(Continued from issue #300)
Lunchtime Instructional Talk by Dharma Master Heng Gwei on November 18, 2018,
at Gold Wheel Sagely Monastery Emperor Liang’s Jeweled Repentance Dharma Assembly
Relying on bestowing joy through kindness and alleviating suffering through compassion, we must help others attain peace and happiness. We should not cause troubles and afflictions for our family and those around us. We must do our best to help all living beings with whom we have affinities with to overcome their difficulties and to eradicate their suffering.
If we constantly remind ourselves of this inherent duty as Buddha’s disciples, and we utilize the mind of kindness and compassion to purify our defiled conduct and cleanse our thoughts that are not in accordance with the dharma, and we truly and sincerely do our best, then we can return to the Buddha’s hometown very quickly.
Earlier, Dharma Master Shr said that many people have passed on this month, making us feel the imminence of the fleeting nature of life. I don’t know how many of you feel the impending doom of running out of time. Do people feel the urgency? I don’t know whether you do or not.
Time flies. When we started bowing to Emperor Liang’s Jeweled Repentance, the sutra text opened with taking refuge with the Triple Jewel. The Triple Jewel consists of external Triple Jewel and internal Triple Jewel. The external Triple Jewel are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. After the Buddha entered nirvana, we have the Buddha images. So, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are the external Triple Jewel. Then there is the internal Triple Jewel. What is the internal Triple Jewel? It consists of essence, energy and spirit. Without essence, energy, and spirit, our lives would cease. A single breath of energy sustains our life. Without this single breath of energy, our life will not exist. Therefore, essence, energy, and spirit are the most precious items. But we are so busy with so much going on. We want to see, listen and ruminate on everything. These activities exhaust our essence, energy, and spirit. Unwittingly, we are internally depleting our most precious resource. On a daily basis, we consume and exhaust our internal Triple Jewel, from youth, to adult, to old age, and then death.
The external Triple Jewel — Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, is what the Buddha uses to teach us the reasons and the methods of cultivation. Dharma requires people to pass it on to benefit those in the future. This is the external Triple Jewel. The Buddha relayed to us his own experiences in cultivation, that the most precious thing in life is not fame and profit, not gold, silver, or treasure trove, but our internal and external Triple Jewel.
I believe that there are not many people nowadays, including those who come to the Wayplace, who truly comprehend, understand, and feel the preciousness of the Triple Jewel. Wholesome roots and blessings are necessary for people to have the wisdom to discern what is precious and what are obstructions.
(To be continued …)