Into the Diamond Sutra we go and#8211; Subhutiand#8217;s arrival and questioning dialogue with the Buddha. Much food for thought to be had here as the Diamond begins to cut under the skin of thingsand#8230;
Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte: and#8220;Gratitude and Receptivityand#8221; from the talk and#8220;The Diamond Sutra: Taking Mind to itand#8217;s Limits and#8211; 2and#8243; from the fascinating and comprehensive series on and#8220;The Diamond Sutraand#8221; by Padmavajra.
Talks given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2004
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio – the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. And the first thing he does is express his gratitude to the Buddha. He addresses the Buddha as the Sugata, the one who's gone to a happy state, well-gone concert, translates it as. He addresses him as the tataga, the ahhat, the perfectly enlightened Buddha. So there are all these traditional epithets to describe different qualities of the Buddha, different aspects of the Buddha's attainment. And then he expresses his gratitude very, very fully to the Buddha. He expresses his gratitude with the words, "It is wonderful, O Lord. It is exceedingly wonderful, O well-gone. How much the Bodhisattvas, the great beings, have been helped with the greatest help by the tataga, the ahhat, the fully enlightened one. It is wonderful, O Lord, how much the Bodhisattvas, the great beings, have been favoured with the highest favour by the tataga, the ahhat, the fully enlightened one. So first of all, there's that expression of gratitude, to say how much the Buddha has helped and favoured Bodhisattvas. Interestingly, Chinese commentaries say that the Buddha's help and favour is indeed expressed in his activity of begging food, washing his feet, and just sitting. Just being himself, being the Buddha, is help and favour to beings. The Buddha doesn't, as it were, have to do anything extra to help and favour the Bodhisattvas. They see what the Buddha is, they appreciate what the Buddha is. So they feel helped and favoured by the Buddha just by his presence. But presumably, Savuti also has in mind everything that the Buddha has done, everything the Buddha has done, his previous practice, his previous effort, his struggle to gain enlightenment, to rediscover enlightenment, to show the way, as well as his tireless teaching of the Dharma, in so many different ways, to benefit so many different people. So much has been given by the Buddha to help and to benefit others, and in particular his teaching and his demonstration of the Bodhisattva path, how he can gain enlightenment for the benefit of all. So Savuti is full of appreciation, wonder and gratitude. He fully appreciates who the Buddha is and what he has given. And because of this, because he appreciates, because he feels grateful, he is wide open, he is receptive and keen to learn, keen to understand more deeply. There is a definite connection between gratitude and receptivity, between gratitude and a keenness to learn. Gratitude arises from a sense of appreciation of what you actually have and what you have actually been given. If we lack appreciation, it is unlikely that we are going to be receptive to new teaching, to further teaching. If we lack appreciation, and if we are kind of indifferent, or we have the opposite fault finding, we won't learn very much, we won't gain very much. There is an aspect, an aspect of receptivity is waking up to what you have, which means, of course, coming fully into the present. I have a body that works, I have a mind that works, I have the freedom to live meaningfully, the freedom to go on retreat, to practice the Dharma with others. I have food, I have shelter, I have access to the Dharma. So we need to come into that, we need to come into that moment in full appreciation of what we actually have. If you are fault finding, you are out of the present, you are not in the present, so you can't learn, you can't take in. When you are fault finding, it is worth looking at this, just investigate this, you are kind of dwelling on the past, past hurts, or you are dwelling on the future, the things that are going to go wrong or something like that. You want to be elsewhere, or you want things to be other than they are. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
