The Four Aspects of Practicing the Threefold Ethics of BodhisattvasÂ
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standing here
this person and toward a is angie is any means zen master resource it's called a zen master
he wrote this
this motorcycle vow and he said that them
he's a student of the dharma and that when he looks at the real form of the universe all is a never failing manifestation of the mysterious truth of the guitar guitar
when he looks at the real nature of things everything is
the manifestation of the truth when you looked at the truth everything's the truth
and then any event in any place is none other than the revelation of the light on the truth
and this realization made our founding
well here's another does a hell out of here again
do you have els and years is a waiter i have laid out his can we the pistol pass the ones that have als and them
the can i see someone else so it's founding from teachers rather than fumbling teachers
and virtuous than leaders extend with tender care because of his realization
when you see everything as a manifestation of the truth when you see that then
then what
then you extend ah with virtuous with a tender care the heart
i'm worshipping what's the heart of worshiping worshipped means acknowledge the worth of something
so when you see everything as the truth then
you are tender with anything and you worship everything you see worth fixing worth everywhere you still miss the suffering people but you see that they're that they're worthy they're worse than worth your worship there was your care
so that's what he saw he said
nice or even birds beasts and birds are so for lot of humans beasts means humans
even humans
you can be extend tender care and even humans you can worship
not like they're better than you but just like you consider every human worth something how value and you treat them with great care because that's what you see because you see the truth
that's what this
ah patients and master said
i am
i have here are chapter six
a something that's called of the summary of the mahayana or embracing the mahayana written by
a fourth century
disciple of buddha student of the dharma
a sanga i picked her up painting the sanga
a on the altar so this first month of two thousand and twelve
we've been particularly focusing on his teachings
ah of the bodhisattva precepts
in chapter six
have some somebody to miami it's an address on it it's only as is all and is one piece papers
whole chapters a short after for
chock full of dharma and i just didn't feel ready to bring it out today but next to next next next week next month
we can study it
on
help had the window settings
i wanted to a song also taught
well let me say
as i told you some of you before a saga was a great student of dharma he was a noted great teacher in india but he felt that the buddhist teaching was not being practice farewell
yeah in fourth and fifth century india where he lived with his younger brother loss of bondo
chelsea he felt ah he wanted to
make an effort to help people practice shakyamuni buddha's teachings more more authentically but he felt he needed help to help them and ah
particularly he felt that he needed help from the future buddha
the next buddha now the next buddha
is called my trail and this next boot of my tray is not the buddha but the but it's a living being a boy sought for who's waiting for her opportunity to be a buddha
a song a thought maybe like i could get maitreya borisov from my tray avoided to come and give some teaching before he comes to be the border so he spent a big effort and actually he got my to show up and give him teachings
and make maitreya taught him the threefold on
bodhisattva precepts
and he also taught him the essence of a bodhisattva precepts
so these teachings are coming to us are shakyamuni buddha did not that i don't think there's any or
examples are shockingly a teaching the the three four bodhisattva ethics but i'm there are a number of texts which a song either wrote down
which were dictated to him by the future buddha or wiki compose by himself for it brings up this is threefold bodhisattva precepts
so in summary the mahayana
they're taught in chapter six and is another text called
ah the mahayana
the sutra a long corridor which means that adornment of the my on scriptures and that's a text which he received from the future buddha and wrote down and there to he teaches the threefold bodhisattva precepts
and then my younger son gras high he wrote himself with the assistance of the future buddha but he actually wrote at present there was dictated to him
so i i felt today by talking to some people that was a little confusion about the for aspects a bodhisattva precepts and the three four bodhisattva precepts
so the crypto bodhisattva precepts each one of those precepts has four aspects are the he threw those precepts has in in essence
are there is an essential way i'm practicing with each one of those precepts
and those four stages or this ford aspects apply to each of these precepts so if you're practicing the precept the first place the first to precept or the purifying precept of presence if you're practicing that that's because it's been given to you by you know the
those of the past has been transmitted to you so these precepts had been transmitted through from my trade to a sanga down through my on in india into china into japan or into korea and order to america so the practice these three precepts that we do we're good
