Lecture No. 0130
Global Lamrim II
Lecture No. 0130
Tape : New Version 02 28:12 ~ 30:01
Date : 2019/06/27 ~ 06/30
Outline: Foundation
Topic: Prologue - Veneration at the beginning of commentary
English Lamrim Volume 1, page 34
Vol. 1 of Master’s discourse handbook P45-L5 ~ P46-L3
With this lay practitioner’s touching story, Master helped us reflect on our habitual tendency – whatever trivial matter happens to us, we will complain and handle life with such bitterness. Through Master’s teaching, we become aware of one of our habitual tendencies that need to be rectified. So the first thing we have to think with unflinching determination in the morning is be prepared to see how many trivial matters will happen today. First of all, we need to examine ourselves inwardly! Actually when something trivial happens, we often wouldn’t take it as something minor; instead, we would take it as something very significant, and then we would begin to complain. [00′39″]
Therefore, in comparison to what, are these occurrences trivial? Life and death are of momentous matters, and impermanence has a swift nature! If we are not mindful of impermanence or the suffering and happiness of future rebirths, then whatever takes place at the present moment would all become very significant in the sense that [we only look at it with a limited scope]. However, compared with the endless future lifetimes, these occurrences seem trivial. For instance, the dishes in a meal are not to your liking, or what others said is not music to your ears; or the courtesy of giving and taking: you gave something to him yet he forgot to give you something in return, etc. Are we able to detect these disturbances in our mind and be aware that they are gearing towards making complaints and even the train of thoughts being contemplated are skewed heavily towards complaining? Can we detect that beforehand? If we can, should we define it right away as such thoughts of grumbling can bring nothing but increased arrogance and non-virtuous deeds; it won’t do any good to my life, or others’. So why not stop such proclivity? [01′42″]
Consequently, the lay practitioner was full of gratitude after the car accident. [Can you imagine that] after suffering such a critical injury, she expressed her sincere gratitude rather than grumbling. So did the venerable whom I mentioned in the previous teachings. She also had a serious car accident but a sense of gratitude arose in her. She said, “I really appreciate the Three Jewels for every extra day of still being alive!” During her rehabilitation, at her hospital bed, till she was able to walk without relying on a wheelchair, she sent me a recorded tape of hers. Everyone can think about it: she can walk again! What kind of deep appreciation that was. Compared with her, do we appreciate the fact that we can walk now? We take all of these for granted, nothing in particular to thank for. Are we grateful for having food to eat? No, we are not! We don’t have to worry about clothing, food, housing, and transportation, but do we appreciate all of these? We have Buddha’s teaching readily available; when reading scriptures, lights are accessible; but are we grateful for all these? We probably just take everything for granted, and our hearts gradually become numb, as if all these are essentially there without any cause, and they would never disappear. [02′55″]
