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Global Lamrim II

Lecture No. 0237

Lamrim Volume 1:  P34 – LL9~LL1

Date: 2020-07-06 ~ 2020-07-08

Topic: : Uphold the importance of explaining and listening to the teachings

Master gave us an example in the following paragraphs; now let’s listen to the teaching from Master.   [00:10]

 [4A 11:30 ~ 13:32]
Let me illustrate this point with a simple example: suppose we are going somewhere – of course, in our case, we plan to advance from the state of ordinary beings to the Buddha realm, which is a spiritual path as well as a philosophical journey. Now let me explain it with an example drawn from something we are all familiar with. Let’s say, you want to go to Tainan [in southern Taiwan]. If you plan to go there on foot, it does not require any careful preparation; all it takes is stand up and off you go; just as simple as that! All it takes is that either you know how to get there or you have people show you how to get there; that’s it. In other words, someone who has been there before will tell you how to get there, and then point out the right way for you. Other than these two, you do not need other preparations.

What if you want to get there by bicycle? Well, it requires some preparation. You have to check the brakes; if you haven’t used the bike for a while, it needs to be greased, so on and so forth. What about going there by car? You need more preparations, such as the coolant for the engine, the engine oil, the gasoline, and the tire pressure; only with proper preparation can you then set off! What about going there by airplane? Before the plane takes off, the pilot needs to go through the before take-off check. Without a thorough examination and preparation, you might as well not take the flight; otherwise when the plane takes off, and something goes wrong, this is a matter of life and death. Thus despite having someone already telling you how to get there with a map and clear directions, if you are not well prepared, then you are bound to run into trouble! This is absolutely true!

So now, many of us are inspired to learn Buddhism, and the encompassing teachings are available; what strikes me the most is the third part – [how to listen to and explain the teachings]. As for the true intent of the third part, you will gradually come to realize why it is so important. It is really very important, extremely important! With the aforementioned preparations, the guidance on how to lead students with the actual instructions will begin.   [02:13]

Let me ask everyone a question: how many examples did Master cite? Traveling on foot, by bicycle, by car, and then by airplane. Another question is:  Master said, “someone who has been there before will tell you how to get there, and then point out the right way for you. Other than these two, you do not need other preparations.” Is it true that when one is traveling on foot, he or she does not need to make any preparation for the trip? Is the statement “you do not need other preparations” the same as “it does not require any preparation”? So, it means making some preparations is still necessary, but there is no need to make other preparations. Because you don’t need to prepare a bicycle or a car, but you still need to make some preparations for the trip. I am not sure from where would Master plan to begin his trip to Tainan; was it a long way? If so, he would need to prepare drinking water. He might need to prepare some food as well. There is still a need to prepare. Thus the statement “you do not need other preparations” does not mean there is no need to prepare at all; rather it indicates that other preparation is not required.   [03:16]

As for this passage, I wonder where is everyone’s focus point after listening to this part? Would you wonder: “What does the bike represent? What does the bicycle mean? Does the car imply something? And what does the airplane signify?” Are you thinking about these? As for the path we are about to take, would you wonder where we would start and in what direction we will head for? Our path is from the state of ordinary beings to the Buddha realm. Then with all these different means of transportation, you would surely choose to travel by airplane, right? If all of us choose to take the flight, Master said, “Without a thorough examination and preparation, you might as well not take the flight; otherwise when the plane takes off, and something goes wrong, that is a matter of life and death. Thus despite having someone already telling you how to get there with a map and clear directions, if you are not well prepared, then you are bound to run into trouble!”  Master continued to say, “This is absolutely true!”   [04:10]

Many of you would then want to know, “What does the airplane stand for? What about the car? What about the bicycle? What does traveling on foot signify?” However, what I would like to ask is: whatever it is, be it traveling on foot, by bicycle, by car, or by airplane, what should we prepare? All these are analogies that enable us to pay attention to “what kinds of preparation do we need to make”. Question: for those of us planning to advance from the state of ordinary beings to Buddhahood, what exactly should we prepare? Is it the making preparation that we often neglect? As Master pointed out, “It is really very important, extremely important”; it refers to “making preparation,” right? Then, what exactly does making preparation indicate? Do you get the answer by now?   [04:52]

Then, Master recapped, “So now, many of us are inspired to learn Buddhism, and the encompassing teachings are available; what strikes me the most now…”; when Master said “me”…. Have you noticed it in the recording? Right after “me,” he paused for a second; then Master continued, “is the third part.” May I ask what the 3rd part refers to? Do you still remember the outline of Lamrim text? It is, “how to listen to and explain the teachings”; that’s the one – How to explain and how to listen to the teachings. When we are aspired to study Buddhism and have also encountered the encompassing teachings; pay attention! Surprisingly enough, the key point is this part! Everyone please ponder on it.  Master said, “What strikes me the most is the third part.” What is Master trying to tell us? That is, it is the third part that we need to exert our effort on!   [05:50]