thing from ancestors like a sanga and from bodhisattvas lasagna was in bodhisattva but his teacher was the future buddha receive receiving these teachings from way back then and the way that they and the way that they practice with them is likely do now in our ceremonies which
i i will i'll try to show you at some as time goes on
so a song or taught that the essence of precepts is receiving them from another you don't make up yourself and receiving them correctly understanding what the person who gave them to you meant by the precept
an aspiring to practice it
i'm noticing that you fail and confessing that you fail and feeling how you feel when you confess that you failed and then that melts away the root of failure
which is then followed by success in practicing it and this these for full aspects of practicing precepts apply to each of the three so when year
when you've received the precept of practicing all kinds of wholesome things and then you don't
then you regret that you know if you notice it that you confess it and regret it
and then eventually you stop slipping up on practicing hall the wholesome things and if you're receiving the precept of serving days and you don't serve them
then you look at that and study that and see how that isn't confess it and learn all the different aspects of not serving beings and how you feel about that and then that will lead to success in the practice of serving beings
a service for aspects applied to each of the three aspects of the precepts the for aspects part the precepts
the for aspects of high or how your practice with the prefer not to aspects of ethics they're not the particular ethic the ethics or the threefold things so i just i i felt there's some confusion about that no-one is the only
further questions you have a by how those to work together for the for
the fourfold peasants works with the threefold ah ethics essences and ethics
any comments about that yes
the selection
yeah
i actually did with didn't follow i actually said them but ah but it but i've sent them myself quite a few times and other third a few times i actually noticed that when i'm saying them that i said them when you first hear that you hardly notice it so the three for the bodhisattva priests
assets are threefold basically for actually there one for forty sound to precepts are one fold what's the one fold
ha
what presence
as one of the falls what's what's the one folder includes all three
hmm what
ethics ethics increases the three ethics rate but what what's the one ethics what's what's the one body's health ethics if you do it in one fold what is it what is enlightenment the bodhisattva ethics are enlightenment enlightenment is the bodhisattvas ethical responsibility
right
if you wish to be a buddha your ethical responsibility is enlightenment as one fold break it up into three it's the first one is
ethics of restraint which means restraining
yourself from getting distracted from being present and one of the ways to get distracted from being present is to try to get something for avoid losing something
that's one way
so he restrain all these illusions of gain and loss when they arise use and all the way you restrain him as when they arise
you in practices the the ethics with it wiki is that you notice that you didn't do it
so again the first of the threefold is restraining distraction restraining outflows restraining illusions around your life next is to practice all wholesome activities
which can be summarized by the six perfections
giving ethics and limited sense of being careful and vigilant patients enthusiasm concentration of wisdom to all those practices as the second voice or publisher
and in the secondary south a precept and is based on the first one the second bodhisattva precept is all the things that make a buddha the buddha is made by practicing those six da six practices
the six practices make buddhas and what buddhists do as they're being made
they're devoted to beings which is the third aspect are bodhisattva precepts first restraint presence
second do all the things that make buddhists third
take care what buddhists take care of all sentient beings and mature the closer the three
and then all and in the essence of on ethical activity is first of all that you receive the precepts are now i told you these three which i gave you one time in a ceremony and you said you practice them
so in a bodhisattva precepts ceremony receive these rip your precepts and i say to you and i given to you i say
now you receive these three pm theresa a christian precepts the three pure bodhisattva precepts from now on and even after realizing the buddha body when you continue to practice in and you said yes i will say you received them and then we should clarify what they are
so you're asking the questions about so we talk about until you understand what these presets are which you have received from another who received them from another who received them from another and so on
from beginning was time the buddha's and ancestors have been transmitting these precepts
so that the first aspect as you received them correctly second aspect is you aspire to practice them i wish to receive them will you continue to practice my aspire i will i will i will a practice and i'll keep trying you aspire to that that the second effect the third aspect is
you don't you fail
if you're not successful all the time a k occasionally you slip
an an occasionally he was successful
