(One)

Just now, a fellow practitioner asked me a question, so I hope I can answer it here. If the fellow practitioners have questions, they can also ask questions. Now that I have a little time, I will answer this fellow practitioner’s question first. If you want to ask the person take a microphone.

The question is, what is the difference between being a monk and retreating at home?I also asked that the retreat is very good. If you want to close, you want to be diligent!Only to ask this retreat question.Being a monk is no different from retreating at home. It is both diligent and diligent. It depends on what kind of retreat you do?There are many kinds of retreats. There is a life-and-death pass. As soon as I enter it, I close it until I die. I originally wanted to close the life and death pass. My master didn’t agree. I used to have to retreat because I couldn’t commit suicide. It’s guilty to commit suicide. I leave early, the master is not allowed, he wants me to practice the bodhisattva way, so there is no way, so I have to show great heart.

In addition, there are short-term retreats and long-term retreats. The more formal one is that there will be a seal to seal you off. If one person guards the gate, the gate is sealed. Then if you break through the gate, the gate will fail, and there is no place at all. Come out and seal you inside, and then someone will give you food to eat. It depends on what you practice, and everyone can do it.

Some people want to read Tibetans, study the Tripitaka and Twelve Books, and read them twice. It's like some of us retreat for the purpose of chanting Buddhism!In the past, retreats were considered short-term retreats, so if you are a little more polite, we are talking about banning feet and not retreating. Later, people say you are so arrogant.

In fact, we are not arrogant, but strictly speaking, retreat is necessary. The standard of Zen Buddhism is that enlightened people are qualified to retreat.The first one is that when you are enlightened, you will have a way to subdue your troubles and shut down. Secondly, when you encounter a devil, you can bring up righteous thoughts to solve it. Secondly, you have the means to work on your own and you have the ability. .

Zen teaches that when you start practicing after enlightenment, you already know how you can achieve it, because the method is only you, and there is no teacher to guide you, right?Therefore, it is necessary for people of this level to be eligible for retreat. Therefore, in general, those of us who are not enlightened actually say that it is more polite to withhold foot, otherwise they will think they are enlightened.

Retreat is a very sacred thing. People with considerable realm are qualified to retreat. Then we reciting the Buddha are special. Anyone who recites the Buddha can retreat, because it depends on the power of the Buddha to recite the Buddha honestly. You can really live in peace and confinement. If you can stay there without breaking through the barrier, then you can recite the Buddha very peacefully, and you will not be enchanted when you recite the Buddha.

As long as you really want to read the Buddha honestly, you won’t be obsessed with the demon, because the demon comes, the Buddha will help you deal with it, the Buddha blessed the demon can’t get close to us, can’t play any role, when the demon comes, the Buddha will influence him, and he will help. If you deal with it, it's generally useless for you to rely on yourself. You can only rely on the protector god. The protector god is not strong enough, isn't it?There is no way to solve it. The grievances and creditors are very fierce. Don't let you go. You killed me in your last life and I want you to pay for it. There is no way in this situation.

Oh!Now that the time has passed, I have to ask you more questions, just another question. Does anyone want to ask a question?Fellow practitioner: In other words, can we use it (microphone, microphone) on the Sixth Day, Master: How about the Sixth Day?Fellow practitioners: Use it to hold the noon, and use the six days of fasting. Master: Starting from the six days of fasting, it’s okay, but in fact, as far as I feel about the six days of fasting, it’s better for you to hold the day of six fasts than having no food every day. It’s easier to maintain. You will often forget about the Six Zhai, and it’s not good for your stomach and intestines if you don’t eat one day, understand?

Don’t think it’s so difficult. Just listen to the CD I talked about. It’s just a thought. Your body will listen to you. We eat. It’s a physical need. We have enough meals and nourishment. It’s the tongue, it’s the mouth that wants to eat, we don’t want to be controlled by it, we should be its master, don’t be controlled by desire, then we have too much dignity, right?

Cai Se, famous food, sleep, and control us, we don’t live like human beings, we have created a lot of karma, we come to dominate it, I said I can do it if I can do it, really every thought and heart, and then you learn a little bit Method, learning method is to make it easier for you to do this, even if you have not learned the method, you can do it.

Some people say that I quit smoking. One of my classmates has been smoking for more than XNUMX years. If he has been smoking for more than XNUMX years, he will quit, and he will quit if he says quit for more than XNUMX years. He doesn’t necessarily say, alas. !What other methods are needed, the most important thing is this wish, but because we all have experience, we will also tell you some methods to make it easier for you to do it, and to do it more easily. You don’t need to drag things like this. Slowly, six days, Ten days.

Of course, the Six and Ten Feasts are also the Buddha’s fear that everyone will not be able to do it, so I will give it to you first. I will not eat for lunch in the future. Practice first, but if you really have the intention to do it, you can do it. You don’t have to be so troublesome. , Better for the body.Well, if you want to start on the six days of fasts, that's okay, and yes, we bodhisattva vows have to be received, and we hold this six-day eight-pass fast.

(two)

Fellow practitioner: It was mentioned earlier that girls cannot become Buddhas, but I seem to have read the Buddhist scriptures and mentioned that dragon girls can directly become Buddhas. What is the reason for this?Ask the Master to teach.

Teacher: Good, good!Good question. This part was originally planned to be talked about today, but I skipped over because of lack of time. Now, he asked very well. In the Lotus Sutra, the Dragon Girl became a Buddha at the age of eight, and the Dragon Girl is a girl, the daughter of the Dragon King. , Then she belongs to...she is not a humane being, she is the sea...that is, the beings in the sea, there are all beings in the Ten Dharma Realms!They can all become Buddhas.

Then... you must have not read the Lotus Sutra well, because you did not see clearly how the Dragon Girl became a Buddha, and was she still a Dragon Girl after she became a Buddha?no!As soon as she turned around, she showed jewels... and gave jewels to Buddha Shakyamuni. At that moment, she flew to the opposite side and turned into a male to become a Buddha. You didn't notice this paragraph!The moment she became a Buddha, she was transferred to a boy, so she became a Buddha. There was no way. There was no Buddha. After becoming a Buddha, she was still like a girl, no.That means you haven't turned around and turned halfway. There may be something wrong. Just like cooking rice is not cooked properly, something is wrong. There can be no such thing, understand?it is good!Ask questions again, if you want to ask...good!

Fellow practitioners: Good afternoon, Master, this transfer from female to male is a physical one, that is to say, if even females have cultivated...

Teacher: I know what you want to ask. You can go back and sit down. Hurry up. Have you ever heard that this council is adequate, things are matters, and rationality is rationality, and what you just said is rationality, right?In theory, everyone will become a Buddha. That's right, but you have never seen a Buddha. Is he incomplete?He has become a Buddha with a pure heart. He is still very ugly, not solemn, and has a lot of habits and problems. No, things are outside the situation.

When you have reached Consummation in your heart, you have become a Buddha in theory, and you are clean within, and your appearance will definitely be Consummation. Then what is Consummation?It’s called Consummation when boys are turned upside down. We just talked about turning girls halfway through and haven’t gotten better. If they haven’t been consummated, things will not be consummated yet, so they will resist. In theory, I am now enlightened. I have attained the realm of Buddha, I have become a Buddha, that's right!

You can say that you have become a Buddha, and there is indeed this stage. For example, in terms of Zen Buddhism, he is enlightened, sees his mind and becomes a Buddha, he sees that he has become a Buddha in nature, but you Have you ever seen him go to practice after he understands his mind and his nature? Yes!What should I cultivate after enlightenment?Consummation in practice, right?

Do you still want to cultivate once you become a Buddha?Yes, you must have sufficient directors. This Buddha is the Buddha of Consummation, not the Buddha of Reason, so don't say it, oh!It’s good for me to have a pure heart. Don’t keep the precepts. I don’t need to do it anymore. It doesn’t matter when you are outside. The outside world is not important. No, you are not truly Consummated, so those who are truly enlightened will definitely come back. Keep the precepts honestly.

Remember to sign up later!I said that there was no action for a long time. I said it for nothing, and there is still a year for you to think about making you regret it. This is really the case. Everyone should work hard and don't just understand the truth.To understand the truth is to liberate from the truth. It is not wrong and very important, but you have not practiced and practiced, and there is no real merit or merit. It is not enough. It's like saying, wow!You can visualize your meal as delicious, but if you didn’t eat it, your stomach is still hungry. You still have to be consummate in behavior. You need to eat to be full, right?

Are you full just thinking about it?Did your hunger go away?Nothing!You haven't really got that benefit yet, so you have taken care of everything. You should understand it. It seems that you still have wisdom. It will make sense at one point, so I know what you want to ask if you talk about it halfway.

Many old cultivators or people who pay more attention to theory or emptiness, and those who work on xinxing will think that this aspect of me is enough, or that I am more important in this aspect, and others are not important. , It's not right, it's not like this.

Look at the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, he emphasized the mentality, he told you to liberate your heart, but you have to notice that no one in Zen starts to cultivate after enlightenment. After enlightenment, they practice steadily from the beginning of precepts. This way, so we shouldn’t just look at the back and the front. If you don’t see the people at the stage of asceticism before enlightenment, then you have learned wrong and incompletely learned.

Fellow practitioners: Master, I would like to ask, when is the latest time when chanting is not allowed?

Teacher: What do you read?

Fellow practitioners: recite the scriptures.

Teacher: What time is it!

Fellow practitioners: You can read it.

Teacher: There is no limit. The great virtues of the Patriarch of the People have been working hard all day and all night without rest.

Fellow practitioners: Is it necessary to be a vegetarian to hold the bodhisattva vows?

Teacher: No!It’s not necessary to be a vegetarian to hold the precepts of a Bodhisattva, but at least one of his precepts is six days of fasts, six days a month, but if you listen to me, you will know that it’s too simple and you can do it. If you really break the precepts, you will have Way to repent.If you are really not sure about the sixth day of fasting, don’t take this precept. Yes, our Brahma Net Sutra has ten heavy and XNUMX light precepts. There are a total of fifty-eight precepts, big and small, which one do you think you are now There is no way to hold it, you can not hold it for now.

Of course, if you accept the bodhisattva vows, you will follow you from life to life, and you will always have the opportunity to be a bodhisattva, but you can’t take every precept in this life to perfection. It doesn’t matter, just like the five precepts, the five precepts. There are also less points. You can receive less points, you can receive more points, and you can receive full points. That's how you can get points.If you receive two precepts, it doesn’t matter if you can't accept all five precepts. If you take two precepts and one precept, it is called less points. If you take the precepts, you will be Upasai or Upayi!The men are Upasai, laymen, you are not qualified to be laymen if you are not ordained!It's just a family member, and when you receive the ordination... the males are Upasai, and the Upayi women are Upayi.

If you receive less points, you will get less points for Upasai and Upayi. Three or four points are more points for Upasai and Upayi. All five points are full marks, and there are such points. Therefore, the precepts do not mean that each item is accepted.You are sure you can accept it, so can everyone accept it, right?And we take it slowly, we learn one and accept one, in case this one is accidentally committed, repent, there is a way to repent, it is not so scary... If there is such a scary XNUMX, it would have been hell!Article XNUMX how do you learn?

Learned it all overnight, is it possible?It's impossible, always take the precepts first, then learn the precepts, and then take them one by one. This way, the same, this is the right time!Don't think about how well I have to learn before you ask for the precepts. You will never learn well, and I assure you that you will never learn well and hold it badly, because there is no blessing of the Three Jewels, and it is easy to learn wrong and go wrong!Oh, it's dangerous, and keeping the precepts will make you wrong!

Fellow practitioners: Can I hold the bodhisattva vows again?

Teacher: You can hold it again, yes, you can take the gain vows. The question you asked is too good. This is what I just wanted to talk about. You can take the gain vows many times, many times.Increasing benefits is called gaining precepts. Increasing benefits. Every time you receive, there will be every blessing. Of course, you don't have to be fun, but a pious heart. Then the blessing of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha of the Three Treasures Hall will be different.

Then you have to be well-founded. Not everyone has such great blessings to participate in this puja for taking precepts, especially the number of pure precepts is decreasing. Really!There are fewer and fewer people who keep the precepts and are pure.Attorney Guo Qing is a rare elder with pure precepts in modern times. I don’t have time to elaborate on this introduction, but I also rely on him to learn the precepts. I also get close to him to learn the precepts. We generally feel that we are holding the precepts very well. Well, it’s enough to die. Actually, it’s not good. At home, we have the duty to be at home, the precepts to be kept, and there are standards for being a monk. We should all learn well and keep it as much as possible. This is the right thing to do.

We all have defects in holding, which are not corresponding to our Taoism. How can there be a lazy Buddhist disciple who does not earnestly learn the precepts? It can't be said that your Taoism is false, so what do you wish for? There will be no induction, no use, this is very important, good!If we continue to talk about it, it will be dawn, and we will go back and forth, and we will clap our hands together.