Master continued: “As for the true intent of the third part, you will gradually come to realize why it is so important;” Master first pointed out why it is so important and then he followed by saying, “It is really important, extremely important!” “How to explain and how to listen to the teachings” is the most important. To many classmates as well as myself, how to listen to the teachings is of vital importance. Hence, as to “how to listen” to the teachings, after we have understood the literal meaning of this passage, would we all feel, “Wow! How to listen to the teachings is indeed very important!” Would you develop such unwavering conviction? Or are you still in doubt, wondering, is how to listen to the teachings truly that important? Why did Master highlight its importance by repeating very important, extremely important, really very important, using so many words to describe?  Besides, he directly pointed out, “What strikes me the most is the third part!”   [06:46]

To those classmates who have studied Lamrim several rounds, ever often neglected this section, that is how to listen to the teachings, which is considered the most important? For example, often neglected to contemplate the benefits of hearing the teachings, and those guided principles of how to listen to the teachings? Without self-reflection, we may simply overlook it. Once we examine ourselves earnestly, we would spot our negligence in almost every aspect! If this crucial step is neglected, as we move on, the benefit obtained from listening to the teachings will definitely be affected.   [07:15]

Even though this section explained by Master today is not on the chapter of “how to listen to and explain the teachings,” I would like to ask everyone a question: why is that Master went into great detail explaining “how to listen to and explain the teachings” while going over the outline in the Prologue?   [07:31]

Actually, while listening to Master’s commentary on Lamrim, we would gradually realize that Master would repeatedly bring up the key points throughout his entire commentary, over and over again. Just as I used to ask Master, “Master, haven’t you explained the topic on making offerings to the Three Jewels and accumulating merits before? Why do you need to go over it again?”  Master would reply, “Well! Zhen-Ru, we are all ordinary beings! After listening to the teachings, we may put them into practice for a while, but later we might either forget or neglect them. That is why we need to remind people again!” As for the reminder in today’s teaching from Master, would you all keep it in mind?  Master put so much emphasis on this matter – despite the fact that Master was such an eminent practitioner, he still stressed the importance of this matter, my question is: didn’t Master know how to give us the teachings? Didn’t he know how to listen to the teachings? Then, why is that such an eminent monk still needed to point out “what strikes me the most is the third part”? Why did he need to hammer hard at this point?   [08:28]

Regarding the advice from the experienced person, would everyone keep it in mind and reflect on it for a while, “Why is that I don’t consider this point very important?” Or we may feel that, “After I have studied for so many years, my improvement does not quite meet my expectation….” We would come up with a lot of questions and attribute the cause to something like “my weighty karmic debt.” However, as to what weighty karmic debt specifically means, we are not taking one step further to analyse it.   [08:53]

Isn’t it because of our weighty karmic obstructions that we don’t value the third part as much as Master did? Is it because we did not hear it clearly? Or is it because we lack the will power or the perseverance to keep on the training, even though we have heard it clearly? Or is it because we are inclined to take shortcuts, without paying attention to the practical steps we need to take and work on in terms of our mind training? Or is it because we always aim too high, trying to reach the far more advanced practice that is still beyond our grasp? Once we overlook the preliminary foundation, whatever follow would be impaired. Then, what is your answer to the above questions?   [09:22]

I would like to ask everyone, after hearing this section, have you noticed that Master was still trying to rectify our flaws in meditation practice/cultivation? We charge far ahead with all our mind strength, to pursue the more advanced practice, but Master often advised, if we don’t value “how to listen to the teaching”, it would be a cause of concern as to what benefits we can obtain after hearing a lot of teachings. Is this right?   [09:46]

Thus in regard to what we have covered in today’s teaching, I hope everyone would sum up one point: one thing that we need to accentuate all the way from the beginning, to the middle, and all the way till the end, is how to practice listening to the teachings till as elucidated in the scriptures. If we don’t apply constant practice on how to listen to the teachings, we would always fall back to our habitual way of listening to the teachings. However, there is an entire systematic and sequential order of how to listen to Buddha’s teachings. If you don’t abide by it, it is like a surgeon who does not wash and sanitize his or her hands properly before performing a surgery; without proper sanitization, the consequence is that the patient may not survive!   [10:27]

Thus how important is this sequential order? Whether our entire meditation practice/cultivation is a success or a failure depends on it! The success or failure of our meditation practice/cultivation means whether we would have certain attainment in this lifetime. Hence, Master tried to wake us up with these key points. Are we able to heed Master’s awakening advice to us? We may hear it with our ears, but do we register it at heart? Has the advice touched the depths of our heart? Have we developed the unwavering conviction to value the importance of listening to the teachings?    [10:54]