and in a given our you might be successful many many times and also slipped many many times this is a lot of moments in a short period of time
in an hour you can see you could have quite a few times when you slip away from being present
but also an hour you could have quite a moment of being present when your present
when you when anybody's present a pretty girl but if you aspire to be present in your present it's even better
also if anybody is not present they feel pretty bad but if you aspire to be present and you're not present if you're worse
so part of aspiring to be present part of the results of that is you have less wiggle room to not do what you want wanna do
and it's recommended that you reduce them wiggle room by commitment to what you want to do otherwise you say why i never said i would be president no problem if really i'm your suffering but the authors or bad as if you've really said i really wanna be present and i'm not so
that's the third aspect is you is you when you fail you notice it you confess it and your repented that's a third based on the first two
receiving a precept
and wish to practice it you have the third
this on the first three yeah the fourth so success complete success is based on receiving the precept wishing to practice it and quite a few times and noticing that you haven't until finally
you're consistent you're able to continue the precept
non-stop after long training and tories and he's teach your ha one ah he said when he was sixty five he finally was able to get through the whole day with a slippery
butter
i'm more than sixty five i haven't got there yet but he he is more intense than me i think
however long it takes i'm heading in that direction and so are you you're heading into direction of success non-stop success in the bodhisattva precepts
unless you to have inspired to it
we're not going to be non-stop successful at these precepts unless we aspire to it doesn't happen by accident
elisa has don't get to be boys off as by accident they get to be body bodhisattvas by having this aspiration to practice these
trainings to have the aspiration of rises in their heart and they'd take care of the aspiration
and they take care of the aspiration and then taken care of the aspiration you notice when you're not taking care of the aspiration if you don't take care of it you might not notice you're not if you are take care of it the you notice what the returns to notice when you're don't doesn't mean every time you don't notice it it just means that if you are too
and care of sometimes it's than you have a chance of noticing that you're not can never taken care of it you might never noticed that your not
so those are the for
aspect of the essence of ethical training which is applied to all the precepts
threefold but under the under the under the first fold that can be lots and lots of
lots and lots of forms and ceremonies to practice presence with like
during mao's join your palms sitting upright
does lots of opportunities to use some form
in quiet
someone ought not various forms to use to see if you can be present with them
and also if you're practicing with others and is a silent period in somebody's talking than you have a chance to see if you can be present with somebody who's talking during a silent time can you go up to them with presence and say
excuse me did you know that this is a sound time and then naked say no thank you for for i didn't know that thank you
and you can look to see if you were present when you had when you asked him about that
return again something
are you trying to avoid something you can notice that so it's possible you will be checking on somebody else's presence and lose your presence in the process
how lot of people who are a lot of people come and tell me that certain senior people who are checking on their presence weren't very present
the junior people don't often check on the senior people when they think the senior people are not present but you're welcome to do so but see to can check with and be present while your check
so part of the training is to see if you can check on whether people are doing what they said they're going to do and way without losing your presence while you check
because people asked senior people to check on them when they see them not doing the practice they want to do it right people coming to music it can see me veering away from his precepts please give me feedback
but they want me to stay present when i give them feedback they don't want me to be
a record getting distracted from the principal i'm checking with them about their distraction from the precept
they want me to show the precept when i check on whether they doing the precept bright is not you want course thank you
yeah half
located
is located a wife seems the census yes it is you are welcome to change the subject good luck out the first
fifteen
he saved and
he winning by restraint and water me he has is that like
restraint
sudbury difference
the president
everything
for it sounds different
yeah i'm so
the first precept supports the other presents right and among the other precepts though the one of gathering all have some things under that he is giving under that has been welcoming to everything so the first one supports to alchemy
now is a welcoming in the first one
the thing that supports the first one i support the welcoming the generosity it purifies it
