Faith,Understanding & Practice

Week of July 25, 2004

Two weeks ago, we talked about faith.

Faith in Buddhism is something that comes from within, believing that:

1) All sentient beings have Buddha nature;
2) I, myself, also have Buddha nature and will attain Buddhahood someday if I start to and keep on practicing;
3) All sentient beings can attain Buddhahood someday.

This faith means believing in yourself and believing in the Buddha nature within you, not on any external entity or outside force.

Last week we talked about understanding.

Understanding is to know what and how we are doing. What is Buddha nature? How do we realize it? How do we ascertain that doing what we are doing will lead us to the Bodhi path? Why do we meditate? How will meditation lead to enlightenment? There are numerous questions one may ask. It is through this mode of questioning and investigating that we develop wisdom.

Without the urgent desire to question and find the answers, what we understand is just knowledge. But through this mode of training (Hua Yen training) and the quest for the Truth, our understanding is internalized and becomes a part of us, not just external, intellectual knowledge.

This week we talked about practice.

There are two aspects of practice:

1) The technical aspect – the actual training through meditation, recitation of Buddha’s names, copying of the sutra, reciting mantras etc.
2) The application – the skills/concentration/mindfulness that we develop from the technical aspect and applied to daily life.

Take meditation as an example:

Sitting with the Vairocana’s seven position meditation posture will lead to the improvement of bodily health which in turn leads to better concentration.

The counting of the breaths trains our observation and awareness, which also in turn leads to better concentration.

The two together lead us to better physical and mental health so we can further develop our concentration and finally wisdom.

But the mindfulness or awareness that we develop has to be applied in our daily lives. We need to talk, walk, eat, think and even sleep with awareness or mindfulness. This awareness has to become part of us again. We need to awaken to the awareness of our own Buddha nature that has been with us all along but has been hidden from our view. To do that successfully we need faith, understanding and practice.