Universal Door Chapter Lecture 10 — Dispel the Three Poisons and the Patience Mantra

Lectured by Rev. Heng Sure on June 4, 2021

(Dharma Master Heng Sure opens up playing and singing, Guan Yin Bodhisattva)

ending with Namo Guan Shi Yin Pusa.

Good morning everyone, good afternoon, good evening everybody! This is Reverend Heng Sure and today is Saturday the 5^th of June – very chilly winter morning here in the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. And it’s good to have cold mornings because it sets the fruit and it prepares for the Spring to come. I guess that’s good, so we appreciate the cold for the time that it is. It wouldn’t be a year without a cold winter so we’re in it and grateful. We’re here to look into the Flower Garland…no we’re not, that’s tomorrow! We’re here to look into the Dharma Flower Sutra because it has the “Hua” 「華」and we confused the Lotus with the Avatamsaka, so…today is the turn of the Lotus Sutra, the Universal Door Chapter/the Universal Gateway Chapter, Guan Yin Bodhisattva. So, if that’s what you’ve come to join, you are in the right place and let’s get started. We have a Dharma Request that happens in the beginning before we begin here, before starting our lecture. Today’s Dharma Requester is An Le from San Jose.

So I’m going to ring the bell here, Dharma hand bell. We’ll ring it three times and make three half bows from where I’m sitting and then invite An Le to do the request for us. Here we go.

(Dharma Master Heng Sure rings the bell three times)

(Dharma Master Heng Sure rings the bell) First bow.

(Dharma Master Heng Sure rings the bell) Second bow.

(Dharma Master Heng Sure rings the bell) Third bow.

Ok An Le, do you want to do the Dharma Request? I’m ready.

[An Le] Amituofo! An Le 請法

恭請大德僧聽，

Gōng qǐng dà dé sēng tīng,

為此法會及一切眾生.

wèi cǐ fǎ huì jí yī qiè zhòng shēng.

請轉妙法輪教導我們，

qǐng zhuǎn miào fǎ lún jiào dǎo wǒ men,

如何了生脫死離苦得樂，

rú hé liǎo shēng tuō sǐ lí kǔ dé lè,

速證無生。

sù zhèng wú shēng.

Will the Sangha with great virtue,

Out of compassion,

For the sake of this assembly

And all living beings,

Please turn the wonderful Dharma-wheel,

To teach us how to leave suffering,

And attain bliss,

And end birth and death and

Quickly realize non-birth.

[Rev. Heng Sure]

Namo Tassa Bhagavato, Arahato, Samma Sambuddhassa

[An le Bo]

Namo Tassa Bhagavato, Arahato, Samma Sambuddhassa

[Rev. Heng Sure]

Homage to the Blessed, Noble, and Perfectly Enlightened One

[An le Bo]

Homage to the Blessed, Noble, and Perfectly Enlightened One

[Rev. Heng Sure]

南無薩怛他

Na mo Sa Dan Tuo

蘇伽多耶

Su Qie Duo Ye

阿喇訶帝

E La He Di

三藐三菩陀寫

San Miao San Pu Tuo Xie

[An le Bo]

南無薩怛他

Na mo Sa Dan Tuo

蘇伽多耶

Su Qie Duo Ye

阿喇訶帝

E La He Di

三藐三菩陀寫

San Miao San Pu Tuo Xie

[Rev. Heng Sure]

開經偈

Kāi jīng jì

無上甚深微妙法

Wú shàng shèn shēn wéi miào fǎ

百千萬劫難遭遇

bǎi qiān wàn jié nàn zāo yù

我今見聞得受持

Wǒ jīn jiàn wén dé shòu chí

願解如來真實義

yuàn jiě rú lái zhēn shí yì

Verse for Opening a Sutra

Supreme and wondrous Dharma, subtle and profound,

Rarely is encountered,

Throughout billions of eons;

But now we see it, hear it and accept it reverently;

May we truly understand the Buddha’s actual meaning.

Alright, appreciate the Dharma Request. An Le, Thank you so much. We are now ready.