could there be welcomed involved in the purification of alchemy yes so these things are these things are like it's not one direction or so if something comes in your present with it you're actually welcoming it
st which a restraint you watch a wrist watch a restraining is a restraining yourself from not being present with what's been given to you your restraining the distraction
so restraining distraction does not different from practicing giving
for welcoming
okay so let's say you're practicing welcoming okay so then the first precept is to this is to restrain yourself
from getting distracted from practicing welcoming when you're practicing welcoming
strain your cell phone
restrain yourself from being restraining yourself from pushing away right
hmm so but it's emphasizing ha it's is emphasizing that you have to a that that you you come to certain practices like giving
with delusions of gained and lost you're you're you're gonna come now practicing giving but you have a tendency to see you know that you're gonna get giving her not get giving so yeah to train yourself to approach giving
from this first percent
for the outflows are trying to know are trying to get something for cod restraining the outflows as you going to practice for example giving and other kinds of ethics are other kinds of being careful like
checking to make sure that are your speech is kind be careful of that but you're approaching it from a place of restraining outflows in relationship to their precept
but it's not like giving is not present when you're practicing restrain of outflows
because the outflow is the outflow of trying to get things and hold on to things so
but it's starting by emphasizing you want to practice getting one you probably can have trouble because you see giving in a kind of corrupted way
so he got him
in some ways be humble the if you wish to do wholesome things realize that you can probably have some kind of illusions about what wholesomeness is as your approach it so what learn to spot those things so you can see how to practice giving without trying to get anything from practicing giving so you're just practicing
giving and that for giving his name was gonna turn to get anything from it
but if if you try to practice giving notice that you're having trouble being present was giving
and when you see a trouble
he noted that you're veering away from the first precept
so then these all these practices are interpenetrating each other but the first one is emphasizing purifying the outflows and giving his you can practice giving without having purify the outflows
or you can purify the outflows and then practice giving but just as you can slip from practicing presence you can slip from practicing presence when you're practicing giving seek in the process of giving you can notice eternal present in the factors are given you can notice it trying to get sick you're reaching
on a little bit beyond the giving you can like giving but well what's gonna happen now how they feel about a time i'm getting famous
so if you plug a few practice presence perfectly in a moment and a new practice giving them the giving will not have outflows if you practice giving and you're not trained and outflows in alpha for show up in the given that the united when you notice the outflows in giving than you're practicing the second precept of giving
but you also practicing the first one and noticing that you're failing at the first one
but as part of fraction the first one and has also part of making the second one pure
so the second one the first one is applied to all the activities you're all the wholesome activities you're attempting to do and catching herself at any hop flows around the activities you're doing
you say that for that first street like any massive
the all meditation their all meditations giving his meditation ethics is meditation ethics in the sense of being careful and vigilant patience is a meditation enthusiasm is a meditation and concentration is a meditation and wisdom is managed and everything's meditation everything's practice
paul practices or meditations
you're meditating on a teaching and the voice of for precepts
for all meditations however the difference there's a difference between ah you can practice giving with hot been careful
and still giving
you still trying to give but you're not careful it's possible to not be careful it's also possible to practice giving be impatient he gives something to somebody in slap in the face and you have a in our patient with the slap but you did give him something and you enjoyed it and you meant to
and you can give again and lose your presence when you give you can give somebody something and then tied you're giving it to them you can look away because it gets really intense here you are giving the person and list and in her face charges to light up and you cannot stand to see that face
know we have to train ourselves to be able to stay and delivered and stay with stay all the way as we give the afraid to the end of the gift and then
ready for the next moment
so
it's possible to try to do wholesome things without the first precept and then the stuff
the second precept is not a pure precept
it's undermined by lack of presence so the lack of presence can be practice while and sometimes doing nothing
just purely be present with your experience or i can be practice with parties have some activities
and you can notice a short coming in your presence when you're just with your breath
