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The Dharma Realm Buddhist Association has established four Bodhimandas in the United States and Canada, which will serve as the bases for the propagation of the Buddhadharma.
1. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is Guanyin’s Bodhimanda, with Guanyin Bodhisattva in the primary position and Earth Treasury Bodhisattva in the secondary position.
2. Earth Treasury’s Bodhimanda is in Los Angeles, with Earth Treasury Bodhisattva in the primary position and Guanyin Bodhisattva in the secondary position.
3. Universal Worthy’s Bodhimanda is in Seattle, with Universal Worthy Bodhisattva in the primary position and Manjushri Bodhisattva in the secondary position.
4. Manjushri’s Bodhimanda is in Vancouver, with Manjushri Bodhisattva in the primary position and Universal Worthy Bodhisattva in the secondary position.
The four great Bodhisattvas have come to the Western nations to help the Buddha spread the Dharma and teach people, and to make Buddhism flourish. When all the people believe in Buddhism, they can dispel their thoughts of greed, anger, and delusion. With no greed, no anger, and delusion, the Mind Ground will shine, and the world will be in harmony, free of wars forever.
If someone wants to pay homage to Manjushri Bodhisattva, please come to Vancouver. To pay homage to Universal Worthy Bodhisattva, please come to Seattle. To pay homage to Guanyin Bodhisattva, please come to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. To pay homage to Earth Treasury Bodhisattva, please come to Los Angeles. I hope that all Buddhists will sincerely and reverently pay homage to these four great Bodhisattvas, and diligently study the Buddhadharma.
Part One: The Road of Cultivation
In cultivating one must be "free of any particular motives in one's actions." Don't have thoughts of greed. Don't be thinking, "I'd like to have it be this way or that way. I'd like to become enlightened. I'd like to get spiritual powers." How could it be so rapid as this? Take the seeds and plant them down in the soil. Then it's necessary to wait for them to slowly grow forth. When the time arrives, then they will naturally ripen. (p.100)
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In cultivating, one must look upon it as one's basic responsibility. It's not necessary to be greedy. After a time then one's merit will naturally become perfectly full and the result of bodhi will be able to be perfected. Originally, it may have been that one should have experienced success, but because of excessive greed, on the contrary, one's unable to even chew it all. When one eats it's necessary to eat one bite at a time. If one takes a whole bowl of rice and stuffs all of it in one's mouth, jamming it into one's mouth so that there's no space in there at all, you tell us, how are you going to eat it? When you go to chew it, you won't even be able to move your mouth! How much the less would you be able to swallow it down. Eating is the simplest of similes. This is what's meant by, "When one's too greedy, one bites off more than he can chew." (p.101)
In cultivating the Way, if one is unable to change one's faults, then this is just the same as not cultivating the Way at all. In studying the Buddha Dharma, if one is unable to realize one's own faults and the necessity of change them, then this is just the same as not studying the Buddha Dharma at all. In this connection, there is the so-called, "Having gone through fifty years one then realizes the forty-nine years of faults." If one realizes the points where one has been wrong in what one has practiced and done in the past; anyone who experiences this kind of feeling is a person who possesses wisdom. The road of the future is then full of an immeasurable amount of brightness. If on the other hand one does not realize where one has been wrong in the past, this person will remain confused for the rest of his life.
. Often we do not see the forest through the trees with our approach to the study and application of the Buddhist teachings. Dharma is not merely the accumulation of knowledge, the endurance of austerity, the accumulation of seniority, proximity or position. True dharma is necessarily a process of transformation and purification.
We people are all of the opinion that we are engaged in doing good works. But in reality, it is not certain that they really are good works. Why is this. It is because the seed is not pure. If you employ greedy thoughts in your doing of good works, this is what's known as a case of the seeds being impure. If you use a mind which takes pleasure in supremacy over others in the doing of good works, this too is a case of the seeds being impure. Then what is one to do? One just needs to be "free of any particular motives in one's actions." Whatever we are doing, it's just our basic responsibility. Don't engage in externally-directed seeking. Don't have anything which you are seeking to get out of it.
Own minds' opinions its suffering or wisdoms' compassion. May all be free from the first, all in equality.Will wrote:It is wonderful that some recognize the Noble Hua.
We people are all of the opinion that we are engaged in doing good works. But in reality, it is not certain that they really are good works. Why is this. It is because the seed is not pure. If you employ greedy thoughts in your doing of good works, this is what's known as a case of the seeds being impure. If you use a mind which takes pleasure in supremacy over others in the doing of good works, this too is a case of the seeds being impure. Then what is one to do? One just needs to be "free of any particular motives in one's actions." Whatever we are doing, it's just our basic responsibility. Don't engage in externally-directed seeking. Don't have anything which you are seeking to get out of it.
Dharma Drum mountain has several centers in North America, even one in Toronto I believe.JKhedrup wrote:Why didn't the Master establish a temple in Toronto?
Bummer