I hope that after the discussion of this session, let us pause for a moment and ponder on it. When our next discussion begins, even if you merely spend a few minutes contemplating on the benefits of listening to the teachings, you can examine whether such adjustment would make an unusual difference to the entire learning of the session? Why? It is because Buddha dharma is meant for us to put it into practice. The more you put it into practice, the more you will find out what Buddha taught is all truth. If you don’t put what Buddha taught into practice, you would instead have doubt as to why your suffering is not eliminated. Why [Buddha Dharma] is not effective? So, I sincerely hope everyone will be able to listen very earnestly and clearly to the key points Master emphasized today, and be mindful! To put what you have heard into actual practice!   [11:39]

讲次 0237

标题 提起对讲闻轨理的重视

音档 4A 11:30 ~ 13:32

日期 2020-07-06 ~ 2020-07-08

手抄页/行 第1册 P102-LL2 ~ P103-LL2　( 2016 南普陀版：第1册 P102-LL1 ~

手抄段落 这地方我不妨举一个简单的例子……说正以引导。

00:00

师父举了例子，大家可以听一下接下来师父所讲的。 00:10

这地方我不妨举一个简单的例子来说明一下，譬如说我们现在要到哪一个地方去——当然我们现在是要从凡夫地跑到佛地，那么这个都是精神上的、哲理上的──我们现在用一个眼前看得见的，事相上的这个比喻。譬如说：我到台南去。你可以走路，走路不要任何准备，反正你站起来就走了，不就行了嘛！你只要认得这条路，有人告诉你这个路怎么走，就这样。那么换句话说，有一个过来人告诉你怎么走，然后呢，指示给你这个方法，那个没有错，这两者够了，你不要其他准备的。

下面脚踏车，对不起！脚踏车就要准备准备啰，那个脚踏车过去的时候，上面嘛看看那煞车好不好，然后呢链条很久没有用，要加点油，哪一个地方等等，要一点准备。如果汽车的话，那准备更多，说前面这个冷却引擎的水，然后呢机油，然后呢汽油，然后轮胎里面的气足不足，你准备好了以后才行啊！如果是飞机的话那更严重，如果准备不够的话，不动满好，一动出起毛病来，到那个时候的话性命交关。尽管已经有一个人告诉你怎么走，然后这个路也告诉你清清楚楚，如果你不准备好的话，出毛病喔！这是千真万确的事实！

所以我们现在，有很好心学佛的人，也有圆满的教法，我现在所体会到的就是第三点。所以关于第三点真实内容，你们慢慢地下去自然会了解，为什么这么重要，实在是太重要、太重要！最后呢有了前面这个样样准备好了，那个时候就开始了，说正以引导。02:13

问大家一下，师父举了几个例子？走路、骑脚踏车、汽车，然后是开飞机。但是我问大家，师父说：“有一个过来人告诉你怎么走，然后呢，指示给你这个方法，那个没有错，这两者够了，你不要其他准备的。”是不是走路不要准备？“不要其他准备”和“不要准备”是不是同一个问题？所以那就是还要准备，只不过是不要其他准备。因为你不用准备自行车、不用准备汽车，但是关于走路的一切你还是要准备的。我不知道师父这是从哪里要到台南去，是不是很远？很远的话，要准备水吧！可能要准备吃东西，还是要准备。所以说“不要其他准备”不是不准备，而是不要其他的准备。03:16

在这一段的时候，我不知道大家听完注意点会在哪里？会不会说：“自行车代表什么样呀？脚踏车代表什么？汽车代表什么？飞机又代表什么？”你们会不会在想这个？那么我们要走的路是从哪里去哪里呢？从凡夫地到佛地。大家如果看到这些交通工具的话，当然会选坐飞机，对不对？如果是我们所有的人都选坐飞机的话，师父说：不动还满好的，如果准备不够的话，一动就出毛病了，到那个时候是性命交关。尽管已经有一个人告诉你怎么走了，然后这个路也告诉你清清楚楚，如果不准备好的话，就出毛病！师父说：这是千真万确的事情！04:10

大家都要问说：那飞机是什么？汽车是什么？脚踏车是什么？走路是什么？我想问：无论是走路，还是脚踏车、还是汽车、还是飞机，请问要准备什么？这些都是个譬喻，让我们注意力放在“准备什么”。请问：对于我们要从凡夫地到佛地的人来说，我们到底要准备什么呢？是不是准备那个往往忽略掉了，师父说这一点是非常重要、非常重要的，是“准备”那件事吧？那件事到底是什么呢？现在有在心里明现吗？04:52