and i think of breath as as giving when i think of breasts has been careful and i think of breath as patients are not think of breath as enthusiasm are not think of breath as concentration just i'm with my breath
and i'm trying to get anything and not afraid of losing anything i'm just here
mrs great now you can start thinking of your breath as a gift both you're giving your breath and you're receiving your breath as a gift
and so on then you can practice ethics and you're practicing with presence for you're practicing the all these good things you're doing now with your breath or your posture or your voice or whatever your mind
you're continuing to practice presence with them because that's the basis of the other two bodhisattva precepts
without that basis they have offers
the winter basis than all these activities are enlightenment itself
the when you serve people is it it's enlightenment because you're not trying to get anything by the service and you're not afraid of losing anything by the service
okay
yes
yeah
second
the world
it is the first three you are
while ashley
it's
the body saw all the bodhisattvas ethics our compassion
gay and
in terms of this the six bodhisattva training methods of giving
ethics patients have the wisdom those all those are what they are practicing the they are practicing the
have some things are included under their
those things our efforts because those practices hard the bodhisattvas ethical responsibility because the body bodhisattva is trying to realize buddhahood and those incredibly i was full would would have an ethical and action obligation ethical action obligation
ethical action commitment to do those practices which make buddha's so then all those practices of compassion and wisdom go under ethics for one who wishes to make a buddha
now what is the bodhisattva antics against our number one
ending outlaws restraining after us that's wisdom
having no sense a gain or loss or self or other that's wisdom so the first bodhisattva ethical practice his wisdom
and they on that wisdom you practice all these practices of compassion
they're not really separate and yet
you can can practice compassion to some extent with our wisdom you can practice compassion still try to give something is still compassion you can still be giving people a material that they need you can give them attention
it's good his compassion but you can be turned against something because you don't have wisdom if you're not was just wisdom and as the basis of all these compassion practices and the compassion practices are a constant opportunity
for enlightenment for buddhahood to to develop itself
now the six perfections are sometimes broken up into the first three are the things you do to benefit suffering these
that's how you benefit for help
things were not enlightened
the generous towards them you're careful with them your patient with them the patient with their suffering your patient with their attacks and insults to yourself into your friends he practiced sorcery that benefits things that aren't enlightens the next three or a special the last two are not just for benefit base but what liberate pings concentrate
wisdom liberate them but you can't practice concentration and wisdom until you practice benefiting beings and the fourth one is fuels the first three but his fourth because until your practice first three you really don't have full enthusiasm until you benefit beings you don't have formed judaism when you're
benefiting beings you have a lot of energy
particularly if you're suffering and your practice patience you're not spending a lot of energy fighting you're suffering it is present with it so a lot of energy is wasted by wiggling away from the suffering is not wasted anymore and you have to use the practice the first three and then you have enthusiasm to practice concentration
concentration concentration on what concentration on doing what helps people concentrate on the happiness of others you focus on that and when you focus on that you become wise and that the concentration wisdom is what liberates beings so fresh we help them
can you elaborate them first we helped them than first we love them without compassion that health with compassion and then we can liberate it
first help the world and liberate the world
all these practices are included under the second bodhisattva precepts
which is based on the first bodhisattva precepts and the third bodies after precept is the beneficiary of the first do
and those all all three of them are free these presets or the full body and buddha
the true body and buddha
the police body of buddha and the transformation body of buddha buddha has three bodies and so the three precepts
for those who wish to realize the buddha for the sanskrit names of those three months through god is presumed goddamn ah kiah buddha next one's called some bodega buddha next one's called near mana kai of buddha those three bodies to toward the total body is a buddha and the three
bodhisattva precepts match those three bodies
the bodhisattva precepts
well for me again the the true body and booty is reality
in reality is just presence reality is not trying to gain anything can you believe it
reality is not trying to get something and is not trying to avoid losing something
so the first precept is training and know outflows
no gain or loss
now sell for other that's the true body and buddha
second body and buddha
is
