Trasforming Worldly Behavior into Religious Practice

“Mahamudra: Essence and Practice”( Book II)

Trasforming Worldly Behavior into Religious Practice

◎Chen Yixin: People in our age can’t withdraw completely into retreat for meditation as ancient people did. How shall we do meditation then?

●Xue Mo: I have sent the following short message to several friends: “Always keep awake and clear-minded at the present moment, gather in all six organs, be concentrated, accord with conditions, be happy and carefree. Do everything as you are painting in the air. When you are doing it, you concentrate on nothing but the act of painting; when it is done, you cast the whole business aside and nothing is left, either in the air or in your mind.”

Since we are drinking tea now, let’s take it for example. You can treat it as worldly behavior. When I drink tea, I drink concentratedly, my mind is always with the nature of emptiness, and the brightness in my mind is not lost because I am drinking tea. Though I am doing something secular, my mind is always in that which I have attained. I do worldly things with a supramundane mind. In spite of worldly behavior, my mind is not deprived of brightness and thus becomes dark and ignorant again. I am always awake and clear-minded. As a Tibetan saying goes, “Even if a sage has done a worldly thing, his mind is still holy and pure.”

Whether I am having tea or not, nothing can affect the state I have attained.

We need to transform all worldly behavior into a kind of Action Tantra Yoga, which belongs to supramundane dharmas. It is as significant as homa and universal offering. When you have entered into Mahamudra, you will have turned all mundane things into something that benefits all sentient beings. First of all, you should never part from that good thought. Next, you practice the three-part dharma in Shangpa Kagyu, and you will find that everything is illusory, all sounds are the mantra of your Yidam, and all phenomena are the manifestation of your Yidam. Gradually, you will break all attachments and achieve Mahamudra.

The best meditation is in action. Have you noticed it? During retreat, some practitioners fight with each other in the meditation room, and when the period of retreat is ended, they have become more stupid and arrogant. Some even have lost the confidence they had when the retreat began.

So, it is advisable to do as I said just now: “Always keep awake and clear-minded at the present moment, gather in all six organs, be concentrated, accord with conditions, be happy and carefree. Do everything as you are painting in the air. When you are doing it, you concentrate on nothing but the act of painting; when it is done, you cast the whole business aside and nothing is left, either in the air or in your mind.” This is a means of observation. If you practice it frequently, you will enter into Mahamudra.

Another way is what I mentioned before, that is, turning all worldly behavior into something beneficial to sentient beings, into a kind of Action Tantra Yoga. Have the right mind and transform all thoughts and behavior of moral neutrality. In the gradual path of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism, there are a lot of skillful means like that, such as Eight Verses on Mind Cultivation and Thirty-Seven Verses on the Practices of Buddha-Putras. observe all your behavior with good thought, with gradual practice like this, and you will eventually have the enlightened mind and your soul will be elevated.

If you feel it difficult to break attachment and keep awake and clear-minded, you can practice according to the gradual path. Through visualization and focusing attention, you transform all worldly behavior into a religious ritual of beneficence. You can incorporate spiritual cultivation – vowing, taking refuge, arousing the thought practicing visualization – into your daily life.

Real achievement has little to do with the renunciation of the body but depends on the awakening of the mind. A lot of practitioners had retreated all their life, but in the end they became evil demons. For them, what is the purpose of retreat? The geshe who murdered Milarepa was well versed in the five major Yogacara treatises and studied Budda-dharma all his life. He was so jealous about Milarepa’s reputation that he had him poisoned. You see, Buddhist knowledge doesn’t necessarily have to do with enlightenment and happiness.