接着师父总结说：“我们现在有很好心学佛的人，也有圆满的教法，我现在”，师父说“我”的时候，那个音档记得吧？顿了一下，“我”！“现在所体会到的就是第三点。”请问第三点是什么？那个科判，记得吧？“如何讲闻二种殊胜相应正法”，就是这个！怎么样讲、怎么样听。当有了一个心想要去学佛，也遇到了圆满的教法之后，注意！重点居然在这里！大家想一想。师父说：“我现在所体会到的就是第三点”，这一点是告诉我们什么呢？就是这一点上要用功夫！05:50

接着说：关于第三点的真实内容，慢慢下去自然会了解为什么这么重要，师父先说了一个为什么重要，然后接着说：“实在是太重要、太重要！”那一定是怎么样讲、怎么样听。对于很多同学来说，对我自己也是，怎么样听是非常重要的。那么怎么样听法，透过这一段文字的了解之后，大家会觉得：“哎呀，怎么样听这件事太重要了！”会生起这样的决断吗？还是在疑惑：“怎么样听有那么重要吗？”为什么师父要用这么多太重要了、太重要了，实在太重要了，用这么多强调的词来形容？而且还直接说：“我现在所体会到的就是第三点！”06:46

这一小段对于老学员来说，如果已经学了好几轮了，那么最重要的事情有没有平常往往疏忽呢？就是怎么样听法。比如说思惟闻法胜利、听法的那几个轨则，有没有疏忽呢？不检查则已，一检查应该看到到处都是疏忽！如果这一层疏忽了，往后推的话，我们听法的受用一定会被影响的。07:15

那么听了师父今天的这一段话之后，虽然现在不是正在讲“听闻轨理”，但是我想问大家：师父为什么在解释科判的时候，就用这么长一个篇幅解释“如何讲闻两种殊胜相应正法”？07:31

其实我们听《广论》的时候，慢慢会发现，重要的问题师父会在整本《广论》里不停地讲、不停地讲。就像我以前问师父，我说：“师父，供养三宝的问题、集资粮的问题不是已经讲过了，为什么还要再讲？”师父就说：“唉！真如啊，我们都是凡夫啊！讲完之后，做一段时间就忘了，要嘛就疏忽了，所以要再提醒一下！”对于今天这节课师父在此处对我们的提醒，诸位是否会想把它放在心上？对师父这么重视的事情——师父这么有修行，尚且这么重视这件事情——我想问大家：师父难道不会讲法吗？不会听法吗？为什么这样一位高僧，还要在第三点上说“我现在所体会到的就是第三点”？为什么还要用这么重的槌在打这一点？ 08:28

对于过来人讲给我们的这一点，大家是否会在心里边锁定一下、思考一下：“为什么我生不起来觉得这点很重要？”或者“我修学这么多年，觉得自己进步不是那么理想......”我们会想一堆问题，通常都会想“我业障重”，但是具体是什么业障重就没有去分析了。08:53

我们不重视师父所说的第三点，是不是业障重呢？是没有听清楚？还是听清楚了之后不能持之以恒、缺乏毅力？还是常常想走捷径，不注意具体操作的那些心灵的思想上的步骤？还是总是好高骛远想要跑后面的？前边的一忽略之后，后面的全部都虚掉了。到底是什么？ 09:22

我想问大家：今天听了这一小段，有没有发现师父还是在治疗我们的修行的毛病啊？我们用全部的心力一直朝后跑，但是师父常常说：如果不重视“听法轨理”的话，听了很多很多，受用堪虑呀！对不对？09:46

所以关于这节课，我希望大家能够总结到一点：有一件事从一开始到中间、到最后都需要重视，就是怎么样把自己的听闻轨理练习到如经论所讲的那样。如果听闻轨理不常加练习的话，我们终究是用原来的习惯在听闻。而听闻佛法有它整套的规矩、一个流程，一旦你不按照这个流程去做的时候，就像一个手术室的医生进手术室没有把手洗干净、没有消好毒，那紧接着是可能碰到他就活不过来了！10:27

这个流程有多重要呢？攸关着整个修行的成败！整个修行的成败，意味着我们这一生能不能成功。所以师父用了这么多重点的话来敲醒我们，我们是否能够听到师父提醒我们的话？听是有听了，有听到吗？有听到内心深处吗？有生出决断力，想要重视怎么听法吗？10:54

希望这节课研讨完了之后，停下来想一想。等到下一次再开始研讨的时候，哪怕用几分钟的时间思惟一下闻法胜利，你再看一看整节课的听闻会不会非常不一样？因为佛法是最不怕实践的，你越实践越发现这里边讲的都是真的；你不实践的话，反而觉得怎么会没有离苦呢？怎么会没有效应呢？所以，非常期待大家能够把今天师父讲的这个提醒认认真真、清清楚楚地听到耳朵里，要走心！要去实践它！11:39