Comprehension

What comes after one generates faith and confidence? One next has to achieve `comprehension.` Comprehension involves contemplation, analytical thinking and understanding.

Generally the monks advise one to go and read the sutras. They say, `Go and study the sutras! Go and turn the sutras around!` Does the studying of sutras offer any benefits? Of course they offer some benefits. Many people are able to eventually experience this: when they open the scriptures, they can see Buddha Shakyamuni and Kuan Yin Bodhisattva emerging from the sutras. This happens when one deeply penetrates the sutras and enters into the realm wherein the Buddha manifests to directly expound the sutras to one. Many people, however, read the sutras perfunctorily! They just casually read over them. They will read and chant the Diamond Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, the Article of Universal Gateway from the Lotus Sutra, the Ksitigarbha Original Vow Sutra and any other kind of sutra! But when you ask them if they know what the essences of the sutras are, they say, `I don`t know! I am only chanting!` [laughter] That is like playing a record! [laughter] Why? The record just spins around. In such chanting, one has not used one`s heart or mind to comprehend the sutras.

`Comprehension` means understanding the scriptures and this understanding is known as the `Enlightened Wisdom.` We study the sutras today so we can understand their meanings, which entails a deep penetration and not just a superficial reading. What does `turning the sutras around` mean? Does it mean holding the sutra in hand and turning it around? Or does it mean the turning of the prayer wheel in the style of the Tibetans who spin the prayer wheel with each recitation? It means neither. It means that one has become a living proof of the teachings of the sutras. One has turned one`s normal activities and the sutra into one inseparable state of being. This is what `turning the sutra around` means. A skillful adept can truly enter into the state of being of the sutras. If it snows outside, he can sit upon the snow and start floating and gliding with the snowflakes. When he thirsts, he can hide himself under the stamens and pistils of flowers to drink from their water. When the flowers sway with the wind, the adept can hide himself inside the flower to sip from its nectar. He can also sit upon the snowflake and float along with the other snowflakes. In reading the sutras, the adept has reached the state of merging his body and mind with the wind and can thus sail up and down just as the wind does. This state of being is a kind of free and liberating state. Only when one is able to read the sutras and enter into a state of union, to open up a more expansive consciousness, and to become as free as the world of Nature, can it be considered as `penetration into the treasury of the sutras` or `comprehension.`

As Buddhist believers, what exactly is it that we believe in? We believe in the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni. In penetrating into the treasury of the sutras taught by the Buddha, we obtain his teachings. Then the next step is to practice his teachings, to become one with the Buddha, and to attain sovereignty and transcendental powers just like the Buddha. Isn`t one also the Buddha? This is a kind of `comprehension` in practicing Buddhism. That is why we go to listen to Dharma teachings. You have come to hear me talk about the Dharma, you have come to be close to the disseminator of true knowledge and to obtain the true Buddhadharma. When you acquire a tacit understanding of the teachings, the teachings will become yours ?this is why we go to listen to Dharma teachings. After viewing `A Complete and Detailed Exposition on the Basic True Buddha Tantric Dharma,` the knowledge becomes yours. You only spend US $60 ?$80 to obtain the knowledge, and you can verify this when you practice the liturgy accordingly.

To `comprehend` is to penetrate deeply into the Buddhadharma. Therefore one has to listen to the Dharma teachings, to read the scriptures and to contemplate their meanings. The three steps in the learning of the Buddhadharma are: Hearing (exposure), Contemplation, and Practice. To hear, to contemplate, and finally to practice and verify one`s learning. When one is able to contemplate and understand the meaning in the sutras, one attains the wisdom of the sutras. Simply put, this is `comprehension.`

In this first talk of An Overview of the Buddhadharma, I have talked about `Faith,` `Impermanence,` and `Comprehension.` Regarding `Comprehension,` it is very important to attend more talks given by Dharma masters and sages. One must study scriptures and read the sutras. To penetrate into the treasury of the sutras, one has to ponder and deeply contemplate their meanings. `Comprehension` is when one is able to tacitly understand the meanings. Implicit in the term `Comprehension` is Hearing (exposure) and Contemplation.

In these several days, I shall be teaching to you a synopsis of the Buddhadharma. These are important teachings that I have gleaned from my Buddhist knowledge. They are also what I have contemplated on and understood. Take time to slowly understand and experience these Dharma teachings, and you will be able to achieve a spiritual response. After achieving a spiritual response, continue to follow your faith and to practice it, you will then receive great empowerments and blessings from many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Your consciousness will expand and you will achieve great accomplishments. These are the simple teachings on my first day of discourse.

Om Mani Padme Hum.