What matters most is your mind-nature. First of all, you should never part from the mind of goodness. In all religions, goodness is an absolute truth. Someone summarized Buddhism as follows: “not doing evil, doing all good things, purifying one’s own mind – these are the teachings of all buddhas.” “not doing evil” is discipline, “doing all good things” is conduct, “purifying one’s own mind” is the essence of religion. In Buddhism, all ritual commentaries – the creation and perfection stages, for instance – and all practices of observation are meant for purifying one’s own mind, that is, to purify your consciousness and soul. You are purifying your own mind when you assimilate thoughts of benevolence into your daily life. Purifying your own soul is the best form of practice. It has nothing to do with retreat. There was a practitioner in Labrang Monastery who practiced Yamantaka dharma. He meditated diligently, but he didn’t purify his own mind. He ended up a donkey-headed demon. Lacking the nature of emptiness and the enlightened mind, he made incorrect effort and eventually became a donkey-headed demon because of too much craving. If he had had the mind of enlightenment but hadn’t attained the nature of emptiness, even though his effort couldn’t lead him to liberation, he would have been reborn in a buddha-land or become Dharma-protecting benevolent deities. Effort without the nature of emptiness nor the enlightened mind is terrible. It is attachment and ignorance in another form.

Among the three fundamentals of Buddhism, the right mind about the nature of emptiness is the soul. You can practice to attain it if you have had the enlightened mind and the supramundane mind.

Guru Nenghai wrote in Classifications and Verses on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: “According to the Mahaprajna-Paramita Sutra, when one hasn’t perceived the sagely truth or attained reality, violation of the precepts can be purified under certain circumstances; when one has perceived the sagely truth and attained reality, one’s deep-rooted incorrect thought cannot be purified.” If he doesn’t try to acquire the enlightened mind, a practitioner who has seen his own nature tends to fall into mad wisdom. If he doesn’t examine himself, he will become a person “the Buddha doesn’t save,” that is, even the Buddha can’t save him. 

There is a man whom I got acquainted with in the past. He was extremely eloquent. He went around claiming that he had achieved Mahamudra, although he had only learned a little. He mocked at the precepts and looked down upon meditation. He later became a monk, but within a few months, he sneaked out of the monastery, still wearing the robes of a monk. A monk in appearance, he took delight in messing around with girls. What’s even worse, he began to slander true dharma and his guru and many people were affected by him. He is one of those whom “the Buddha doesn’t save.” With the mad wisdom they have, they have no discipline, no conduct, nor any power of meditation, let alone their conduct as ordinary people. Their tag of a Buddhist practitioner can only damage the reputation of Buddhism.

That’s why Master Tsonkhapa’s Three Fundamentals of Buddhism is great. In it he said that the right thought, the supramundane mind and, the enlightened mind are the three requisites of achieving buddhahood. Among the sects of Tibetan Buddhism, the Gelug sect is the maturest. Its systematic religious philosophy and its organization is superior to those of the other sects. Other sects should learn from them.

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《光明大手印：实修心髓》下

把世俗行为转化为宗教修行

◎陈亦新：当代人不可能像古代人那样专事清修去闭关，我们该如何清修？

●雪漠：我曾给几位朋友发过个短信：“永远只觉醒清明于当下，督摄六根，心无旁骛，触目随缘，快乐无忧。做事如彩笔描空，描时专注，毫不旁顾。描后放下，心无挂碍，空中心中皆了无痕迹。”

我们以现在的喝茶为例：你可以将这喝茶当成世间法。当我喝茶时，我就专注地喝茶，我的心中并没有离开空性。我心中的光明并没有因我的喝茶而失去。虽然我在做世间法的事，心却无时无刻地不在我证得的那个东西里面。我总是在以出世心，去做世间的事。我并不因做世间事，而离开心灵的光明再变得黑暗和愚痴，我仍然是明明白白的。藏地有句格言：“圣者行了凡间事，他的心仍然是圣洁的。”

无论我喝这茶或是不喝这茶，这种行为根本改变不了我的那种证境。

要把世间法的所有行为，都变成出世间法的一种事部瑜伽。它跟我们的火供、会供具有同等的意义。当你契入大手印境界时，就把所有世间法的东西，变成一种利益众生的形式，永远不要离开那个善念。在此基础上，再根据香巴噶举三支法的内容去修，就会觉得一切都是幻化的，一切音声都是本尊咒声，一切形象都是本尊化现，渐渐就会破执，而契入大手印。