[An Le] Amituofo 阿彌陀佛感恩法師阿彌陀佛！

[Rev Heng Sure] 阿彌陀佛，好。

So, you know what we got today? We are into Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s ability to dispel the three kinds of poisons. And, so that everybody has a chance to hear the Sutra today, we have provided you with a translation into Vietnamese and also a translation into Mandarin. So, what you do is if you want to hear a Vietnamese translation, go to the chat box on your control panel—Zoom gives you a control panel there—go to the chat, open it up and you’ll see a link to hear the Vietnamese translation. And, 如果大家想聽中國話/普通話翻譯，你們的控制板右手右下邊有按扭叫 “translate” 你就選擇「普通話/中文」你就可以聽到一口流利的國語。

Alright, also if anybody would like to take a turn at requesting Dharma, there’s a chance for you to do so; we’d like to invite you to request Dharma. And even if you can do one language, but not both, we can have somebody help you. So look again in the chat box and you’ll see instructions for what to do, who to email if you would like to be a Dharma Requester.

Ok, great. Moving right along here, hope everyone’s well. Here in the time of COVID, it is not a happy time to have a human body here in the world, but together, we are surviving and we are getting our shots. I’m lined up for my second shot at the end of July; there’s not that many spots available in Australia. Currently in Australia, the pressure of the virus is lighter than other parts of the world, so we’re doing better here in Australia.

Alright, let’s see here, moving on down, here’s our Fundamental Teacher, Founding Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha. Here is the Thousand-handed Thousand-eyed Guan Yin Bodhisattva that stands in the main Buddha Hall at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Here is Guan Yin Bodhisattva at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery with her pure vase, her 淨瓶 (Jìng píng) and her lotus branch, her 柳條 (Liǔ tiáo), and here’s where we begin.

(Sneeze mute the mic), I have a very sophisticated microphone here; it has a dedicated button for when you sneeze or cough, so you don’t have to cough into the ears of 71/72 listeners, that’s a very sanitary forward thinking microphone, very grateful!

We are scrolling down, it’s past the Seven Difficulties the Guan Yin Bodhisattva protects us against and all right I have, I’m gonna stop sharing my screen briefly and go to a, let’s see here, yes indeed all right, very grateful, talk about teamwork and people 發心 (Fā xīn) making a resolve to bring the dharma forward no matter how much, how difficult it might be, no matter how much personal effort is involved in their part, we have dharma friends who year after year compassionately put together the texts that we use during our lecture and here is a beautiful example. I’m going to close this and open that, there we go, indeed, yes all right, 感恩 (Gǎn ēn)，阿彌陀佛 (Amituofo), gonna share my screen once again.

Here we are, here is today’s text and it’s the same text as last week but because it’s talking about Three Different Poisons we decided to spread out these passages and include the one at the bottom of page 21.

So let’s do the Three Poisons first. It’ll be this passage right here. I am going to put my palms together, invite people to join me if you care to. Here we go:

若有眾生多於淫慾，常念恭敬觀世音菩薩，便得離欲；若多嗔恚，常念恭敬觀世音菩薩，便得離嗔；若多愚癡，常念恭敬觀世音菩薩，便得離癡。

ruò yǒu zhòng shēng duō yú yín yú cháng niàn gōng jìng guān shì yīn pú sà, biàn dé lí yù. Ruò duō chēn huì cháng niàn gōng jìng guān shì yīn pú sà, biàn dé lí chēn. Ruò duō yú chī cháng niàn gōng jìng guān shì yīn pú sà, biàn dé lí chī.

無盡意，觀世音菩薩有如是等大威神力，多所饒益，是故眾生常應心念。

Wújìn yì, guānshìyīn púsà yǒu rúshì děng dà wēi shénlì, duō suǒ ráo yì, shì gù zhòngshēng cháng yìng xīn niàn.

English goes like this:

“If any living being with weighty desires can constantly revere and keep in mind Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, his/her passions will subside.

If somebody with much anger can constantly revere and keep in mind Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, then his/her anger will subside.

If someone dull and foolish can constantly revere and keep in mind Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, he/she will leave stupidity behind.”

“Infinite Resolve! The Bodhisattva Who Listens to the Sounds of All the World, with her magnificent spiritual power, confers such abundant benefits as these. And so, living beings should always keep her in their hearts and hold her name in mind.”

Here we go with the right pronouns. Excellent! Excellent!

