C o n t e n t s
Preface 1
First Series: The Immutable True Characteristic 1
There Is Nothing in the World That Can Last Forever 2
There Is No Way to Resist Impermanence, But It Should Not Be Feared 8
Flowing and Changing Causal Conditions Are the Mother of Change 14
Life Is a Giant Dream 21
The Self Is a Giant Illusion 28
What Do People Live For? 34
Section Two: Discover the Inherent Treasure of Life 41
The treasury of Life, Every One Possesses 42
True Happiness Is a Light in the Mind 49
All Are Memories, Past and Gone 55
Human Life Is a Continuous Struggle with The Self 62
How Many People Can Make a Lucid Choice? 68
True Freedom Is the Wakefulness of Wisdom 74
Freedom Is a Matter of Mind in Accord with Mind 82
The Bright True Mind Is Always with You 89
Take Hold of the Opportunity, and Welcome the Awakening of
the Spiritual Nature 95
Its Not That You Resolve a Question, Its That There Is No Question 102
Section Three: Find Your True Enemy 109
We Have So Many Misunderstandings of the World and of Life 110
Do Not Fall into the Spider Web of Desire and Greed 117
The Discriminating Mind Is the Source of Myriad Evils 123
Wake Up From the Delusions of False Thoughts 129
Doubt Is the Great Enemy of Happiness 136
Anger and Arrogance Are Stumbling Blocks for Freedom 142
Keep Your Eyes Open, and Stay Far Away from Evil Companions 147
Section Four: Because of Wisdom, Life Changes 155
The Mind of Detachment Is Not a Temporary Emotion 156
The Enlightened Teacher Is a Beacon for the Spirit 163
Let Good Actions Change Your Mind and Spirit 170
True Maturity Is the Maturity of the Mind and Spirit 178
The Object of Cultivation Must Be Your Mind 185
Life Changes Because of Wisdom 192Preserve Pure Awareness, Listen to the Voice of the Inner Mind 198
Where There Are No Thoughts, Preserve a Spiritually Alive Awareness 205
Understand That Life Is Like a Dream, and Treat Yourself and Other People Well 212
The Clarity and Strength to Master Your Life Comes from the True Mind 220
Build Something Relatively Eternal amid Empty Illusion 226
Section Five: Plant the Seeds of Great Love in the
Field of the Mind 233
Real Solitude Is a Realm of Experience 234
Use the Mind That Transcends the World To Do Things in the World 240
To Do Well in the Present Moment Is the Best Ultimate Concern 245
Fundamentally, There Is No Conflict Between Believing It and Putting
It into Practice 251
Bad Theories Are the Soil that Breeds Evil Deeds 258
Good and Evil Go Together Like Light and Darkness 265
Plant Great Love in the Field of the Mind 271
Dont Expect Yourself to Be Able to Hold onto Flowing Water 277
Afterword: What Is a Genuine Disciple Like? 283
內容試閱:
The World Is a Reflection of the Mind is an insight of
wisdom. In traditional cultivation, only those whose cultivation
and realization reach the highest level are able to have this kind of
wisdom and level of perception. Only those who truly understand
this principle will easily merge with the yoga apart from
sophistry, and truly manifest what we often call illuminating
mind and seeing its true nature.
For those people who are constantly troubled by pain and
suffering, this book has a wondrous function that other books
cannot replace. When our whole community has fallen into
affliction and anxiety, it is without doubt a dose of the good
medicine of wisdom.
In the Buddhist sutras there is a verse that goes like this:
If people want to completely understand all the buddhas of the
past, present, and future, they must observe the true nature of the
phenomenal realm, that everything is only a creation of the mind.
This is the primal source of the wisdom of the present book. But
talk is talk, and action is action: sometimes understanding at the
level of truth cannot represent a firm grasp at the level of things and events. So the existence of the present book has its value.
This book is a vivid exposition of worldly phenomena for the
world-transcending wisdom of Buddhism. Since it is the vision
and viewpoint of wisdom, it also has many ways of making close
connections with real life. Since it can alter our minds, it can
also change our actions, and then it can change our lives.
Many people, because of the ignorance of the mind, are ignorant
in action and they end up having many difficulties in life
and die an untimely death. It is just as it says in my novel Desert
Hunters: When the mind is illuminated, the road opens up. It is precisely because their minds rise to a higher level and wisdom
appears, many people who were originally mired in difficulties at
last realize transcendence, and become people of accomplishment
in our eyes. We can pick out this kind of inspiration among many
illustrious names, such as Steve Jobs, who benefited from Zen.
And Zen, in the system of the Great Mudra, is the Great Mudra
of the Mark of Reality. From the Zen viewpoint, even the shadow
of death cannot cover the creative wisdom of Steve Jobs, and we
now still get to enjoy the series of Apple products he left behind.
Thus I have often said: Life is created by the mind. Your
life is a reflection of your mind. The world that appears in your
eyes is also a reflection of your mind. Whatever kind of mindyou have, you will have that kind of life. Whatever kind of mind
you have, you will also have that kind of world. Only when your
mind goes from small to large, will your world go from small to
large. Without a change of mind, it is definitely impossible to have
a change in your life. Therefore, you can also call this book a
prescription for building a life.
Around me there are many people who have changed their
lives and fates by relying on the wisdom of this book. Among
them are people suffering from fatal illnesses, those with serious
depression, those who did not want to go on living after the deaths
of people they were close to, those who had lost hope and were
sick of the world. Many of them, after coming into contact with
my writings, through a change of their minds, had their lives
elevated to a higher level. Thus, some friends hoped that I would
be able to take this kind of wisdom and communicate it in popular
form, without religious trappings, and in this way produce a book
that enables people who do not necessarily have religious beliefs
to detach from suffering and attain happiness.
The wisdom in this book has its source in traditional Great
Mudra Buddhism, and the author is a follower of the ShangpaKagyu Great Mudra. In my book The Great Mudra of Light: The
Heart of Real Practice published by Central Compilation &
Translation Press, I concentrated on introducing the Shangpa
Kagyu Schools Five Diamond Teachings of Niguma. In its
procedure for completing the mind of enlightenment there is the
method of the three branches. What it conveys is the wisdom of
the present book:
The excellent understanding of the Path of the Master
Teacher is understanding that all appearances are the Master
Teacher, understanding that the nature of the inherent mind is the
empty inherent nature, and thus achieving a definitive perception.
The excellent understanding of the Fundamental Buddha is
that all appearances are Buddha Father and Buddha Motherthey
appear but have no inherent nature. It is understanding
that all that appears and all that is heard is the inherent mind, and
the nature of the inherent mind is the empty inherent nature, and
achieving a definitive perception.
The path of knowing that all things are like an illusion is
definitively knowing that all appearances and thoughts are the
inherent mind, and definitively knowing that the inherent mind is
illusory transformation. If we investigate the inherent nature of
the six sense faculties and the corresponding six sense objects,
then we see that their inherent nature is empty, yet can manifest
appearances; apparent manifestations are not different from
emptiness; apparent manifestations have no inherent nature, and
are like illusory transformations. If we eliminate clinging and
attachment to discriminating thought, then amidst manifestations
and emptiness without clinging, we enter into profound meditative
concentration.