Every story that Master illustrated was to guide us to observe our minds, and to analyze the tenets we have studied. It is because genuine meditation practice has to be established in the depth of our minds; it is not for us to criticize the arising external circumstances; it requires introspection. So the key point here is we should not complain about trivial occurrences; if we are not aware of this habitual tendency, there is no way for us to improve. But how do we recognize that we tend to voice out our grumblings over any trivial matters? We can examine ourselves! We can even keep a simple record of what happened in the day, well, and what our thoughts were. After observing in this way for a while, and by reviewing what we wrote, we would find: how odd! Although we encountered different issues on day 1, 2 and 3, our thoughts seem to follow a similar pattern. After a week, by looking back at this simple track record, we will notice that our thoughts were all tuned toward the same direction – that is the direction of grumbling! Hence, [recognizing that,] we can start to rectify it. [03′51″]
After keeping track of it for a while and looking back, we would notice some changes, some of which can even be very significant. For instance, the monastics would always persist in keeping OMAK diaries; some of them have written many thick volumes, and some started writing it when they were a novice. You will read about how monastics started their journals; they might first observe a young novice around them, and began their writing from borrowing an eraser or a ruler and expressing gratitude for such kind deeds. And then they would go on to talk about how the mentoring monastics made an effort to chat with them, how the mentors expressed care for them and their appreciation to the mentors. Gradually, you would find that the monastics continued to find more and more things to feel grateful of in the monastery. Their appreciation went beyond their classes, and they even expressed their OMAK to many senior monastics in the monastery. Though they might not fully understand what those senior monastics were doing, they managed to put pieces together from what they saw and recognized that all these favorable conditions they had so far, and all the blissfulness available for them to study Dharma, were the contributions from many people. Once a person truly appreciates the fact that one is living in the environment contributed by many others, how can arrogance and pride arise in one’s mind? Because everything they have now, such as clothes, food, accommodation, and transportation, all comes from many people so that the monastics can have a learning environment to study Dharma. Hence the only way to pay back is to study diligently. It is easy to put it this way, but it takes tremendous effort to achieve it! [05′12″]