All right. Here is a Buddhist text. There are challenges to certain Buddhist texts mostly by scholars who do this sort of thing, dating and authenticating books that appear in a culture 2000 years ago. Scholars feel they have evidence to prove that, “it ain’t so, called fraudulent, called apocryphal 偽造. The Buddha didn’t ever speak it. My proof proves it, my evidence is the truth.” So, okay, scholars need to make a living as well.

Tradition tells us that Buddha Sutras either accord with principles or they don’t. You know the phrase, “Shakespeare’s plays were written by Shakespeare or by somebody else with the same name.” Indeed. It’s very hard to authoritatively verify authorship from thousands of years ago. So let’s look at tradition and say, if the Buddhist community, people who actually cultivate the Dharma can say for sure that this text over the centuries has brought liberation, awakening, freedom from suffering to thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people then for us to gain say that tradition and say, I’ve proved this. This text is not spoken by the Buddha. See here, my linguistic analysis tells me. So that is certainly a time-honoured livelihood. It may have nothing to say to the spiritual benefits of traditions affirming certain texts.

So what’s my rant? I am talking about, in the Lotus Sutra, this is often not the case that people are busy — sneeze one more time, hit the button here. The cold weather makes my nose run, we’re good.

The Lotus Sutra has by and large escaped the critique of being apocryphal. Most people will say that this is indeed a Mahayana Sutra. The question comes in, however, whether any of the Mahayana Sutras themselves are authentic and verifiable, and there are voices in the Buddhist community that will tell you otherwise. So happy to say the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 25, the Universal Gateway of Guan Yin Bodhisattva pretty much has escaped that attack. And if I say, the Buddha said, regarding this text, we can pretty much say, yep, everyone agrees. The Buddha wants us to know about Guan Yin Bodhisattva.

What does he say? I like it, I am happy that the Buddha here says people have greed in their minds. I like it because I experience it. The Buddha says people have anger and hatred in their minds, that’s not hard to prove. And the Buddha says people can be dull and foolish, and yes, indeed. I verify it. That is the case with myself. Feeling dull and foolish more or less, more or less on any given day.

So, how nice that the sutra says: “Yup, this is how we are, this is the truth of people; but there is a solution for people who recognize those poisons: greed, anger and delusion in the mind and say: I want to do some about it, I want to get rid of the, I want to chase those poisons from my mind. Guan Yin Bodhisattva says, the Buddha says: Guan Yin Bodhisattva has a method and in every case what does it say? Constantly revere and keep in mind Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, constantly revere and keep in mind Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, constantly revere and keep in mind Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva. Passions subside, anger subside leaves stupidity behind. Guan Yin Bodhisattva with magnificent spiritual power, confers abundant benefits like those. And so, we should always keep her in our hearts and hold her name in mind 常應心念 Guan Shi Yin Pusa. That’s the method.

So, this strikes me as a very helpful text, it’s like a doctor who does the diagnosis upon you either with pulse or with devices, medical instruments and says: “oh, you have this problem, what’s going on with you? And, furthermore, do this and you will get better.” And you go: “wow, good doctor, good medicine. I’m going to get well.” So, going to the doctor, having the doctor to go to is the first step and that’s the sutra and Guan Yin Bodhisattva. Recognizing that we are sick is an important part of the process, really wanting to get well, really wanting to recover and get back to 正常，to good health 健康. That’s a big part of it. Then learning there’re methods, finally applying the method; ah, we’ve got our solution. Now, there are “helping, what do they say? 「助道之法」Dharmas that aid the way” and a lot of what Master Hoa taught us at Gold Mountain Monastery, City of Ten Thousand Buddha was how to support the Dharma, how to take the Buddhist teaching and support it with daily practices.

So one of those practices is music and I wrote a song that well, it’s kind of they say 冒昧, it’s kind of brash of me to call it a mantra but I suggest we can use this song like a mantra and it’s a cure, I am proposing it as a cure for greed and here it is. We sing:

I have enough,

I am grateful,

Share the blessings,

Hallelujah!

May all be fed,

May all things flourish,

May all awaken!

Bodhi Svaha!

