hide inside temple and chant
not no life then is what?
You don't have to hide in temple and chant. Chanting is one way,
and you can practice chanting anywhere, not just in temple but on
the bus/train, when you are walking, doing your things. Instead of
entertaining discursive thoughts of past, present, future, one
simply concentrates his awareness on the chanting and avoid
distraction.
What is important is maintaining present moment awareness,
whatever you are doing, whatever you are experiencing, you are
aware. Including the chanting. Some people don't chant as often,
like me, but still they can practice being aware.
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/cultivat.htm
How do we practise Buddhism
when we are so busy with our careers and constantly facing a
shortage of time?
Cultivating amid our activities
Many of us think that learning and practising Buddhism means
utilising Sundays, our rest days or daily, to pray or meditate in
temples. This perception is neither right nor wrong. We may be busy
with our work and other activities, but, Buddhism is best practised
amid these activities. Should one be totally inactive or free, what
else is there to practise?
It is common to see people working and singing at the same time;
machinists talking while working the machines; housewives working
on their chores and exhorting their children at the same time;
others work with their minds preoccupied with all sorts of other
problems not related to their work. In short, they may be occupied
physically, but mentally, their minds are not free or empty. As
such, does learning and practising Buddhism really pose a problem
to our heavy schedules? This is definitely not so. A verse from the
"Seven Buddhas" reads: "Avoid all evils; do all that are good;
purify one’s mind. These are the teachings of all Buddhas".
So, we just need to purify our minds. While at work, although our
body may be in action, it is actually amid these actions that we
cultivate. The mind should not wander and the mouth should not
chatter unnecessarily. We should concentrate on the work
wholeheartedly, and constantly act on purifying our thoughts. This
is practising Buddhism, and in fact it is the right approach. With
this in mind,
the busier we are, the more opportunities we have in cultivating.
Let us not treat Buddhism as a form of superstition and think that
to practise means having to make extraordinary efforts such as
going to the forests or temples to meditate or to chant.
A commuter, when travelling in a train for example, may emulate the
mental purity of the Buddha, and listen to the rumbling of the
wheels and at the same time rythmically chant the name of the
Buddha or Bodhisattva so that the mind does not wander. Naturally
the mind will become pure and calm. Learning Buddhism means
emulating the mental purity of the Buddha. Buddha is one who has
already attained perfect enlightenment, sublime wisdom and
blessings. On the other hand the commoner has lesser blessings and
wisdom. Still, he would have made tremendous advancements if he
merely practises Buddhism amid his daily activities to the extent
that he attains purity in his bodily actions, speech and
thoughts.
Thus, no matter what we do, where we are or how busy we may be, we
can still practise Buddhism. As long as we put this into practise,
our wisdom will develop and our blessings will gradually grow. For
this reason, Jen Chen Buddhism advocates practising amid the
activities of our daily lives; practising without attaching to the
notion of practice; maintaining awareness without attaching to the
notion of awareness; and attaining without attaching to the notion
of attainment. When we understand this principle and have no more
confusions, we can be considered great practitioners of
Buddhism.
In cultivation, at
what state of the mind does one awaken? What is the state of
awakening like?
First of all we need to
understand what is cultivation. Some people think that cultivation
means not having an occupation but to be engaged in the daily
activities of prayers to the Buddha, meditation or chanting the
sutras. The actual purpose of cultivation is to eradicate our
undesirable conduct and to maintain our good conduct. In other
words, to follow the Bodhisattva path in emulating
the practices of the
Bodhisattvas. When we know the meaning of cultivation, then we
understand its purpose, which is to eradicate our self serving and
evil habits and thus reduce our negative karma. However, many
people do not understand this principle and they misinterpret its
meaning. Actually, not only those who have renounced to be Buddhist
monks or nuns need to cultivate, lay-Buddhists also need to
cultivate, if not more diligently. Even those who do not subscribe
to any religion need to cultivate. Cultivation is not only a matter
for monks or nuns alone.
What is cultivation? Where
do we practise cultivation? Let me tell you a story: More than
twenty years ago, I took four years to cultivate as I travelled
across the country. Step by step, I covered Taiwan by walking. Once
when I was in Hua-Lian, an elderly Buddhist asked me, "Master! A
monk should reside in the temple to meditate, pray and chant
sutras, but when you travel about what are you cultivating? I
replied, "That’s right! I am cultivating. Sakyamuni Buddha teaches
us to cultivate our conduct. He does not encourage us to cultivate
sitting down! In the past few years I had been practising sitting
meditation, now I wish to travel about. While walking and also
amidst all my other activities, I do not commit evil deeds, I chant
the names of the Buddhas, I praise and commend others, I tell
people about the Dharma, I avoid the places of vice, this is the
way I cultivate."
Thus, to cultivate means
cultivating in the midst of our activities. This is a point that
many people do not understand. They think that cultivation will
result in a society that is pessimistic and low-spirited. This is a
mistake. Jen Chen Buddhism advocates cultivating in the midst of
our daily activities. Many retired old folks have no need to attend
to household chores anymore, thus they can afford to spend their
time to chant the names of the Buddhas and to cultivate in the
midst of their leisure. However, there are many housewives who need
to tend to their children, household chores and many other matters.
