佛僧众到底是什么？ － What exactly is the Buddhasangha?

VIMALAKIRTI NIRDESA SUTRA
Translated by Robert A. F. Thurman
Copyright 1976, The Pennsylvania State University

1. Purification of the Buddha-Field

Reverence to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Aryasravakas, and Pratyekabuddhas, in the past, the present, and the future.

Thus have I heard at one time. The Lord Buddha was in residence in the garden of Amrapali, in the city of Vaisali, attended by a great gathering. Of bhikshus there were eight thousand, all saints. They were free from impurities and afflictions, and all had attained self-mastery. Their minds were entirely liberated by perfect knowledge. They were calm and dignified, like royal elephants. They had accomplished their work, done what they had to do, cast off their burdens, attained their goals, and totally destroyed the bonds of existence. They all had attained the utmost perfection of every form of mind control.

Of bodhisattvas there were thirty-two thousand, great spiritual heroes who were universally acclaimed. They were dedicated through the penetrating activity of their great superknowledges and were sustained by the grace of the Buddha. Guardians of the city of Dharma, they upheld the true doctrine, and their great teachings resounded like the lion’s roar throughout the ten directions.

Without having to be asked, they were the natural spiritual benefactors of all living beings. They maintained unbroken the succession of the Three Jewels, conquering devils and foes and overwhelming all critics.

Their mindfulness, intelligence, realization, meditation, incantation, and eloquence all were perfected. They had attained the intuitive tolerance of the ultimate incomprehensibility of all things. They turned the irreversible wheel of the Dharma. They were stamped with the insignia of signlessness.

They were expert in knowing the spiritual faculties of all living beings. They were brave with the confidence that overawes all assemblies. They had gathered the great stores of merit and of wisdom, and their bodies, beautiful without ornaments, were adorned with all the auspicious signs and marks. They were exalted in fame and glory, like the lofty summit of Mount Sumeru. Their high resolve as hard as diamond, unbreakable in their faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, they showered forth the rain of ambrosia that is released by the light rays of the jewel of the Dharma, which shines everywhere.

Their voices were perfect in diction and resonance, and versatile in speaking all languages. They had penetrated the profound principle of relativity and had destroyed the persistence of the instinctual mental habits underlying all convictions concerning finitude and infinitude. They spoke fearlessly, like lions, sounding the thunder of the magnificent teaching. Unequaled, they surpassed all measure. They were the best captains for the voyage of discovery of the treasures of the Dharma, the stores of merit and wisdom.

They were expert in the way of the Dharma, which is straight, peaceful, subtle, gentle, hard to see, and difficult to realize.

They were endowed with the wisdom that is able to understand the thoughts of living beings, as well as their comings and goings. They had been consecrated with the anointment of the peerless gnosis of the Buddha. With their high resolve, they approached the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, and the eighteen special qualities of the Buddha.

They had crossed the terrifying abyss of the bad migrations, and yet they assumed reincarnation voluntarily in all migrations for the sake of disciplining living beings. Great Kings of medicine, understanding all the sicknesses of passions, they could apply the medicine of the Dharma appropriately.

They were inexhaustible mines of limitless virtues, and they glorified innumerable buddha-fields with the splendor of these virtues. They conferred great benefit when seen, heard, or even approached. Were one to extol them for innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of aeons, one still could not exhaust their mighty flood of virtues.

These bodhisattvas were named: Samadarsana, Asamadarsana, Samadhivikurvitaraja, Dharmesvara, Dharmaketu, Prabhaketu, Prabhavyuha, Ratnavyuha, Mahavyuha, Pratibhanakuta, Ratnakuta, Ratnapani, Ratnamudrahasta, Nityapralambahasta, Nityotksipthasta, Nityatapta, Nityamuditendriya, Pramodyaraja, Devaraja, Pranidhanapravesaprapta, Prasiddhapratisamvitprapta, Gaganaganja, Ratnolkaparigrhita, Ratnasura, Ratnapriya, Ratnasri, Indrajala, Jaliniprabha, Niralambanadhyana, Prajnakuta, Ratnadatta, Marapramardaka, Vidyuddeva, Vikurvanaraja, Kutanimittasamatikranta, Simhanadanadin, Giryagrapramardiraja, Gandhahastin, Gandhakunjaranaga, Nityodyukta, Aniksiptadhura, Pramati, Sujata, Padmasrigarbha, Padmavyuha, Avalokitesvara, Mahasthamaprapta, Brahmajala, Ratnadandin, Marakarmavijeta, Ksetrasamalamkara, Maniratnacchattra, Suvarnacuda, Manicuda, Maitreya, Manjusrikumarabhuta, and so forth, with the remainder of the thirty-two thousand. …

Such it is, America Buddhists, Such. It. Is.