So I have enough, that’s like recognizing how we get well, oh, I am sick, oh I better find the doctor. First thing is when we have something. Let’s call water to drink, clean water to drink. We have clean water, we say, no, I actually have plenty of water. I don’t have to hoard water more than I need to calm my thirst, boil up some tea, water the plants, wash the dishes, flush the toilet. Plenty, a lot.

Furthermore, I know that that’s very special and I’m grateful in my heart. In my body, I have enough water. I am grateful in my heart for the water that I have. Furthermore, I look around and think, who could use some water? I would like to share the blessings that I have and then every good mantra needs a send off phrase, a magical phrase and one of the phrases in the tradition I grew up in, Christianity, is Hallelujah. Praise God, praise the source of all goodness, praise the Buddha nature.

Furthermore, we say we’re looking around, I have enough but I wanna be sure that everyone else has enough. May all be fed, I send out my wishes like a prayer, May all be fed. May all things wholesome flourish and grow, properly in season, just right. May all awaken, may all beings when their physical needs are meet, when things are flourished, May their spirits awaken. And here is our mantra end: Bodhi Svaha, in Sanskrit.

So that’s our song, and you recite it three times. Let’s give it an encouragement and put three times (made a note 3x on the mantra in the word document on the screen) and it works like a mantra. Sure enough, when I find greed rising in my mind, greedy desire I want this I want that. The one I have isn’t enough. I’m not satisfied with what I have. If I recite this mantra three times, oh boy, things change inside. And, it’s like yeah! I like what I got.

What I have is plenty. I want to share it. Hallelujah! May all be fed. May all things flourish, May all awaken! Bodhi Svaha!

And I want to give you an example. Story of children in India who worked on the farm where they were growing mangos. Oh man, they have so many mangos. So they came up with a way to share the mangoes with the local folks.

And, it’s right here. (referring to the screen). Just a moment. Haha! (searching for the right youtube video). Here we go, ready?

(Youtube video show the kids singing the following)

Title: I HAVE ENOUGH

I have enough,

I am grateful

Share the blessings,

Hallelujah!

May all be fed,

May all things flourish,

May all awaken!

Bodhi Svaha! (3x)

Thank you!! (video stopped)

These kids are in Oroville India, a very special place at the Depramam School and they’re expressing their gratitude to the team at Oro Orchard Farm who gifted thousands of mangoes to the community. So, let’s do it one more time. Let’s let the mantra work. Guarantee if you learn: I have enough, I am grateful. Share the blessings, Hallelujah! Things will change. The greed goes away. You will have a smile like you see the smile of these kids. Here we go. (Replayed the video showing the kids singing the mantra, “I have enough”)

I have enough,

I am grateful

Share the blessings,

Hallelujah!

May all be fed,

May all things flourish,

May all awaken!

Bodhi Svaha! (3x)

Thank you!! (video stopped)

Haha! I love it. Alright, in deed. There’s our mantra to counter greed.

So, what else does the sutra say? The Sutra says, here we go. If anybody has a lot of anger and constantly revere and keep in mind Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva then their anger will subside. Alright, I actually have another mantra. This is mantra counter angers. And where did that come from? It came from Master Hua. And, I was present when this exchange happened. So I am qualified to give you the accurate correct proper transmission of the patience mantra. Now, this is as we say, 助道之法, primarily 普門品 pu min pin is saying recite the name of Guan Yin Bodhisattva. Chant guan yin’s name and things change. Guan Yin Bodhisattva lends a hand. The situation before our eyes that we need relief from actually happens.

So, there are also supporting practices that give a boost to the primary method of 常念恭敬 Guan Yin Pusa. So remember, revering and keeping Guan Yin Bodhisattva name in mind. So let’s say we recite guan yin’s name and that anger still rises in our mind. So, we have a new different method that I want to share with everybody today that came from a friend of mine, Doug Powers, a friend of many of us who taught seventeen year olds at Berkeley High School and boy that’s a tough gig.

Seventeen year olds, seniors in high school. They’re not really adults, legally they’re not adults, emotionally they are not adults but their bodies are as big as adults. They are probably at their peak of health at age 17 but their emotional maturity hasn’t developed to control the things that they are feeling that are new and different. Everyday when they wake up in the morning, They said: “Ah, just different body, who am I this morning? I don’t know” cos they are different than yesterday. So, it’s hard to be a 17 year old and keep things on even keel. I remember, Oh! boy.