How do you expect them to cultivate in their leisure? Thus, the
need to cultivate in the midst of their activities; while cooking
they could chant the names of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas. No
matter what activities they are engaged in, it is always possible
to cultivate. Instead of gossipping about our neighbours and
friends or engaging in other frivolous talks, why not refrain from
all these. This is cultivation. Therefore, only when we cultivate
in the midst of our activities do we understand the meaning of
cultivation. To cultivate in our leisure may cause others a lot of
frustrations. For example, a husband may be upset because his wife
neglects the household by spending too much time chanting or
running from temple to temple. For her to introduce Buddhism to her
husband, thus, would not be an easy task. If she understands the
principle of cultivating in the midst of her activities, it would
be acceptable to the husband. Should he be invited to places of
vice, he would know how to turn them down because his wife is a
diligent cultivator. Both husband and wife are then cultivating at
the same time.
There will be progress in
our society when we understand the principle of cultivation.
Otherwise, society will backslide. Over the last few decades, I
have come to realize that we need to cultivate wherever we are.
When we possess the correct concept of cultivation, any time is an
appropriate time for cultivation, any place can be the place for us
to seek enlightenment. If each and everyone of us conduct ourselves
in this way, then the world will become a pure land. If we think
that we can only cultivate in the temples, or that we cannot
cultivate when we are working, then it is very possible that we
commit evils deeds without even knowing. When we are with Buddha
every moment, and cultivate constantly, then we are truly
practitioners of Buddhism.
As to when in the
cultivation process does one awaken and what it is like to be
awakened, only when you follow the guidance of the Dharma and put
it into practice, will you know you have awakened: when you drink
the water, only you know how warm or cold it
is.
How to purify the human
mind?
Observe the
mind to purify it
We
are all human beings and we all have a mind. We are frequently
‘deceived’ by our minds. For an entire lifetime we are ‘deceived’
and ‘misled’ by our minds without ever realizing it! If the mind is
good, then of course, it is all very well. Such a mind creates a
good person; one can ascend to the heavens or one can perform a lot
of virtuous deeds. What happens if the mind is evil and becomes
defiled? It can drag us to become animals, ghosts and deities, or
descend to hell. This is because our mind is not pure, and
therefore the world becomes a sea of suffering. This suffering
world of ours is called the "Saha World". It means having to endure
and is also called the "World of enduring
sufferings".
If
we all purify our minds, then the world becomes a heaven. Everybody
is very happy and there is no suffering. In learning and practising
Buddhism, the most important thing is to purify our minds. When we
can purify our minds, then naturally there will be happiness in our
world.
To
do that we have to observe the non-arising of the mind. This is
called ‘contemplation of the mind’. When the mind is polluted, then
we cleanse it with the dew of the Buddha. And when our minds have
been purified, then they are the same as those of the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas. In this way, we will progress very quickly in our
cultivation.
Observing
the mind is very simple. It is like watching out for the mouse.
Everybody dislike mice because they steal our food or they damage
our clothings. An idiom describes this sentiment with the phrase,
‘When the mouse crosses the street everybody goes after it.’
Obviously mice are not welcomed and they have to be dealt with. One
method of dealing with it, is the cat. At the sight of a mouse, the
cat puts his paws firmly on the ground and fixes its steely eyes on
the mouse. On seeing the cat, the mouse trembles with fear, not
daring to make even the slightest movement. Treat your mind as if
it were a mouse and your awareness as the cat. At every moment
observe your mind, in the same way as the cat watching the mouse.
The mouse wants to live and hardly has time to think of its own
safety, let alone of stealing food. If we can observe our minds,
then we will hardly have time enough to treasure our wisdom life,
let alone think of committing evil deeds.
Therefore
when we are learning and practising Buddhism, we need to learn to
"contemplate the mind". In this way, we will very quickly be able
to avoid all evils and do all that are good.
"Avoid
all evils; do all that are good; purify one’s mind. These are the
teachings of all Buddhas". Besides avoiding all evils and doing all
that are good, we need to purify our thoughts. When our thoughts
have been purified, then the mind is pure. The purpose of learning
and practising Buddhism is to purify the human mind. If the minds
of everyone in the family is pure, then our home is pure; if the
minds of everyone in this society is pure, then our society is
pure; if the minds of everyone in the country is pure, then our
land is pure; if the entire human race in the world is pure, then
our world is as happy as the Western Pure Land.
Our
mind is like the stealthy mouse, ever watchful of a chance to creep
out to commit evil deeds, and we are not even aware of that. I hope
all of us will keep a cat to watch our minds, so that we can become
Buddha quickly.
Why do we need to
purify our thoughts?
When the
thoughts are pure all Karma are pure
There
are numerous types of karma, but generally they can be classified
under three main types, namely, action of the body, speech and
thought. However, our actions and speeches originate from our
thoughts, that is, the thought preceeds the action or speech.
Therefore, the first step to cultivation is to purify the thoughts.
When our thoughts are pure, all our actions and speeches will be
pure. When our actions, speeches and thoughts are pure, then all
our karma are pure. Therefore, when we are learning and practising
Buddhism, we should always be pure in our actions, speeches and
thoughts.
How do we follow the
Bodhisattva path?
Bodhisattva
Path is Enlightenment Path
The
Bodhisattva Path is the Enlightenment Path. To follow the
Bodhisattva Path, one first has to aspire for enlightenment for
oneself and for all sentient beings. 
Having
this apiration, one needs to cultivate and attain enlightenment. It
is only when one is enlightened that all his thoughts and actions
are considered to be on the Bodhisattva Path. If one has spent his
entire life practising Buddhism without attaining enlightenment,
his actions cannot be considered to be on the Bodhisattva Path. It
can only be said that he is performing virtuous
deeds.
