A Complete and Detailed Exposition on the True Buddha Tantric Dharma

By Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu
Translated by Janny Chow

Second Day: November 25, 1992

Introduction

        Masters, fellow cultivators, good afternoon. [The students reply, "Good afternoon, Grand Master."]
        Before I start the formal teaching, I would like to bring up a few points to discuss with you. In the future, Rainbow Villa will serve as a site for the teaching of the Buddhadharma. The main reason for not accommodating anyone to lodge here this time is that many details for the management of the place has not been worked out.
        Perhaps next time, you can stay here. One of the rules for lodging here is: one must bring along a sleeping bag and, when the seminar is over, one has to take the sleeping bag home. This is because it is quite inconvenient to launder sleeping bags here. Each of the sleeping bags will have a certain body odor [audience laughter] attached to it, some people even drool when they are asleep. [audience laughter] Of course, this is not a matter of concern if one is staying at a hotel, as the sheets are changed daily. However, when one has to sleep in the same sleeping bag for many days, one's body odor will not only be attached to the out covering, but will permeate to the inside filling, and the next person using the sleeping bag will have a hard time getting used to it.
        Therefore, we have decided that, in the future, students will have to bring their own blankets or sleeping bags. When the seminar is over, they must take them home. there might be some other rules besides this one, and, if we decide on any others, we will announce them, so everyone will understand. these are the kinds of rules we will have for the seminars.
        The next seminar is tentatively scheduled for May next year. As the facility here cannot accommodate too many people, we might have to limit the enrollment to twenty male and twenty female students. Each applicant will have to submit an essay, and, after we have gone over the essays, people belonging to the same level will be called to come to take the seminar at the same time. This is the first point.

Goals of the True Buddha School

        Second, I would like to discuss the goals of the True Buddha School. Since there are so many students now, it is not good if many are unclear on what are the goals of the school. The principal goal of our school is to attain "Liberation from birth and death." A person who has achieved mastery over his or her birth and death will have abolished the boundary between life and death and become a Living Buddha, which is almost the same as a Buddha.
        One also has to achieve "Enlightenment - awakening to the One Mind and seeing one's Original Nature," and to be liberated from all klesa (troubles). These are the goals of our school which serve as the beacon towards which one can orient oneself. Anyone walking towards these goals will be on the correct path. There fore, the most important goals of practicing Buddhism are to "achieve self-mastery over birth and death, and awaken to one's Original Nature." When one realizes the One Mind, sees one's own Buddha Nature, master one's own birth and death, and finally enters into Nirvana and Stillness, (the state of No Birth and No Death,) one then attains the fruition of Buddhahood. These are the most important goals of our school. the neutralization of karmic hindrances and the eradication of klesa (troubles) can be considered as part of "self-mastery over birth and death."
        In the present day, however, there are many kinds of Buddhist schools, and all kinds of Buddhist collateral branches. What are collateral branches? Collateral branches are derived from Buddhist teachings, yet they are not concerned with the main goals of Buddhism. For example, the painting of Buddhist pictures (tangkas) is a collateral branch of Buddhism, and so are the studies of Buddhist music and Buddhist Kung Fu. There are also the studies of art, vegetarian cooking, healing, Chi Kung, and human auras - these belong to the collateral branches which help the practice of Buddhism, but are not central to the goals of Buddhism. It is acceptable to learn Chi Kung because it helps to strengthen one's chi and health, but the true goals of the True Buddha School are "to transcend birth and death and awaken to one's Original Nature." One must not forget these goals. If one learns Chi Kung instead of practicing the Buddhadharma, one abandons these goals. If one devotes oneself principally to the study of the human aura as a healing practice, and disregards the practice of the Buddhadharma, then one is putting the cart before the horse. One becomes an expert in healing and not in Buddhist practice and cannot transcend life and death. Therefore, any study that leads one away from the goals of "transcending birth and death and awakening to one's Original Nature" is called a collateral branch. Is this clear?

Asceticism is not the Correct Way

        There is one more point. In the past, there was a time when Tantric Buddhism was mistaken for a collateral branch of Buddhism. It was thought to emphasize only the body and the body's internal cultivation. In fact, the Buddhadharma advocates both cultivation of body and spirit (wisdom).
        Some practitioners only concentrate on the cultivation of spirit (wisdom) and ignore their bodies. They subsist on small amounts of simple food and dress in ragged clothes. They do not pay attention to their bodies even when they are sick. They live under trees and prefer walking over any other kind of transportation that is serviced by others. They insist on serving themselves and carrying their own burdens and are not willing to shoulder other sentient being's negative karma.
        This type of cultivation which focuses exclusively on the spiritual side can be likened to asceticism. Sometimes, when the practitioners are ill, they still keep on meditation. It does not matter to them if they have a high fever and are severely ill, as they consider the physical body to be waste material that prevents them from being liberated. Therefore, they feel that their bodies first need to be mortified before they can obtain a different kind of spiritual and intellectual enlightenment.
        In the past, many Buddhist and Taoist practitioners (though not Tantric practitioners) pursued this pathway. They looked down on the human body and called it "the vile skin-bag" and wanted to snuff the life out of it. Turning to self-mortification, they resorted to slicing their own bodies with knives, burning their own bodies with fire, and soaking their own bodies in water. Some of them sat among brief bushes to meditate, or hung themselves upside down. With all these actions, they hoped to mortify the flesh to achieve a single-minded concentration that would lead to the Supreme Wisdom, the king of enlightened wisdom that is obtained through Samadhi. This type of cultivation only focuses on the spiritual aspect and ignores the physical existence.
        However, Tantric Buddhism is different. From the beginning, Tantrayana has advocated the dual cultivation of spirit and body.
        A good health and sufficiently long life provides one with a vehicle to understand the Truths of the Universe. This approach is very different from those Zen Buddhists or Taoist ascetics who totally disregarded "the vile skin-bags." But Tantrayana, besides cultivating spirituality, also pays attention to the physical cultivation of chi, the opening of subtle energy channels, and the conscious movement of light drops  in the human body. This is called dual cultivation of spirit (wisdom) and body. I, myself, advocate the dual cultivation of spirit and body because good physical health facilitates the development of wisdom. A healthy body and sufficiently long life serve as the springboard from which one leaps to explore and realize the Truth of the Buddhadharma. If one pursues the spiritual and slights the physical aspect to the point of losing ones life, can wisdom still be obtained? Without the physical body, the wisdom of the Buddhadharma is beyond reach.
        Therefore, our True Buddha School stresses the dual cultivation of both the physical and spiritual. One has to achieve the Wisdom of Buddhahood, but one also has to maintain a very healthy body with full and vigorous energy. Furthermore, one has to cultivate one's inner fire, work on one's chi, channels, and light drops to directly transmute one's body to the state of Void.
        There was a period of time when Tantrayana was looked upon as a heretic teaching. This was due to its emphasis on Energy Yoga, the physical cultivation that involved chi and channels. Fundamentally, however, any method that enables one to attain Buddhahood, to realize one's Original Nature, and to master one's birth and death is considered an authentic Buddhadharma. Otherwise, it can only be classified as a collateral branch that corroborates Buddhism. I hope everyone can have a full understanding on this, and not put the peripheral before the fundamental.

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