Up to this point, we are utmost grateful to Master’s kindness; he knew us so well that he understood our flawed tendency and pointed out what we should do next. Besides, he pointed out two directions: one is grumbling, and what is the other one? The other one is to express gratitude. The former is to apply the Dharma teaching to justify oneself when facing arising conditions and thus increase the arrogance and pride, while the latter is that despite encountering such serious car accidents, they felt grateful by relying on the teaching. Behold! “Well! So impermanence can be terror-stricken!” There is a world of difference between our literal understanding of impermanence and the full realization of it. Thus, by using such sharp contrast, Master guided us to observe the difference between one's shallow understanding of impermanence and the drastic transformation after actually experiencing a bit of impermanence. Meanwhile, Master also guided us to see how faith could support us to endure the most excruciating suffering. [06′01″]
Hence, how fortunate we are to encounter such an excellent teacher who took such great care to guard our three karmic doors, and led us step-by-step to put the teaching into practice, as if we were stumbling toddlers learning how to walk! For this, I think we should be truly grateful and highly cherish what Master taught us; we should earnestly study and contemplate Lamrim teachings, and then apply what we have learned to our mindstream. [The sole purpose of] listening to the teaching, contemplation, and meditation practice is to apply them to our mindstream. [06′33″]
【全球广论 II 讲次: 0130】
讲次 0130
科判 道前基础
章节 抱怨与感恩的两条心路
标题 扭转自心，向着感恩的方向
音档 新版 02 28:12 ~ 30:01
日期 2019/06/27 ~ 06/30
广论段落 P1-LL1 今勤瑜伽多寡闻……复乏理辩教义力
手抄页/行 凤山寺版：第1册 P45-L5 ~ P46-L3
手抄段落 结果那位同学他觉得......应该真正懂得这个。
师父在这个居士感人的故事里，让我们照见我们自己的现行——平常遇到点事情就抱怨，生命很苦涩的这种状态，透过师父给我们讲的法，意识到这是自己的一个习气、一个可能需要改善的习惯。那么你咬牙切齿，从早晨开始就想：看我今天遇到多点儿事情（注 1）。首先要观察！其实当我们遇到一点点事情的时候，我们不会觉得那是一点点事情，我们会觉得这事情非常大！然后就开始了。 [00′39″]
那么怎么样觉得这是一点点事情呢？生死事大，无常迅速！如果不念及无常、不念及后世的苦乐，那么眼前出现的所有事情都是非常大的，因为眼前的这一天的事也很大；可是它和无量生的未来比起来，可能就显得小多了。比如说饭菜合不合胃口呀？人家有没有跟你说让你听起来很悦耳的话呀？或者说礼尚往来，你送了他、他忘了送给你了等等，这些心里边常常起起伏伏的事情，能不能觉察到它是朝着抱怨的方向，甚至在思想那一步是朝着抱怨的方向去思考的？能不能自己先观察到？观察到了，就直接给它下定义：这样抱怨的想法只会增长骄慢，而且造恶业，对我的生命没有任何好处，对他人的生命也没有好处。那么为什么我不停止这种方式呢？ [01′42″]
所以，这位居士在这场车祸中，他生起了感激的心，在这样一个很可怕的灾难中，他居然生起了感恩心，他没有抱怨。我前几节课跟大家讲的法师也是这样的，她也遭遇到很大的车祸，她也是生起了感恩心，说：[能活一天都要好好地感恩三宝！]所以她在养伤、在病床上，乃至能脱离轮椅下地走路的时候，她就录了一个录像给我看。大家可以想一想：能走路了！怀着多么深的感动。可是我们现在对我自己能走路还会很感恩吗？都觉得这些事情司空见惯的，没什么可以感动的。能吃上饭，感恩吗？也没有感恩心！衣、食、住、行这些都无忧，感恩吗？有法可以学，甚至想要看经典的时候有灯，这些事都感恩吗？可能一切都司空见惯，心里慢慢地就麻木掉了，好像这些都是无因生的、本来就有，而且永远不会消失一样。 [02′55″]
师父透过每一个例子，都在让我们把注意力观察到我们的内心，去抉择我们所学习的教理。因为真正的修行一定是建立在我们的内心深处，不是让我们上来就是评外境的，一定要是看内心。所以这里边的重点就是：不要遇到一点小事情就抱怨，如果我不知道我有这个毛病，是没法改的。那么我如何知道一点点小事情心思就朝着抱怨的方向去呢？那观察一下自己嘛！甚至做一个简单的纪录：今天什么事情出现了，欸！我又想什么了？记录一段时间之后，你再看一下笔记就发现：奇怪！第一天遇到这事情，第二天、第三天遇到不同事情，我的心好像都是朝着那个方向。一周的话，看一个简单的纪录，你就可以知道：原来都是朝那个方向——就是抱怨的方向！那么你就可以扭转它了。 [03′51″]
记录一段时间再往回看的时候，就会发现还是有一些变化，甚至变化很大的。像僧团的法师们常常坚持写观功念恩日记，有的是写厚厚的好多本，有的是从小沙弥的时候就开始写。你会看到他说开始先观察旁边的小朋友，就从借个橡皮呀、借个尺子啊，这样的事情开始感恩。然后说教务法师怎么约谈我、关心我，然后感恩。慢慢地、慢慢地就发现这个出家人，在常住里他就会看到越来越多他值得感恩的事情。然后他就跨越了他的班级，然后跨越很多班，甚至看到常住很多大的法师。在他并不是很了解大法师在做什么的时候，他能从眼前的这些好像看起来星星点点的事情里，看到我现在有这样的顺缘、能学法的福报，实际上是很多很多人的奉献成就的。一旦一个人活在很多人的奉献之中，并且用他的心真实地感受到这一点的时候，其实怎么生骄慢啊？因为我们的一举一动，我们的衣、食、住、行，都是很多人的奉献，所以只有好好学法去报恩了。这句话说起来就是这样、是很容易的，但是要把它做到，真的要下一番功夫！ [05′12″]
讲到这里的时候就真的很感恩师父，他那么了解我们，那么了解我们的习气毛病，然后又给我们指出当下一步要怎么办。而且指出两个方向：一个是抱怨的，一个是什么？感恩的；一个是遇到境界就开始拿法去讲道理、增长骄慢的，另一方面就是遇到这么大的事情，看！ [喔！原来无常是如此地胆颤心惊！]跟那个轻轻松松的形成天壤之别。所以从这样对比的角度，让我们看到：轻轻松松所感受的无常，和真正地体会到一点点无常的样子的时候内心的强大的一个转变。也看到了我们在最痛苦的时候，信仰对我们的支撑力。 [06′01″]
所以能遇到这样一位善知识，如此细心地呵护着我们的三业，一步一步地带着我们在修行的路上，像学步一样一步一步带着我们走，真的是太幸运了！对此我觉得我们真的应该怀着感恩和万分珍惜的心情，把师父讲过的法、把《广论》好好地、认真地闻思，然后用在自己的身心上，闻、思、修，用在自己的身心上。 [06′33″]