NAMO BHAGAVATE BHAISAJAYA-GURU-VAIDURYA-PRABHA-RAJAYA
TATHAGATAYA
Xing Ping

維摩詰所說經
姚秦三藏法師鳩摩羅什譯
維摩詰所說經卷上
佛國品第一

如是我聞：一時，佛在毘耶離庵羅樹園，與大比丘眾八千人俱，菩薩三萬二千，眾所知識，大智本行,皆悉成就。

諸佛威神之所建立，為護法城，受持正法；能師子吼，名聞十方；眾人不請，友而安之；紹隆三寶，能使不絕；降伏魔怨，制諸外道，悉已清淨，永離蓋纏；心常安住，無礙解脫；念、定、總持，辯才不斷；布施、持戒、忍辱、精進、禪定、智慧及方便力，無不具足；逮無所得，不起法忍；已能隨順，轉不退輪；善解法相，知眾生根；蓋諸大眾，得無所畏；功德智慧，以修其心；相好嚴身，色像第一，捨諸世間所有飾好；名稱高遠，踰於須彌；深信堅固，猶若金剛；法寶普照，而雨甘露；於眾言音，微妙第一；深入緣起，斷諸邪見，有無二邊，無復餘習；演法無畏，猶師子吼，其所講說，乃如雷震，無有量，已過量；集眾法寶，如海導師，了達諸法深妙之意；善知眾生往來所趣及心所行；近無等等佛自在慧、十力、無畏、十八不共；關閉一切諸惡趣門，而生五道以現其身；為大醫王，善療眾病，應病與藥，令得服行；無量功德皆成就，無量佛土皆嚴淨；其見聞者，無不蒙益；諸有所作，亦不唐捐；如是一切功德、皆悉具足。

其名曰：等觀菩薩、不等觀菩薩、等不等觀菩薩、定自在王菩薩、法自在王菩薩、法相菩薩、光相菩薩、光嚴菩薩、大嚴菩薩、寶積菩薩、辯積菩薩、寶手菩薩、寶印手菩薩、常舉手菩薩、常下手菩薩、常慘菩薩、喜根菩薩、喜王菩薩、辯音菩薩、虛空藏菩薩、執寶炬菩薩、寶勇菩薩、寶見菩薩、帝網菩薩、明網菩薩、無緣觀菩薩、慧積菩薩、寶勝菩薩、天王菩薩、壞魔菩薩、電德菩薩、自在王菩薩、功德相嚴菩薩、師子吼菩薩、雷音菩薩、山相擊音菩薩、香象菩薩、白香象菩薩、常精進菩薩、不休息菩薩、妙生菩薩、華嚴菩薩、觀世音菩薩、得大勢菩薩、梵網菩薩、寶杖菩薩、無勝菩薩、嚴土菩薩、金髻菩薩、珠髻菩薩、彌勒菩薩、文殊師利法王子菩薩，如是等三
萬二千。…

即如是，美国佛教者，即。如。是。

南无消灾延寿药师佛
性平

谈到宣化上人 －Speaking of Master Xuan Hua

如下，请发现虚云龙象(1839-1959)给宣化上人(1918-1995)的宗派法脉传送文。

Below please find the Writ of Transmission that was given to Master Xuan Hua(1918-1995 by Dragon-Elephant Xu Yun(1839-1959).

Right, Master Xuan Hua with Dragon-Elephant Xu Yun at Nan Hua Temple，Guangdong Province, 1948.

活得到120岁的虚云龙象把宗派法脉送给了宣化上人。可是，不运气仅仅活到77岁的宣化上人没相似传输给谁，或是西方的或是东方的。 这就是佛教传输于美国主流的历史上的最惨重的失败，还是现代汉传佛教的最可耻的放棄责任。

Dragon-Elephant Xu Yun , who lived to the age of 120, transmitted his lineage to Master Xuan Hua. But the unfortunate Master Xuan Hua, who only lived to 77, did not similarly transmit to anyone, whether Easterner or Westerner. This was the most crushing defeat in the history of the transmission of Buddhism to the American mainstream, and it was also the most shameful abdication of responsibility in Chinese Mahayana Buddhism in the modern era.

The best pictures of Master Xuan Hua – 宣化上人最好的相片

南无药师琉璃光如来
NAMO BHAGAVATE BHAISAJAYA-GURU-VAIDURYA-PRABHA-RAJAYA
TATHAGATAYA

性平
Xing Ping

佛光山究竟弄到了一位方丈 － Fo Guang Shan Finally Comes up with an Abbot

美国佛教者 再次把所有英文主流新闻媒介挖定了!