最好的修是动中修。你发现了没？好多闭关的，修到后来竟在关房里打架，出关后变得越加愚痴和我慢。有的进关时还有信心，出关时却连信心也没了。

所以，要按我前面说的那样去做，即“永远只觉醒清明于当下，督摄六根，心无旁骛，触目随缘，快乐无忧。做事如彩笔描空，描时专注，毫不旁顾。描后放下，心无挂碍，空中心中皆了无痕迹”。要是经常这样观修，就会契入大手印。这是能契入大手印的一种观修。

另一种就是我刚才讲的那样，要把世间法的所有行为，都转化为一种利众的形式，都变成出世间法的一种事部瑜伽。要提起正念，转化所有非善非恶的无记行为。格鲁派的道次第中有许多这样的方便，还有《修心八颂》、《佛子行三十七颂》等等。用这种渐修的善念行为，观照自己的所有行为，渐渐熏染出真正的菩提心来，使自己的灵魂得到提升。

当你不能进入放下后的专注于觉醒和清明时，你就用道次第的修法，把所有世俗的行为，通过观想和作意，转化为一种利众的宗教礼仪。你可以发愿，可以皈依，可以发心，可以观修，将灵魂的修炼贯穿在日常生活之中。

真正的成就跟身的出离关系不大，而是取决于心的明白。好多一生用于闭关的行者，最终却变成了恶鬼，这样的闭关有什么意义？那位佛学格西，精通五部大论，学了一辈子佛法，因为憎恶密勒日巴的名气比他大，最终还是教人下毒，成了毒死密勒日巴的凶手。可见，觉悟与快乐跟佛学知识也没有必然的关系。

跟成就关系最大的还是你的心性，最基本的还是不要离开你心中的善念。所有宗教中，善是一个绝对真理。有人将佛教概括为四句话：“诸恶莫做，众善奉行。自净其意，是诸佛教。”“诸恶莫做”就是戒，那“众善奉行”就是行，那“自净其意”就是宗教的精髓。佛教的所有仪轨如生起次第、圆满次第及所有的观修就是在“自净其意”，就是在净化你的意识和心灵。你将利众的念想，融入日常生活中时，就是在自净其意。当你在净化自己的灵魂的时候，就是最好的修行。这与你是否闭关没有必然关系。拉卜楞寺中有人修大威德金刚，修得很精进，但不自净其意修菩提心，最后变成了驴头鬼。他没有空性正见、没有菩提心，只有盲目的精进，却因贪执过甚而成了驴头鬼。要是他没有证得空性，而有菩提心的话，他的精进虽然不能使他解脱，但也能使他往生佛国，或使他成为善神护法。所以，没有空性正见，又没有菩提心的那种盲目精进是很可怕的。它是另一种执著和愚痴。

佛法三根本中，空性正见是其灵魂。你只要有了菩提心和出离心，只要如法修炼，就可能证得空性正见。

另外，能海上师在《菩提道次第科颂》中说：“大般若云，未见圣谛，未证实际，所有犯者，或有因缘，易可还净。若见圣谛，证实际已，异见深重，难可还净。”所以，有些见性后的行者，若是不修菩提心，很容易流入狂慧。这种人若不自省，即名“佛不救”，连佛陀也拯救不了。

以前，我认识一个人，他口才极好，稍稍学了一点东西，就到处宣扬说自己证得了大手印，并嘲弄戒律，看不起修定。后来，他去出家了。出了不几月，却逃了回来，仍穿着僧装，俨然僧侣，却又以泡妞为乐，后来更是四处诋毁正法和上师，污染了很多人。像这号人，便是我们所说的“佛不救”。他们空有一点狂慧，却无一点戒行，更无点滴定力，做人更是差劲。他们身上的佛的标签，只能毁坏佛门的声誉。

所以，宗喀巴大师的《佛法三根本》很伟大。他说，正见、出离心、菩提心是成佛的三足，缺一不可。格鲁派是藏传佛教中最成熟的教派，它体系化的宗教哲学，它的宗教组织建设，都比其他教派优胜。这是很值得其他教派效法的。

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