Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;and#8220;View Meditation andamp; Action,and#8221; is an excerpt from the talk and#8220;Standing on Emptinessand#8221; by Dhammadassin. This lovely, thoughtful exploration of the traditional Buddhist path of ethics, meditation and wisdom, uses poetry and the ideas of contemporary science to evoke the mystery that lies at the heart of practice.
Talk given at the Western Buddhist Order women’s national Order weekend, August 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. [music] So according to the Tibetan tradition, the teachings of the three youngers were all given by the Buddha during his lifetime. On specific occasions and to particular audiences in line with this practice of skillfulness. And each of the three vehicles has its own view, meditation, and action, or view, practice, and result. You sometimes come across it as, so you hear about the nine youngers, and that's what that's talking about. The original ray lays it all out, and you've even got a very nice table, if you like, that sort of thing. So I'm not going to go into that, really. But just very briefly, view is a conceptual understanding that gives orientation to the practice. Meditation outlines the concrete methodologies of transformation, so what you actually do. And action points to what is attained by faith, way of practicing. So, how do we do this? How do we thoroughly experience samsara, as it really means? How do we unconditionally accept the conditioned, as bounty puts on? Well, according to the Tibetan tradition, by learning to recognize it. That's what we have to do first, and this is the practice of view. So as Dilge-Kenzer mentioned, it's absolutely necessary to establish the correct view. That is to acquire complete certainty about the absolute truth. But the phenomenal world, though obviously appearing and functioning, is utterly devoid of any ultimate reality. This is the seed from which the perfect fruit of enlightenment will grow. And again, he says, what does this mean? It means we've got to, first of all, establish proper understanding of the teachings about reality. And secondly, incorporate that view into our inner experience. Remember, in a way, it's not just information added from a safe distance to a mental inventory. We've got to live it. It's an act of surrender, of complete and embodied cognition. So secondly, meditation. Again, Dilge-Kenzerimshi, he says, this means put the view into practice over and over again. Why? Why? Well, why should this work? What is meditation? Why is this appropriate for meditation? Original race says meditation is definitely not healthy for the ego. He says it's not possible to meditate unless you're more interested in finding out what is going on than in maintaining a particular idea of who you are. That's true. The first thing you begin to notice is that things are not as solid and substantial as they previously assumed. But a gap in one's thoughts and feelings, things appear somewhat random. One may see things about oneself not previously noticed, perhaps one's pretensions or unkindness. Meditation itself involves looking into one's own experience. If we honestly look at ourselves in the world, we see that ego is basically a bad idea with no future. And this kind of looking sounds its death now. A bad idea, no future. So meditation aims at an experience which is free from complexity, free from the complexity of the games of the ego. So then thirdly, action. Again, dual-go-cancerum shift. Maintain your experience of this "you" at all times and in all circumstances. That's action. Well, Vajra Darshan is going to talk about action tomorrow, so I would say much about it now. But in the meantime, I thought I'd just tell you one of the things that yeshichoke will have to say about action. She says action is the activity of the Dharma. What does this mean? Whatever happens, remain continuously and incontraditably with the experience, using the experience for spiritual advancement. In truth, whether walking, moving, sleeping, eating, or sitting, on all the paths of action, remain in contact with your practice. Never allow yourself to be separated from your practice. By such action, you are endowed with the very epitome of action. More from Vajra Darshan. More. So dual-go-cancerum shift says, "Through the constant combination of these three, you, meditation and action, the fruit of the practice of Dharma will fully ripen." An experientially says, "Gentleness and self-discipline show understanding of the view. Freedom from obscuring emotions shows meditation, and these, rooted and effortlessly expressed, show action." The tall lord pulls middle again. Gentleness and self-discipline show understanding of the view. Freedom from obscuring emotions shows meditation, and these, rooted and effortlessly expressed, show action. So it's a path, a complete path, and it comes down to us through the impassioned, these impassioned today, and voices. That's how it sounds to me. Yeshichokya, Padmasambhava, Milarepa, to name that three. 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 fades out] [music fades out] [music fades out] [BLANK_AUDIO]