The American Buddhist Scoops all the Mainstream English-Language News Media, Again!

佛光山还没向英文传播媒介发表的新闻稿说：

中美寺新任住持隆相和尚，1982年7月于武汉市归元寺出家，现为南京栖霞古寺住持，也担任佛光山系之宜兴大觉寺住持，其佛学素养深厚，广受佛教界推崇，隆相法师于10多年前往台湾佛光山，礼星云大师座下成为法子，典礼上 (休斯敦佛光山中美寺, 2009年11月15号），大师赞扬隆相法师为“正派的和尚”。　

Fo Guang Shan’s press release, which has still not been released to the English-language media,says:

Longxiang Fashi, who is taking charge of Fo Guang Shan’s Zhongmei (Central America) Temple in Houston, left home as a monk in July of 1982 at Yinyuan Temple in the ‎of Wuhan, and emerged as the Abbot of ancient Qixia Temple in Nanjing. He also became the Abbot of the Fo Guang Shan organization’s temple at Yixing (at Ven. Xing Yun’s birthplace in Jiangsu Province – groomy, groomy, groomy, don’t you know?), his Buddhist study and accomplishments are awesome, and he has been virtually canonized by the Buddhist world. More than ten years ago, he went to Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan and became a Dharma son of Ven. Xing Yun. And in the ceremony (at Houston’s Zhongmei Temple on 15 Nov. 09) Venerable proclaimed him “An Upright Monk.”

南无消灾延寿药师佛
性平

I take the name of disaster-solving and life-lengthening Medicine Master Buddha
Xing Ping

Proof that Feng Shui is Inextricably Entangled with Buddhism

Wierdly, this same Nine Palace array (九宫格) is used in a faddy Japanese numbers game, Sudoku. At left is an example of the beginning of one of these games, which are solitary like crossword, and are said to have addictive qualities. I view this game as a mental pollution. An ancient way of understanding the world has been perverted into a way to simply be entangled in your own mind.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

On the Trail of the Mysterious Shingon

The Shingon (the Japanese secret school) is nothing if not mysterious, and everything I do recently keeps leading back around to them. For example, I decide that I’m going to tag my photo site, and I come to my Mandala album, and find that there aren’t a whole lot of bona fide Buddhist mandala in there, so I decided to fix that, and dropped the Chinese roots for “mandala” into a Google image search, and voila!, a whole lot of Buddhist mandala. But in looking at these, it arrived that most of them just weren’t making a whole lot of Chinese sense. Way too much green, just for starters. (I don’t know what the Chinese have against that color. Perhaps mother nature was unfilial towards her parents, and they haven’t forgiven her for it. Who can know where some of their schticks come from?) They were also iconographically opaque, until I arrived at this:

Finally, front and center, a Buddha who is big enough to read, and clearly from the mudra, it could not be somebody other than Dainichi Nyorai, the root Buddha of the Shingon. I think this is just about the most cheerful mandala I have ever seen (It turns out to be the 金剛界曼荼羅 kongōkai mandara). It manages to have both a high level of organization and tremendous vitality, and I love the color. Somewhere in the midst of the search, I also encountered this WordPress blog page, which is remarkable because it got around to all of these mandala in a matter of paragraphs. For some other examples of the taizōkai mandara and the kongōkai mandara, see my Shingon Album The above article about the Shingon is the best thing I have seen on the subject.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing PIng

Oh, and hey, nuns don’t rule either.

What we’re looking at here is the top of Fo Guang Shan’s administrative hierarchy, on a trip to Xuecheng Fashi’s bailiwick in Beijing with Ven. Xing Yun in 2005. If they look worried, they should. They’re being confronted with an ilk of Buddhism in which nuns don’t rule, and in which renunciation still means that you own nothing. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. For these precious creatures, “renunciation” is a cushy life style, including virtually unlimited travel priveleges, and the ability to tell your numerous underlings anything you want, with no fear of retribution.

I am sure that if this kind of shot were taken in Taiwan, for example, the numerous underlings would have automatically suppressed it. That’s considered “meritorious action” where they come from. I consider it stupid.

For some other shots of this trip, shamelessly ripped from the Chinese web by never humble enough yours truly, including some great shots of Ven. Xing Yun, see my Xing Yun in Beijing 2005 Album.

I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my spiffy little Firefox web browser, avec le Gimp, the totally awesome open source image editor.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Promoting Buddhism in Europe

Read Bhikku Bodhi’s brilliant dissertation on bringing Buddhism to the West

The Ideal Form

Thus when I raise the question, “What type of Buddhism do we wish to spread?” I am not thinking of the pure canonical Dhamma, which exists as such only in the books. In actuality, Buddhism has always been expressed in concrete practices, embedded in social structures, and embodied by real human beings. Thus we have to consider this aspect of Theravada Buddhism and not merely the doctrinal formulas of the Pali Canon. So when we ponder how to bring Buddhism to the West, we have to decide which of the many faces of Theravada we want to bring. To some extent, this is premature, since if Buddhism does eventually take root in the West, it will assume forms particular to Western social and cultural conditions. But to begin we need something to serve as a seed or nucleus.

