Appendix E: Learning from Buddha Homework
Reposted from Thus Have I Seen by Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche p.296-301
In Learning from Buddha, the Buddha Master told us that we should reflect on what we had learned from the Buddha when we first woke up every morning, mid-day, and before we went to bed to see just how well our three karmas of thinking, speaking, and acting had corresponded with those of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We should look at what we had done well and vow to repeat that and explore what we had done wrong and vow never to do that again. To help us achieve that, we added the most critical teachings to our chant book and repeated them every day at our morning and evening services along with praises to certain Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the concluding dedication of merit to all living beings in the six realms of samsara. Some are included here. Not included are those various hymns of praise to certain Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as well as chants or dharmas that have not yet been published in English including the “Seven Joint Preliminary Practices” and “The Xiaman Most Excellent Oceanic Mind-Essence” from the Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation. These should also be included when they are available. The translation used for the following is shown in parentheses after the title.
Refuge Vows (Certificate of Taking Refuge & Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra)
I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the Dharma
I take refuge in the Sangha
The Four Vows (Certificate of Taking Refuge)
Defilements are countless; I vow to put an end to them.
Dharma methods are limitless; I vow to learn them.
Living beings are innumerable; I vow to save them.
Buddhahood is unsurpassable; I vow to realize it.
Contemplation of Impermanence (True Stories about a Holy Monk)
All conditional phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, morning dew, or a flash of lightning.
All sentient beings will definitely die.
All inanimate things will definitely perish.
This principle also applies to my body, which is composed of the four great elements.
I will be separated from my family and friends one day.
Time is pushing my age forward, early youth is followed by the robust years of life, which is followed by old age, which is followed by death.
Sounds or flowing water never return after they are gone.
The thoughts and words of this very moment have already become impermanent.
I will come closer and closer to death.
Death has no set time to it.
I could go to the next world at any moment simply because my breathing stops.
I can take no worldly possessions whatsoever with me to the next world.
These principles apply to my very own body.
I am intent upon leaving the cycle of reincarnation.
The Three Groups of Purifying Precepts (Certificate of Taking Refuge & Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra)
I vow to cut off all evil within me. There will be no evil that I will not cut off.
I vow to practice all types of goodness. There’ll be no type of goodness I will not practice.
I vow to save all living beings. There’ll be no living being that I will not save.
The Eight Fundamental Right Views (“What Is Cultivation?”)
Impermanence,
Firm Belief,
Renunciation,
True Vows,
Diligence,
Precepts,
Dhyana and Samadhi, and
Bodhicitta.
Great Compassion-All Living Beings as My Mother (“What Is Cultivation?”)
Understanding who my mother is,
Bearing in mind kindness,
Repaying kindness,
Practicing loving-kindness,
Demonstrating compassion,
Renouncing greed, and
Eliminating attachment.
Bodhisattva Correspondence Bodhicitta (“What Is Cultivation?”)
Self and others are equal
Exchange between self and others
Benefit others before self
Dedicating merit,
Fearlessly protecting the Dharma,
Effectively leading others to correct practice, and
Renouncing myself to help others build good karma.
Ten Good Characteristics (Certificate of Taking Refuge & Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra)
No killing, free captive living beings,
No stealing, perform charity,
No sexual misconduct, practice chastity,
No speaking falsely, speak truth,
No trivial chit-chat or ornate, lewd, or inappropriate speech; do straight talk,
No speaking divisively, bring about peace & accord,
No speaking harshly, use gentle words,
No lust or greed, hold correct view,
No anger, have benevolence and compassion, and
No ignorance, rather know everything is a matter of causes & conditions.
Four Limitless or Immeasurable States of Mind (Certificate of Taking Refuge & Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra)
Loving-kindness,
Compassion,
Sympathetic Joy, and
Non-differentiating Generosity.
The Six Paramitas (Certificate of Taking Refuge & Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra)
Be generous, overcome greed,
Keep precepts, overcome violations,
Endure insults, overcome hate and anger,
Be energetic, overcome laziness,
Be concentrated, overcome disorder,
Develop prajna, overcome ignorance.
Seven Joint Preliminary Practices (Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation)
The Xiaman Most Excellent Oceanic Mind Essence (Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation) You may join us at the temple in a guided meditation using a preliminary translation of this mind-essence at our Sunday Service that starts at 6:00 am on Zoom every week. The link to the session can be found in my weekly BLOG at www.zhaxizhuoma.org.
Cutting off the Twenty Dharmas Relating to Ordinary Feelings (Dharma Discourse given on the “Trip to the East Coast”)
I will cut off ordinariness and enter holiness.
I will discard and not be attached to any of the twenty dharmas of ordinary feelings including:
Fame, Gain, Prosperity, Decline, Good fortune, Gladness, Increase, Decrease, Antipathy, Resentment, Anger, Hatred, Scheming, Defamation, Seizing, Harming, Illness, Suffering, Parting, and Death.
The Wrongs of Others Are My Wrongs (Dharma Discourse given on the “Trip to the East Coast”)
The wrongs of others are my wrongs.
To regard others and yourself as one is great compassion.
A true cultivator regards the mistakes of others as his own mistakes.
Do not talk about the wrongs of others.
Do not make known your meritorious deeds.
Speaking of your meritorious deeds shows your dark karma.
Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra (Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra)
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the prajna-paramita, illuminated the five aggregates, saw that they are all empty, and crossed beyond all suffering and adversity.
Sariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form.
Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.
The same is true of feeling, conceptualization, volition, and consciousness.
Sariputra, emptiness is the characteristic of all dharmas.
They do not arise or perish, are not defiled or pure, do not increase or decrease.
Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, conceptualization, volition, or consciousness;
no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind;
no forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, or mental phenomena;
no realm of eyes, up to and including no realm of mind consciousness;
no ignorance and also, no ending of ignorance, up to and including no old age and death and also no ending of old age and death;
no suffering, no accumulation, no cessation, and no path; no wisdom, also no attainment.
With nothing to be attained, therefore, the Bodhisattvas rely on prajna-paramita, and thus their minds have no hindrance.
Because there is no hindrance, they have no fear.
Having forever left inverted dream-thinking, they dwell in ultimate nirvana.
All Buddhas of the three times rely on prajna-paramita and thereby attain anuttara-samyak-sambhodi.
Therefore, know that prajna-paramita is the great supernormal mantra, the great bright mantra, the supreme mantra, the unequaled mantra, which can remove all suffering and is true, not false.
So recite the prajna-paramita mantra, recite the mantra that says:
gate gate paragate parasamgate
bodhi svaha.
The chant book also includes the following dharmas: the “Tashi Tsigpa (Verses of the Eight Auspicious Ones)” in English, Spanish, and Tibetan; the “Great Compassion Mantra (Mahakaruna Dharani)” in Chinese/Sanskrit; “Gatha on Opening the Sutra”; The “Prajna-Paramita Heart Sutra” in Chinese/ Sanskrit; the “Heart Mantra of Kuan Yin Bodhisattva”; more detailed “Refuge Vows”; “Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s Verse of Exhortation”; Vajrasattva’s “One-Hundred-Character Bright Mantra”; and the “Wish-Fulfilling Mantra”.