To Understand
Buddhism Ven. Master Chin Kung
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Table of Contents “TO UNDERSTAND BUDDHISM” Excerpts From a Talk by Venerable Master Chin Kung................................................ 3 Chapter One: A Virtuous and Perfect Education.... 3 Chapter Two: The Goal of the Buddha’s Teaching 8 Chapter Three: Symbolism and the Arts .............. 18 Chapter Four: The Five Guidelines of Practice The Three Conditions ........................................ 26 The Six Harmonies ............................................ 34 The Three Learnings .......................................... 37 The Six Paramitas or Principles ......................... 40 The Ten Great Vows of Universal Worthy Bodhisattva ........................................................ 45 THE TEN RECITATION METHOD............................... 51 GLOSSARY............................................................... 53 THE SUTRA OF AMITABHA’S PURITY....................... 62 DEDICATION OF MERIT............................................ 63 PLACES TO CONTACT:.............................................. 64 MASTER CHIN KUNG’S PHOTO................................. 65 2
“To Understand Buddhism” Excerpts From a Talk by Venerable Master Chin Kung Australia, January, 1996
Chapter One: A Virtuous and Perfect Education Today, we see an increasing number of people around the world starting to practice Buddhism. However, not many people truly understand what Buddhism is. Therefore, this becomes a very important topic. What exactly is Buddhism? We need to understand it clearly. Buddhism is a most virtuous and perfect education directed by the Buddha towards all sentient beings in the nine realms. How can we tell that Buddhism is an education? First, we can tell from the way we call Buddha Shakyamuni our “Original Teacher” that he is the founder of Buddhism and that we are his students. From this, it is very apparent that the Buddha and we share a teacher-student relationship. This is only found in education. If Buddhism is his teaching, who then is the Buddha? Buddha is a Sanskrit word meaning wisdom and enlightenment. However, this wisdom is not the worldly wisdom we think of today. Broadly speaking, 3
the Buddha’s wisdom is the ability to ultimately, perfectly and correctly comprehend the true reality of life and the universe in the past, present and future. One who has perceived this wisdom is called a Buddha. Buddha Shakyamuni told us that all sentient beings, including ourselves, possess this innate wisdom and ability. Thus Buddhism regards all beings equally. Although we are equal in origin, presently we cannot see this because everyone’s wisdom and abilities differ. In our society, there are those who are intelligent and those who are not, those with great ability and those with less. How do these things come about? The Buddha told us that they are due to our varying degrees of delusion. Our innate wisdom and abilities are temporarily lost due to this delusion, but are not truly or permanently lost. If we can break through this delusion, then we will be able to recover these abilities. Therefore, the Buddha’s teachings show us how to rid ourselves of delusion and to uncover our innate abilities. It is often stated in Mahayana sutras that the Buddha did not directly help sentient beings. Then how do sentient beings become Buddhas? By themselves. The Bud