Grand Master Lu`s Dharma talk (summary) after Saturday Group Practice
聖尊週六同修接續講解六祖壇經
六祖說:「當用大智慧,打破五蘊煩惱塵勞。如此修行,定成佛道,變三毒為戒定慧。」
Wield paramount wisdom
Break the five aggregates, worries, defilement
Cultivate thusly
Assures Buddhahood
To transform three poisons to precept, concentration, and wisdom.
The Five Aggregates are form, feeling, thinking, volition, and consciousness. The defilements - derivation from the six roots of sensation ?eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and creating six defilements ?sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and idea. The six defilements make people feel troubled and distressed. If you can use prajna to break and remove the Five Aggregates and all afflictions and defilements, you will realize the Buddhahood. You will possess great wisdom and transform your greed, hatred and ignorance to precepts, concentration and wisdom.
Three poisons include greed, hatred and ignorance. You are greedy because you are unenlightened. When you are in adverse circumstances, you become angry and therefore are possessed by hatred. You are ignorant when you have no wisdom.
Greed can be the excessive desire for food, sleep, fame, money and sex. Hinayana Buddhism center on precepts. Monks and nuns can㦙 touch money, can㦙 make eye contact with the opposite sex, can㦙 speak with the opposite sex for more than five sentences, can㦙 get close to the opposite sex, can㦙 think about fame, can㦙 eat the five spices, can㦙 eat after noon and can㦙 sleep lying down.
Tolerance is part of cultivation. If you master your thoughts and behavior, you are free from fixation. You have successfully removed the five aggregates. If you have done that, then precepts and commandments have no effect on you. If you have not yet attained self-mastery, then you have to abide by the precepts.
Using paramount wisdom is Prajna. Prajna is attained when you see your own Buddha nature and awaken.
We have a disciple who chanted the Root Guru mantra eight million times. She saw Three Sages of the Western Paradise - Amitabha Buddha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, emerge before her. When she leaves this world, the Three Sages will undoubtedly appear and receive her into the Maha Twin Lotus Pond.
Translated by: TBTT
Summarized and Proofread by Reverend Liang Xsing and Angela Yeh, Edited by Morgan Chiu