So, Doug for three decades at Berkeley High School was an expert at teaching and transforming, subduing, that’s really the word, subduing kids at that age of their development and so, he at the same time was tested, oh! So often by the big kids in the school, in his classes.

Doug and I both reached Gold Mountain Monastery at the same time back in 1972, 1973 and I remembered one day, Doug came in because he, his Chinese was still in the learning process, so he needed a translator so I went up to help him translate to Shifu. He had a real question and so, he said: “Shifu, shifu, yesterday this big kid in my class, I said alright, we gonna to read today from page 17 in our textbooks. The kid crossed his arm, spat on the floor, ‘deh!’, said: “huh, I didn’t train 这样子写, right, and Doug said: “Now, I have to admit, I felt some emotion rise, I felt some anger or frustration, irritation and it wanted to, ah, want em to put, you know, push this kid back into his seat cos he was standing up, disrupting class and I knew that as soon as I touch him, I would, might lose my job, I go in front of the Behaviour Board and he said, I, you know, furthermore, more importantly, I lose the respect of the class because as soon as the kids in the class know that I have shown them my button and where to push it, then it’s all over. I’ll lose their respect and I’ll have to face this kind of challenge every single day. So, I just said: “Alright, sit down your seat, we gonna keep going.”

And the kid walked out. He left the class and everybody knew in the class that it was a temporary victory but not a long term solution. Shifu, what do I do?” he said. So, Shifu said: “you came and asked me, it’s a good thing and I have a solution for you” he said. “I am going to teach you, the very first English language mantra” he said.”Are you ready?” and Doug said: “Ya, Shifu as long as it works.” So, Shifu said the following. Here we are. He said:

Patience,

Gotta Have Patience,

Don’t Get Angry

Suo Puo He!

Here it is, that’s the Patience Mantra. That’s the accurate, correct Patience Mantra and you will hear people give various versions of it but this is how Shifu gave it to Doug, called The Patience Mantra and he said: “Alright, let’s hear it.” and of course, he didn’t type it out, he just said it and Doug said: “Shifu, you only told me once, can you say it again?” Shifu goes: “Now, come on pay attention. here,

Patience,

Gotta Have Patience,

Don’t Get Angry

Suo Puo He!

and then what did he say? He said:

忍耐忍耐

需要忍耐

切莫生气

娑婆訶

I think that’s right, okay. The lock’s there, that works like that, just locks it. Okay,

忍耐忍耐

需要忍耐

切莫生气

娑婆訶

This is the Patience Mantra. The official Patience Mantra. And I am now transmitting it to all of you. So what do you do? How many times? You recite it as many times as needed. That’s how many times, not three times, not 10 times, 21 times, 108 times, you recite the Patience Mantra.

Patience,

Gotta have patience,

Don’t get angry

Suo Puo He!

忍耐忍耐

需要忍耐

切莫生气

娑婆訶

That’s it. Shrfu said, “Take that back to your classroom and try that”, and he said, “It will help you get past 過關 (Guòguān). “It’ll help you get over the crisis and you won’t have to get angry and, in this case, your class won’t lose respect for you,” he said. So Doug goes, “Uh, oh, okay Shrfu. I’ll try it because I believe in you. I have faith.” So Shrfu said, “Ah, good, good disciple.” So Doug’s story goes. This happened the very next day.

Doug went back to class and sure enough –because you got to be in school with the same kid, big, tall kid, taller than Doug, six foot four, 200 plus pounds — the kid mouthed off again and guess what happened? So two days later, Doug returned to Gold Mountain Monastery and I was there and he said, “Can you help me translate.” So we went up and he said, “Shrfu, Shrfu it worked. It really worked. It really worked!” He said, “This kid, the same one, decided he was going, he had luck before, so he’s coming back and what did he do? I said, “Okay everybody, take out your book, we’re gonna start. He said, “I ain’t doing,” And Doug said, “Oh, okay, uh.” He said, “I felt the anger rise but I remember, I didn’t consult my notebook. I had memorized it. I said, “Patience, patience, gotta have patience, don’t get angry, Suo Puo He! And it is funny,” he said. “Shrfu, the anger just melted away, and I said, “All right. I’ll tell you what? Uh, I’ll let you teach.” And Doug went and sat down at a desk. He said, “Go on,” he said, “You are already standing up. You like to talk after me. Why don’t you go ahead and teach?” The kid is 17 years old, he’s embarrassed. He doesn’t wanna lose face in front of all his friends. He sits down, he says, “Hell, I don’t know.” Oh, well, somebody got to teach. I guess it’s my turn. So Doug goes on and teaches the class. And he said, “Shrfu, that’s a wonderful, wonderful mantra,” He said, “Somehow the fire just went out. I didn’t have to get angry.”