The ideal form of Theravada to present would be one that fuses all healthy aspects of the tradition into an organic whole. The transmission would have to focus on the practice of meditation, yet it should include a strong emphasis on Buddhist ethics (including Buddhist perspectives on contemporary ethical issues), textual and doctrinal study, devotional practices, and a fair share of ritual, too; but ritual would have to be integrated into the spiritual path, not pursued in compliance with mere cultural norms. The meditation practice should be the heart of the transmission. Once students experience the beneficial effects of meditation on their lives, in time they will develop keener interest in the study of texts, in devotional practices, in the precepts, and in ritual. Ritual will then serve to cement these varied aspects of Dhamma into a coherent whole, animated from within by the meditative experience.

What this very astute Theravadin monastic doesn’t seem to understand is that what he has just described here is, in fact, Mahayana Buddhism. This is how you organize it when you have the Bodhisattva ideal. This is the POV from which the Buddha spoke the Mahayana sutras, and this is the only POV which enables you to practice from them. The Mahayana is implicit in the Theravada, just as the Secret School is implicit in the Mahayana.

The Buddhadharma is wonderful, immutable, and eternally Radiant throughout all the vast reaches of space and time, and it will never, ever be supplanted. It is carved upon all of our bones, and reamed into the sub-plasmic primordial Reality of the Dharmakaya. Not even Lord Vishnu with all his Avatars can do away with it. Forsooth, He came again as Meher Baba, and said “I do not Teach. I only Awaken. Oh, and Hey, I am also silent. Dig. It.” And all the little yuppies said, “Yea God,” put His picture on their wall, and that was the end of their spiritual practice for this entire incarnation. It is simply up to us Buddhists to practice, because nobody else can get interested in it, nobody else can see the importance of it, and in reality, nobody else is capable of it, and that is God’s truth.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Buddhism in America

Read the new Buddhism in America page

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

Great Compassion Mantra – 大悲咒

Read information about the history of this awesome mantra, and the mantra itself on this page.

… Wikipedia records the Pin Yin and Korean versions of this mantra, both of which differ quite starkly from the Sanskrit, but in my experience, the Chinese version still works. I suspect the hand of spirit protectors in this. Below, I record the Chinese version from the following site: dicang.org, because it is what I use personally, and for the merit of recording a mantra. After Amitabha’s name, this is probably the most widely used mantra in the broad Mahayana, and it has awesome magical powers. This should be memorized, and whatever it takes to do that, please do it. Years of practice? Hey, this one is worth it. It stands on the interface between the exoteric and esoteric schools, and although it can be used without lineage transmission, it cannot, say again, CANNOT be used effectively without the sound transmission. That is, this must hear it chanted by a Sangha that has it by sound transmission before you can chant it yourself. Or, more accurately, you can chant it, but it won’t do anything in that case. Sorry, outside way heretics, you just have to take Refuge and get yourself a Sangha before you can use this. Deal with it, please. All of your deviant subterfuges are never going to amount to anything anyway. You might as well come in and get it over with. …

I have also written further commentary.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping

The Mahayana Way of Dealing with Anger

Someone has been searching my site for this, so I decided to write about it. From the observed behavior in my Mahayana Sangha, I would say that the Mahayana way of dealing with anger has seven steps, namely and to wit:

1. Hide.
2. Hide.
3. Hide.
4. Develop an attitude.
5. Whine up the chain of command about your percieved afflictor.
6. Eat food.
7. Hide, and while hiding, break all available Precepts.

Oh, and hey, did I mention HIDE yet?

No, hey, actually, the orthodox Mahayana antidote for anger is something very skillful. It’s called (ahem) meditation. You may have heard of it. It is rumored that there was somebody called Gautama Lord Buddha, the Sage of the Shakya clan, who sat under a Bo tree and did this to Enlightenment, and that there exist Buddhists who still do this today. You may find that sitting with an angry mind, and doing absolutely nothing except observing your mental state, until you completely exhaust the capacity to be angry, can dissolve your anger completely.

If that doesn’t work, please take the Name of the Blissful Lord, exclusively and continuously, until you obtain the same result.

Vegetarianism also helps get over anger. If you eat dead animal body parts from animals that lived in stupidity and died in terror, the chances are excellent that this will suppress your life force until the only way you can express yourself is through anger.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping