We were unable to finish all of Lesson 38 today. We will continue our discussion of the preliminary practices with a special session on October 22 at 9:00 am Pacific Daylight Time with a discussion of the Four Limitless States of Mind. We will look at how these states of mind are applied and what happens in each of the three stages of the practice of the Four Limitless States of Mind– the generation stage, the completion stage, and the state beyond that at the oneness of those two stages.
Our class today focused first on the Three Sets of Pure Precepts and how they form the foundation for all we do in our practice and cultivation. They support the advice we received at our last session that we must first be a good human being before thinking about being a holy being. It seems too simple, but it is so essential. What does it mean to be a good human being? How can we honor those three pure precepts or at least the first two? Vowing to do everything good and never doing or thinking or saying anything evil. The third we can only keep as an aspirational vow because we must first become holy liberated beings to be able to save others. These three vows were necessary preludes to the next practice–the Ten Wholesome Behaviors that we also explored today. These are our guidelines, are rules to live by. It is amazing to see how all these preliminary dharmas that we must first master fit together and form a foundation for who we really are and can be. And these Dharmas, in turn, lead to what we will explore next week–the four Limitless States of Mind that results in our achieving ultimate bodhichitta. Buddhist Studies and Xuixing Seminary students at the Learning from Buddha College and Seminary may view the questions covered and the recording of this session at DCB26-Lesson 38A.
If you have not already done so, please CLICK for link to register for this class and join us, if you have not already done so. You do NOT need to register again, but can use the same meeting code for all the sessions in the series devoted to DCB26-How to Realize Prajna. Those who are enrolled in DCB26 may CLICK to see the questions (#89-#106) that will be discussed at this session. The next session will be held on October 22, 2022 on the Four Limitless States of Mind, followed by a session on October 29 that will cover the Dharma to Pass Thru Barriers and the Six Paramitas. I hope many of you can attend both sessions.
CLICK for link to article on September 17, 2022 class on first part of Lesson 36. Buddhist Studies and Xuixing Seminary students may view the questions covered and the recording of that session at DCB26-Lesson 36A.
CLICK for link to article on September 24, 2022 class on second part of Lesson 36.
CLICK for link to article on October 1, 2022 class on Lesson 37. Buddhist Studies and Xuixing Seminary students may view the questions covered and the recording of that session at DCB26-Lesson 37.
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