So Shrfu said, “Now you see the value of patience”. He said that’s English language, mantra transmitted to in this country or any country, he said. So, first one in the west, he said: please anytime you feel you need to get angry he said: just recite the patience mantra and anger resides. So, this is a 助道法 (Zhù dào fǎ), this is a Dharma that aids the way. Of course, primary sutra said recite Guanyin Boddhisattva and all your troubles melt away.

So, ready , everybody ready together, we are going to learn today. Just learn when you need to, not to say you’re angry but you never know so have it on hand, ready: patience, patience, gotta have patience, don’t get angry, Suo Po He. Suo Po He is Svaha, just like the VegSource mantra “I have Enough”. Bodhi Svaha in Sanskrit. May all things be auspicious. And then kind of actually, kind of demonstrate, Shrfu went: “patience and patience, gotta have patience, have a little patience, don’t get angry, Suo Po he.”

So he add an alarm, and then Shrfu changed it up like that and next time he didn’t add that line, so by doing that, what he was showing me and Doug was that’s Mantra are intention the sound is there but it had to be slavish exactly; you want to be accurate but you attention its to be good so you can add a little patience or put it back, take it away: Patience, patience, gotta have patience, don’t get angry, Suo Po He, still meters the same way.

忍耐咒，講中國話的人要知道怎麼念。“忍耐忍耐，需要忍耐，切莫生氣，娑婆訶。” 聽得懂嗎？多念，需要多少次就念多少次。

How many times do you need to recite? You tell me when you feel your patience has transformed. The anger, that angry energy has gone, that’s when you can quit. So the thing is that greed rises slowly. Greed, you think, “Mmm, boy, look at that. That would be nice if I had that new one. Mine looks shabby; used a lot. That new one looks really good”. Or “More, I want more. I don’t have enough. Keep it for a rainy day,”. Instead of thinking, “Boy, that cookie that I had, the brownie that I had, so good, I want to share with others. Take this goodness and give it to others so they can be happy too”. That’s the cure for greed, but it rises slowly and the solution comes slowly.

Anger, on the other hand, woh, anger, just like Doug said, it kind of shoots off the spine, and you feel your stomach flip, feel your eyes get red, so you’ve got to train the mantra in advance so that your response to quick rising anger can’t be as fast as your anger itself. You’ve got to be ready to say:

Patience,

Gotta have patience,

Don’t get angry

Suo Puo He!

Have a little Patience,

Don’t get angry,

Suo Puo He!

(as many times as you need!)

That’s really good Mantra.

I’m so happy to be able to share that with people, because that’s an actual story, and that went on to become the famous Patience Mantra. I would explain that mantra in Taipei. I explained that mantra in Bejing. And I explained that mantra in Brussels. And people would laugh and go, “Yah, I could use that!”, or wife would say “All right, 老公, you learn this mantra”, tell their husband “I want you to learn this mantra”. So this is a very very helpful tool in English. How cool is that!

