Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Six Practices: Ten Faiths Part 1 (六行~十信行一)
For me, this very moment and state is a state of quietness. The sounds outside are clear. The states of sound and no sound are distinct. This is complete clarity and stillness.
You may wonder, “Is soundlessness also a sound?” indeed, it is also a sound. The ability to discern soundless tranquility is a state of mine that we should strive to maintain at all times. This pertains to our feelings. In our daily life, there is never a moment when we are free from feelings.
How many kinds of feelings are there? There are six. Yesterday we spoke of the Six Consciousnesses. When the mind connects with objects, we have feelings. When our consciousnesses make connections, we can differentiate. Six Sensations arise when the Six Roots connect with the Six Sense Objects.
Daily living is not separate from our feelings. Our feelings arise when the Six Sense Organs and the Six Sense Objects connect.
The Six Sense Organs (Sense Roots): ears, eyes, nose, tongue, body, mind.
The Six Sense Objects:
form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharma.
What we sense now is the sound of the birds outside. Do the birds only sing now? They sing all day long. Since it is very quite now, we can hear the birds more clearly. The bugs are also chirping; we hear them because it is very quite now. Normally our senses are oblivious to many sounds.
Actually, it is the same with external phenomena, but our sense organs do not always connect with them. During contact, do we feel them? Do we perceive them?
Some say we eat without tasting. We are obviously eating, but sometimes we forget whether the food is sweet, salty or sour. Our tongue is in contact with the food, however, we are not mindful. Sometimes we are talking while eating, so we forget what we are eating. So even when our organ is in contact with an object, we do not necessarily perceive it. Consciousness is derived from feeling. Thus, feeling is also part of our daily life.
To be born human, one needs the complete, Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence, which include. Consciousnesses, Sensation, Roots, etc. Consciousnesses, Sensation, Roots, etc.
All living beings live and die in the cyclic existence of the Three Realms, dominated by the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence.
Twelve Links of Dependent Arising: Ignorance, Volition, Consciousness, Name and Form, Six Entrances, Contact, Sensation, Craving, Grasping, Becoming , Birth, Aging and Death.
Sensation is the same, it is the feeling produced when the Six Roots interact with the Six Sense Objects. Feeling is a part of every moment of our life. I have just mentioned that we are often unaware when our sense organs connect with sense objects. We do not feel it. This happens often throughout the day. We let the feelings slip away without noticing.
But we will surely experience six particular phenomena. They are: walking, standing, sitting, lying, talking, motion. We will experience all these. If we do not, that means the functions of our organs are deteriorating. So we must be aware of the sensations that we come across in our daily life. Every movement that we make, whether we are talking or in silence, we constantly experience things and have feelings.
There are many things to experience. As have discussed in the past few days, this is all part of the senses, whether we are happy, angry or responding to certain circumstance. Therefore, with the Six Sense Organs and Six Senses Objects, there must be sensations. When we have feelings and make distinctions we create karma. We have to be attentive and be mindful of the feelings when the organs connect with the corresponding sense objects. Of joy arises, we should mindfully analyze whether it is correct or not. This is a very refined type of “action.”
Next are the Six Practices. We just discussed the Six Sensations. Our daily life is inseparable from our Six Sense Organs and Six Sense Objects. Thus, there are the Six Sensations. Now we will talk about the Six Practices, the Six Practices of the Buddha.
The Six Practices: 1 Ten Faiths 2 Ten Abiding Conducts 3 Ten Actions 4 Ten Dedications 5 Ten Grounds 6 Equal Enlightenment.
Now we have to be attentive in learning Buddhism. Ordinary people all have very different roots, awareness, experiences, etc. In our life, we come across a lot of people and matters every day. With people, we should know how to treat them. With matters, we should know how to handle them. We should decide what we should or should not do. We should choose what we should or should not say, and what we should or should not teach. So we should learn from the Buddha.
Buddha taught Six Practices after enlightenment to help beings in this world achieve realization. There are what we should learn from the Buddha. Learning Buddhism is to learn the Buddha’s way to evoke altruistic intension and vow to help others.
The Buddha practiced not just for His own deliverance, but also to benefit others.
So we must first establish our faith. There is a saying, “Faith is the source of the Path and mother of all virtues, it nurtures all roots of goodness.”
