Wisdom, Compassion and Openness
This final part of the trilogy on Bodhidharma explores the pivotal role played by Bodhidharma in turning martial arts into a fine art of awakening. Due to the contributions of Bodhidharma and other masters of his genre, martial arts of India, China, Far East and Sri Lanka came to share many commonalities and turned into extensions of inner peace.
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This second part of the trilogy on Bodhidharma, goes deeper into Bodhidharma’s teachings, including the two methods Bodhidharma taught for entering the Way. We shall also see how Bodhidharma’s teachings fit within the broader context of various Mahayana methods.
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In Diamond Sutra and the Alagaddupama sutta, the Buddha taught that his teachings are like a raft, to be used for a purpose and to be left aside without clinging on to. The raft simile also summarizes the meaning of the three turnings into one line. Here, we shall see how the four types of clinging are utterly abandoned using the three turnings of the teaching.
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A Commentary on Mucalinda Sutta. The gatha expressed in this sutra teaches four ways to blissfully protect mind and remain in proper composure. Here is an explanation of it as the stages of the path as well as powerful ways to regain composure while engaging in daily life.
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An explanation on how our future is in our own hands. Explores the age old dilemma in the Indian thinking, “Is it correct to do an action with the motivation of a specific result?”
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We claim to be “free thinkers”. But, are we really free in our thoughts?
If this is so, we must be thinking from clear and direct wisdom unstained by habitual presumptions, inclinations and taboos. Often, that is not the case. Whatever we hear, does it remain inside as just pieces of information we can use freely? Rather, it molds us to think in specific ways. What we hear turns into bondage – of presumptions, inclinations and taboos.
This is an introduction, a broad overview, of what it means to practice Buddhism. The Buddha taught how to open the casket of our minds, to the vast expanse inside and outside. That relies on a simple point. That is to be aware – clearly, openly and spaciously. This is done by harmonizing the view, meditation and conduct.
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At one level, Buddhism offers practical tools that anyone can use irrespective of their religion. Beyond that, to fully benefit, one has to break free from all sorts of religious clinging – theistic, atheistic and agnostic, to take an open journey of awareness – with reason and direct seeing. Here is an analysis on this crucial point to understand Buddhism.
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Along with the demise of Buddhism in India, its birthplace, the insight into its deeper meaning also vanished from here without a trace. Yet there still remains in this land the inspiration that the Awakened One, the Buddha provided through his fearlessness and purity, his views on social equality and his doctrine of non-violence and compassion.
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