The Buddha Master: there are four branches of activities that we do to learn from the Buddha: listening, contemplation, practice, and finally, accomplishment.
1- Listening means hearing and reading the true teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. All other buddhas that may appear such as Vimalakirti and H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha (also known as Vajradhara or Samantabhadra) make an appearance to help those few practitioners in the world whose karma has matured to bear hearing true Dharma in the Dharma ending age. Between listening and reading, listening is primary! So until one is highly disciplined and advanced in practice, one should take delight in listening. Why? Because the purpose of Dharma talks is to point out our faults so that we can develop an honest and tender heart – and be vested in deeply seeing and being willing to correct our faults immediately, rather than trying to conceal them or be embarrassed about them. If we don’t want to commit faults but we do, how do we know unless they are pointed out? Then we ponder why the wise ones say that is to be abandoned or we should think a different way. We like to ask why, but it is mostly for us to think and think until we come to the reason ourself. This is contemplation. It is NOT meditation.Then, it is time to confirm it with the teacher! To do better, we have to have our own reasons. It has to make sense to us.
2-Contemplation is when we become quiet and try to resolve our issues. It starts with the preliminary practices of purifying our mind – confessing our faults, reflecting on why we have problems, then seeing that everyone has problems, turning our mind towards the suffering of others, reflecting on our death and what that means to us; then feeling pity for others as much as ourselves, and then feeling pity for others more than we do for ourselves and selfishly, our own loved ones. We still have not come to meditation! Meditation begins to occur when we are aligned with true dharma and we begin to lay aside both covetousness and grief for the world. We come to a state of inner peace and the outer world becomes what it is with problems an all but without the sting of suffering. These levels are predominant in Theravada practice. As we enter more deeply into the stream, with right causes and good fortune, we come into contact with the Dharmas that instruct us in the mindstream of the Buddhas. We practice envisioning them, thinking like they think, imagining doing what they do, aligning with their mental frequency until our mind becomes like their minds. The 2nd state is our egos are dismantled and there is only buddha nature. The 3rd state is also no Buddha!
3. So true Practice is when we actually DO Buddhadharma through meditation, visualization, and also chanting sutras. The BM went on to tell us that here it does not mean that what we do is correct. Sutras have been tampered with and because of this, people cannot obtain realization. This is why people do not say anything about becoming accomplished. They have learned false dharmas.
4. You will know when you are practicing Buddhadharma, because you will recognize accomplishments in your spiritual life, your happiness will be apparent. You will have overcoming strength and wisdom without worldly conniving or plotting. You will learn when to speak or keep silent – and what to say that advances your goals. You will enjoy the company and protection of the holy beings, bodhisattvas, mahasattvas and even buddhas. You will KNOW what you know. Some of you may even display special abilities. The 5 mentioned in the suttas are:
1. Dibbachakku (clairvoyance)
2. Dibbasotha (clairaudience)
3. Parachittha vignanana (reading others minds)
4. Pubbenivasanussati (seeing past and future lives of others)
5. Iddi vidha (performing physical miracles)
At the end of a talk given by Buddha Master (who has dropped off the flesh body but still working in this and other worlds), Brother Vince said “Don’t practice “No-use Dharmas, OK”?!
[written by Venerable Pannavati in 2022]
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Curriculum
- 3 Sections
- 8 Lessons
- Lifetime
- Preliminary PracticesInstruction and resources on the Preliminary Practices/ Prayogas4
- MeditationInstruction on the practice of meditation3
- Deity/ Yidam PracticeSelect Texts and Instructions relating to Deity/ Yidam Practice. This lesson will benefit those who have a yidam practice as well as orienting those who do not.2
Instructor
Venerable Pannavati is abbot of Embracing Simplicity Hermitage, a 21st century trans-lineage Buddhist Order. She is an ordained bhikkhuni in the Theravada and Mahayana traditions with Vajrayana empowerment, and authorization to teach. She currently serves as a VP for the US for the Global Buddhist Bhikkhuni Association. She propagates the teachings of her final Master, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III through Correct Cultivation Learning from Buddha Academy as her final work.