Then we also have Guan Yin Bodhisattva says “Someone dull and foolish can constantly revere and keep in mind Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva. That person will leave stupidity behind”. That’s the third of the poisons. So, believe it or not, it works like that. Namo Guan Shi Yin Pusa. And what is the stupidity that particularly is transformed by Guan Yin’s name? One of the worst ones is thinking that principle truth doesn’t apply to you. “The Buddha’s not watching.” “I can get away with it just this once.” “I’ll test the Buddha.” “I’ll test Guan Yin. I’ll test on you and see if they’re watching.” “I’ll stretch the truth a little bit.” “Doesn’t really matter this time.” That is stupidity. That’s confusion. That’s not necessarily dull but it’s thinking you’re smarter than principle. And the biggest awareness that I had was when Shrfu said to me “you still think the Buddha’s like a cop who’s gonna bust you if he catches you telling a lie?”. And oh man, this is like a dash of cold water. That’s really the way I had even as a monk. I had still externalized the precepts. I’d still put the precepts outside me and figured that they didn’t see me so I’m safe. The Buddha didn’t catch me and just by Shrfu for pointing that out, something opened in my mind, when I heard him say that. He said you still don’t understand how compassionate the Buddha and Guan Yin really are. They’re on your side. They’re just waiting for you to wake up.

With that comment by Shrfu, what happened was it was as if the precepts and the Dharma switched places with me. Before, I was looking at them kind of across the circle like an opposition and they switched. And suddenly I realized that they live behind our eyes, you could

say. Where the score is kept whether or not I did, indeed tell a lie, is inside me. I’m the one who does the deed. I’m the one who gets the reward or retribution. It doesn’t concern anybody else at all. And Guan Yin is just right beside us waiting for us to pick it up and to do it. And whether or not I did, tell the truth or tell a lie or steal or be generous or get angry and shout or be patient, I am the one who knows, the score is kept unerringly, absolutely accurately, right behind my eyes, right in my heart, in my head, in my 心 (Xīn). I am the scorekeeper. And Shrfu’s comment, you know, you still don’t recognize how compassionate Guan Yin and the Buddha really are. They’re your friends, they are on your side. They can’t do it for you but they want you to do it. So recite 常念恭敬 (Cháng niàn gōngjìng) revere and keep in mind the name of Guan Yin Bodhisattva and right in that place where the score is kept, where somebody, me or someone, knows whether or not I told a lie or told the truth that need to cover, and all the work it takes to tell a falsehood, to cover up my true motive, whatever it is, that just melts away. And Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s light and vows and energy and goodness fills that place. It’s just like waking up from a dream, you know, “oh, man, that was just a dream.” In fact, telling the truth makes everything start right. It’s got a proper beginning. Instead of, “oh, I fudged the truth. Now I have to check and cover and see who knows, who heard that lie so I can cover it,” oh my, indeed, indeed.

So,

The foundation of this practice, this education, let’s call it, call it a religion? Yeah, it’s a religion but it’s a teaching, it’s an education. The basis of this is a new understanding of the human mind and its capacity, its abilities and its power.

The Methodism that I grew up with, that has so many benefits, such a wholesome faith, doing good, helping people. that practice of Methodism doesn’t go into the mind the way the Dharma does. And I know my mom was so concerned that her son followed and believed in a different teaching than hers. In fact, I hadn’t. When I walked out of the Christian Church and started to meditate and started to be a vegetarian, I actually left when I was about 16 years old. Sunday school’s stories couldn’t hold me and the first couple times I actually meditated intentionally. Crossed my legs, followed my friend David who was teaching me Zazen, and I had read Buddhist books, D.T. Suzuki, and Philip Kapleau, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, all of the Tao Te Ching itself, the Sixth Patriarch Sutra, I’d already touched them, I’d read them as a young boy, mid teens, but I hadn’t actually touched my mind. That’s kind of left brain knowledge, I was conceptually in there but the experience of my heart, my brain, my 心 (Xīn), my consciousness settling and dropping and purifying, that waited for me to actually meditate. As soon as I meditated, I realized, there is a big part of my life I have not explored, I have not looked into my mind. I haven’t had that experience yet. And why I kind of inarticulate trying to describe it was because it was not limited to language. I didn’t have to convince anyone else. In fact, trying to find the words to convince someone else, that what I was doing was right and what they were doing was wrong and they should do it the way I did it because this is right. And my story, there wasn’t a story to the meditation experience, that was what was different.

I sat down, crossed my legs and was quiet, words and language fell away. And the story surrounding this experience was not the important part. The important part was the transformations going on in my mind. And I felt, clearly, I felt more integrated. Integral. I was more apeace. And more at peace than ever before. It was not part of language. How much less was it something I could go out and teach you that or tell you that my story was better. “Ah, so and so died on the cross and could his precious blood wash away my sin, you know.” That wasn’t part of the meditation experience.

