Dharma Drum Mountain 法鼓山English Dharma Class

Thursday December 15th, 2011

The Enlightened View

Why Enlightenment?• 悟，覺，菩提，成佛，無• “Enlightened” to something?

• “Our” True Nature• What was the Buddha’s

primary question?• Why is there suffering in this

world?• His answer is what we call

“enlightenment.”• Awakening

• End of words – beyond description

• Freedom from any limitation

The Buddha’s Awakening• Jhanas – meditative concentration

• Four primary stages• First True Knowledge

• Remembering past lives• Understanding one’s own “causes and

effect”• Second True Knowledge

• Knowing the deaths and rebirths of others• Understanding other’s “causes and

effects”• Third and Final True Knowledge

• Elimination of the asavas 有漏• Cessation of “cause and effect”• “Enlightenment”

Asavas 有漏 /無漏• Outflow, inflow, taint,

defilement…• Three primary factors• Desire for sensory

experience• Desire for existence• Ignorance

• Knowledge of their elimination is known as their awakening

Mara 魔羅• “The Bad Guy”

Buddhism• Represents all

things that take us away from the Path.

• A friend of Buddhism

Cessation of KarmaOf all those things that arise from a cause,The Tathagata speaks of their cause;And how they cease to be, that too he tells,Thus is the doctrine of the Great Monk.諸法因緣生如

來說其因諸法滅亦然是大沙門說

Our Awakening• Faith, practice,

realization• Four Signs of

Awakening• Generosity• Tenderness• Compassion• Sympathy

• To see all things with the eye of a Buddha