he did it, it was completely awesome.

It was written in Chinese

and probably was part of an oral tradition.

Kind of like, you know how nursery rhymes go around?

When kids do jump rope,

step on a crack and break your mother's back.

How does it go?

Yeah, like that.

Yeah, every culture has, you know,

things the kids sing as they skip to school,

nursery rhymes, you know.

Sister Mary, quite contrary,

how does your garden grow?

With cockle shells and silvery bells,

oh, fair maids all in a row.

So, China had those.

And Master Yongjia took those melodies, I think.

We don't know the melodies because they're 1300 years ago.

But he took those melodies and put his enlightened wisdom into song form.

So, there are 62 verses.

And I'm going to start now and we'll see how long it takes.

So, I hope you brought your sleeping bags.

We're going to be here for, no, I'm kidding.

63, 63 verses.

Long.

So, instead of doing the whole thing,

which would someday, we hope,

I picked out a couple topics.

And one of them is an analogy,

the mirror of the mind.

Seeing the mind as a mirror.

The mirror of the mind.

Xin Jing, right?

So, Xin Jing Ming,

Guang Wu Ai,

Kuo Ran Ying He,

Jiu Da Gai,

Wan Shang Chen Luo Ying Xian Zhong,

Yi Qie Wu Nei Wu Wai,

Li Qie Yuan Guang Wu Nei Wai.

That's how it goes in Chinese.

How does it go in English?

I got three verses.

Because there's number 28, number 44,

number 4,

number 28, number 44,

all mention the mirror of the mind.

So, I brought three out.

I translated them.

How are we going to sing them?

What are we going to do to bring these forward?

I think it should have a banjo.

Banjo would be really good

because it's got a high lonesome sound.

If anybody knows mountain music genre,

the high lonesome sound.

Something like this.

The mirror of the mind

is bright without a...

flaw.

Everything's reflected.

You can't see it all.

All ten thousand things revealed.

Perfect, round and bright.

No inside, no outside.

Just brilliant, pure light.

The mind is the root.

Dharmas are all dust.

Mind and dharmas both are lacked.

Like a mirror stained and cracked.

Polish out the stains and cracks.

The mirror shines like new.

Forget both mind and dharmas.

The nature now is true.

Goodbye to good and evil.

Goodbye to...

loss and gain.

In stillness and tranquility.

You never ask again.

Your wisdom mirror was coated thick.

You never wiped it clean.

Now it shines without a flaw.

There's nothing you can't see.

That's three verses of the mirror of the mind.

So, in Chinese, it's really powerful.

And I think in English, it could be powerful too.

There's the wish-fulfilling pearl, three verses.

The Buddha nature, three verses.

Great.