The following is a reposting of an article from this blog originally posted on September 21, 2020. I have added a paragraph to include the works of other masters that we should study and include other related links.
Last Sunday, September 20, 2020, we began our study of Learning from Buddha with an animated discussion of the introduction to this book. After we finished both the Buddha Master’s dharma discourse and the related discussion by the World Buddhism Association Headquarters, I asked the class, “Why is this introduction and the Buddha Master’s discourse here? What does it do here? What is its purpose?” The answered were quite insightful. First out, it was seen as a giant stepping stone to introduce the Buddha Master. It establishes that He is a Buddha so you have faith and then He tells you what you need to know and do to become enlightened and accomplished. It sets you up to know how important this text is. It gives us hope that we, too, can become accomplished. Other students talked about not making Buddhism “magical thinking” and superstition, but keeping it as scientific principles, even if our science does not yet fully understand some of the principles the Buddha taught. It established the Buddha’s teachings on the nature of reality, what is true and what is false. Appearances or what we experience may not be reality. What appears is not necessarily what is.
NEW: Another important part of the Buddha Master’s discourse was his advice on studying the works of other masters: “If you are a master with disciples, you must at least study in depth some sutras and commentaries as a foundation, such as the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, the Suramgama Sutra, the Agama Sutras, the Hetu-Vidya Treatise, the Madhyamaka Treatise, the Abhidharma-kosa Treatise, the Prajna Treatises, the Precepts and Discipline Treatise, the Consciousness-Only Treatise, the Lam Rim Chen Mo, the Bodhisattvacharyavatara Treatise, and others. Doing so will reduce the possibility of leading others astray in the process of teaching.”
You can see where and how these great teachings and traditions evolved from the time of the Buddha and throughout India, South-east Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Tibet, and finally came to the west in G03(A) “Evolution of Buddhism & the Five Vidyas.”
We also discussed the reasons for the Buddha Master altering His appearance and how that had been accomplished. I related my own experience in seeing the Buddha change His appearance almost ten years earlier after taking on the negative karma for a disciple who had ended up in Hell and how He asked me to tell my story to the assembly that was meeting in Hong Kong in March 2014, which I did. There is a link to that speech provided below. I also shared the results I received of my hair regaining it’s youthful color instead of the drab grey and white that it had become after I received a “Return to Youth Pill.” I understood this was not the procedure that the Buddha Master had used that resulted in the two photos shown above. I did let my hair grow out and I think I still have that hair. The grey-white color did return.
There was also much discussion about the Vajra Fa-Man Determination by Holy Selection Dharma where I shared what I could about that dharma as I had been most fortunate to have been one of the witnesses.
CLICK for January 12, 2021 reflections on what was learned from the recently completed virtual class “Learning from Buddha.”
CLICK for Homework-Review of this class where we will continue to explore what we have learned from the Buddha, September 21, 2020.
CLICK for other articles on Learning from Buddha, July 8, 2019.
CLICK for article containing the speech I gave in Hong Kong. I first talked about another teaching I had received on the practice of forbearance. The changing form is toward the end, March 2014.
CLICK for official PDF file of Learning from Buddha that includes the two photos of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and the discourse He gave concerning them, updated September 24, 2020.
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