In learning Buddhism, if we don’t believe in the Buddha’s virtues and conduct, we can never attain Buddhahood. We must affirm the Buddha’s virtues and conduct, and use faith to overcome all doubts.
To learn Buddhism, we should learn from the Buddha. We should evoke great altruistic intentions and establish great vows. With faith in the virtues and actions of the Buddha, we will be able to accomplish our spiritual practices.
A few days ago I spoke about how, through the process of spiritual practice, in a state of quietness the Buddha subdued the demons of His mind. The Sutras described how He vanquished these demons. What demons did He overcome? Mental negativities.
When we are in doubt, we will have erroneous thoughts. We must therefore have strong faith and never have even a slight doubt in the Buddha’s virtuous conduct. This is utmost faith. Let us first talk about the Ten Faiths.
The majority of the Ten Faiths emphasize action, which is also the priority of the Three Sages. The Three Sages are Arhats, Pratyekabuddhas and Bodhisattvas. They are all wise and virtuous. To practice the ways of the Three Sages we must start with faith. During our practice, faith ranks foremost. If we do not have clear and definitive faith, we will be confused in all our spiritual practices. Not only must we have faith, but right faith, which is the foremost of all actions. If we are to elevate from ordinary beings to the levels of the saints, we must place faith as our utmost guide. Only then will we be able to reach the equivalent of a sage or a saint. What guides us is definitely faith. It is just like when we attend a meeting: someone guides us to our seats. We trust him to lead us to our designated seats. This is faith. Whether we want to be a sage or a saint we all rely on faith to guide us. So we must trust our faith.
Confucius also said that a man without faith is like a carriage without a crossbar. He is lacking a lead. A carriage needs a crossbar for animals to pull it. Therefore, People must have faith. Confucius wondered what a man can do without faith. If faith is missing, shaky or deviant, it can lead to a great divergence from the proper path, onto an immoral path.
So faith, especially right faith, is very important for all Buddhist practitioners. It must be initiated with our own will. If we have faith, we have to make great vows. Faith is at the forefront, and is followed by vows. When our faith is correct, our vows will be righteous. If our faith is firm, our vows will be grand.
It is faith, vows, and then actions. When we learn Buddhism, especially those who follow the Bodhisattva-path faith is at the forefront, followed by vows and actions. So faith is very important. There are many components of faith. We will talk about ten aspects that are truly the way to cultivate the Bodhisattva-path.
The Practice of Ten Faiths:
Faith, Mindfulness, Diligence, Wisdom, Samadhi, No-retreat, Dharma-protection, Dedication, Precept, Vow.
The first is Faith. We must first “eliminate all erroneous thinking” to walk the “pure and rightful Middle Way.” If all the selfish, false thoughts are not eliminated, we easily deviate from the path. Before we can establish unwavering faith, we must first eliminate all false thinking so we can walk the true, pure Middle Way. Only then will the path be complete, and we will not deviate from the proper way.
The second is Mindfulness. Faith must be present in all our thoughts. When the correct faith is established, sincerity will follow. Thus, “true faith is realized.” Our minds must integrate all the correct, clear and faithful thoughts at all times. If we are to deviate even slightly, ignorance will sneak in. With unwavering faith, we must maintain continuous righteous thoughts. To realize true faith with clarity, we must start from our thoughts. If we can do so, “everything is complete and connected.” When we have the proper belief, we will deal smoothly with all people and matters. As long as our faith is continuous, without breaks or deviation, everything will flow smoothly and not waver.
Eliminate all delusions and walk the Middle Way. In so doing, we can establish faith. With faith established, we can be mindful and accomplish everything with harmony and perfection.
When learning Buddhism, we must first establish faith. We feel the suffering of sentient beings. We do not distance ourselves from suffering, but act to benefit all others. We can’t separate ourselves from worldly disasters. So we have to establish our faith, then we can make great vows. With great vows, we can travel the Bodhisattva-path. So faith is very important.
Next is our Mindfulness. Our Mindfulness must be continuous, without any break. A minute break will allow ignorance to enter, and faith will be difficult for us to re-establish. Everyone, we must be very mindful. Remember, first is Faith, then Mindfulness. Our Faith must be right and our thoughts must be continuous, without deviation. So we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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