And I had the feeling that something opened inside. It was as if my, if my life was a mansion, was a house – I had a whole new floor to explore. I just added a storey to my house, of my life. And there was an invitation to go explore it. And I will say, once I meditated, the texts that I read – the Sixth Patriarch Sutra for example – which I’d already discovered. That text came alive as never before.

So how wonderful to realize that meditation illuminated the sutras. And then once I had meditation, the sutras explained the meditation. The sutras showed me the floor plan of this new storey that I had added, s-t-o-r-e-y. Like the new floor, 13th floor, 14th floor of my house. Of my life. So that it opened up a whole new wing, let’s use that word. A whole new wing on the house of my life. And invited me to explore and said, “oh look over here”. Here’s this room and the light would come in this way. Very much like getting, turning the lights on in a house. Ah, now I can see.

So the sutras and the meditation supported each other. And I will tell you that that’s my understanding of what it means when it says if you can constantly keep revered and keep in mind Guan Yin Bodhisattva, even if you start out dull and foolish, you can leave stupidity behind. That was my experience and it wasn’t in this case. It wasn’t reciting Guan Yin’s name. I didn’t know who Guan Yin Bodhisattva was when I first started to meditate.

But it was the practice of still contemplation. We were calling it Zazen back then. But it’s “坐禪” and the body doing “坐禪” or doing “打坐” Zazen, it’s in the same body, same mind. So let’s cross our legs and then recite the name of Guan Yin Bodhisattva and get all the benefits of the Dharma. Hallelujah 莎婆诃.

Already, so next week we have a remarkable amazing story talking about the “滿二求” , Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s fulfilling two kinds of wishes. One of those wishes is a wish for a son. Another of those wishes is a wish for a daughter. And that’s part of the “普门品”. Who would think, who would think that Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s compassion would extend to childless couples who long for offspring, who have not been successful? What a cool system of faith and belief in practice. Indeed, indeed. Alright we made it and my drippy nose stopped dripping. My sneezy nose stopped sneezing and it’s just the weather, that’s all. And I’m delighted to be here with all of you. To be able to look into Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s 普门品, Universal Door Chapter.

We have a mantra here which we’ve looked at. What we’ve looked at “I have enough, I am grateful. Share the blessing, hallelujah. May all be fed, May all things flourish. May all awaken, bodhi svaha.” We, that’s the No greed mantra, the antidote to greed. We had the Patience mantra. “Patience, patience , gotta have patience. Don’t get angry, suo po he. 忍耐忍耐，需要忍耐，切莫生气, 莎诃，莎婆诃.”

But we’re going to teach one more mantra today and that is Medicine Buddha’s mantra 药师佛. Mantra for anointing the crown on the head, 灌頂真言 (Guàndǐng Zhēnyán), which is a mantra of healing and in a time of pandemic, COVID-19 and its many variants around the world. In Taiwan there’s lots of suffering. In Malaysia, lockdown. In Melbourne, Victoria Australia there’s a lockdown. South East Asia, India, Nepal, suffering with disease.

Let’s recite this mantra and let the vibes, the goodness of Medicine Buddha go out around the world as far as our minds can reach. That’s how effective the mantra can be and if our minds are quiet, if our minds are really quiet, then the energy can travel. There’s no limit, no border how far that mantra can go. Alright so let’s recite, transfer the merit with Medicine Buddha’s mantra (banjo music).

Om namo bhagavate bhaisajyaguru

Vaidurayaprabharajaya tathagataya

Arhate samyaksambuddhaya tadyatha: om

Bhaisajye bhaisajye bhaisajya samudgate svaha om

(3x)

Thanks for joining everyone. See you all next week. Please be healthy, please be peaceful. Use those mantras. Recite Guan Yin’s name, transform greed, anger, dullness and confusion and return to the brightness of our original nature. Amitofo, see you all next week everyone. Bye bye now.

Contributors of this transcribing this lecture:

Aurora Yu, Yan Ming, Vera Cristofani, Bach_Nguyen, Annie Tran, Lucky Lee, Hong Anh Nguyen, Peggy Yeh, Susan Chai