all the wonderful practice and joy of all the practices and bodhisattvas the doing those practices based on the first one doing them without trying to get anything or fear of losing anything and i doing them but doing together with all the other bodhisattva this is like bliss
how practicing
the teachings and in the next one is the ability to
respond to beings in whatever way will help them that's the transformation body you can trust you are transformed into whatever helps people
you appear to come and go because i helped people the dharma guy doesn't come and go presence doesn't come and go coming and going as distraction from presence
coming and going is not the dharma kaja board is not the true body and buddha true body and buddha is when we have totally become present
when we when we are no longer in concerned
with gain and loss which comes from thinking of self suffer from other or this separate from that when we cut off those illusions of outflows we have the dharma kiah which naturally response
the beings as the transformation body and the practices which make the dharma chi which make us able to be present
and practicing or together with all things that's that's the second bodhisattva precepts that's the some overtime
say enough for lose and nice enough a little more not a little more
now we can
practice the three bodies have the precepts
free forever
with
considerable failures
but we have a practice for failure
and a practice that we do when we fail to do these practices is part of the practice
it's not separate from the practice it is definitely part of the practice part of the practice is that third aspect of ethics
and most of us see some opportunities to do that third one most of us noticed some veering away from presence some slipping into gain and loss
and then again
don't notice it is compassion as part of compassion
yes
increases
with you
six the
i'm good i don't i don't need you to worry because anybody need her to worry
i i asked myself
well it's okay to say and it has a perfectly reasonable question did i get it do i understand correctly
dry interrupt you
president
so
like outlook
the thing i do i like a good feature that knows his stuff unequivocally and then on ceiling
and then i say sushi just relax with increased awareness
we're not to worry
am i making sense yeah is getting more
no
i'm just saying that wondering whether your understanding correctly it can be done you can wander without worrying
so part of correctly receiving a preceptor teaching part of the correct perception is to check with the transmitter to see if you understood it the where they meant it and you can ask that that you doing right now you're checking ah about the precept right now
and you're kind of a hassle music okay not to worry and i'm say yes
sometimes sometimes often i know when i messed up and i'll make amends quickly
and that's something that's part of but then when it's put in this context i'm thinking
because it's in this context for the intuitively you know i know one when the money
when they make a mistake
especially if it's a mistake
if i go think it's the inadvertently or maybe it certainly
i'll make amends as quickly as i can
but then putting this in this context
because it's in this new contacts
how many say something i would welcome
the it's possible for you to ask for you to have the questions that you just mentioned and to happen without worrying
the worrying is necessary you can ask questions and you can wander i can wander about whether i understood something that has just been taught to me i can wander about that without worrying or with worrying and i recommend to you that you wonder about it without worry and if you worried i recommend
that you notice the worry
confess the worry and like over the kind of the worry
relax with the world
for if you're receiving a teaching aid and you wonder if you understood at relax with that wonder the winery is good and then wanted from the wondering you can ask a question but not from worrying that you maybe didn't get it right right but is wondering i wonder if i got it right i think i'll go ask
here's what i thought what it will do you think that that's right i agree okay so the worried action doesn't facilitate the learning
relaxing with it helps but again if you're if i'm worrying than i say watching that know i'm doing something which is making it more difficult for me to learn so i accept that and now i think i'll just like see if i can start over and wonder about this teaching again and i can wander and now maybe can ask a question which you just did
and i've say yeah ask questions about a check check check and check and if you're not worried it'll be enjoyable took a high when i was a young student i had a teacher and i just loved ask them questions and a high
i i had always at how lot of questions to ask him and he was happy for me to ask and i was i wasn't worried about not being sure but the answers i've wanted to ask him questions so i recommend that you ask questions in a relaxed way without trying to get anything but just still try to be trying to clarify which and i'm trying to
get clarification
okay good
thank you
more great
i think so too and thank you offer your practice and presence today i hope it was a joy
and hopefully we'll meet again here someday
and we can study some more of these bodies sought for teachings
about the great vehicle
thank you very much
many our intention the extend to every be in place
mary
the beings are numberless i lie to save them delusions