4、Are hearing, contemplating and meditating the same thing

王珊珊

4.Are hearing, contemplating and meditating the same thing

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The Guru said, "Hearing and real meditating are two different things. Hearing is to listen to the guru’s teachings carefully, and to contemplate on the meaning of what you heard. To meditate is to apply the Dharma meaning one heard and contemplated to the mind to see if it could melt into the mind, to see if the mind could receive the real effect. After hearing, one must practice."

The Guru asked,"Do you think hearing and practicing is one?"

Almost all the students answered, "Yes."

The Guru said,"I don’t think so. I think they are not one. You think they are the one, why?"
One student answered, "Because we hear and in the meanwhile, practice."

The Guru asked, "How do you hear and in the meanwhile practice?"

The student answered, "First hear the Dharma, then cultivate the habit and practice in life."

The Guru asked," how do you practice during daily life?"

The student answered, "For example the simplest and most common housework like washing dishes. When one is washing dishes, visualize purifying all the karmic obstruction of one self and other sentient beings and then as soon as possible to achieve Buddhahood."

The Guru asked, "Then one question, if we just read books, as nowadays there are teachings on the internet and the books are also very profound, could we practice just according to the books?"

Answered, "No."

The Guru asked, "Why do we need gurus?"

Answered, "Because we need the guidance from the guru."

The Guru asked,"Aren’t the books have all the guidance of the gurus?"

Answered," The books do have, but when one studies, questions would come."

The Guru asked, "Aren’t the books have explained clearly? Why still have questions? You come up with one question, the book give you an answer; another question, another book could answer it. Aren’t all the questions answered by books? Then no need of the gurus, right?"

The Guru said, "When we read, the books explain all the theories clearly. Then we start to practice following the readings, as ordinary beings we couldn’t handle it. When we practice, the teachings of the books need to correspond with the mind and at this point, itisimpossible to practice effectively without oral instructions from the guru. The reason we need guru is that when apply the teachings from books to our mind, without the crucial joint of the guru, we ordinary beings couldn’t do it by ourselves."

"For example, nowadays it is very easy to get medical information. Provide a student with all the best medicines and medical textbooks and after he has studied all, would he then become a good doctor? Dare you let him treat you? Actually, after studying the theories, then through practice and continuous exploration, then he becomes a good doctor.Provide you with all the medical books, could you become a good doctor? Do you dare to let a newly graduate treat you? In serious illness, dare you put your life in his hands? If not, it is because he is not a practical and experienced doctor. Such a doctor no one dare to trust."

"A good doctor, surely have completed study and practice. So is Guru. If we only know all the theories and have no genuine guru to teach us, could we do it? "

Answer," We couldn’t."

The Guru said, "A very good doctor give the patients very good medicine—for example, I was the patient and I was cured after taking this medicine. Because I was cured, in accordance with my own illness, I studied well all the medical books, could I give this medicine to all the other patients? Of course this could not cure, could even lead people to death."

"Only after I have studied well under the guide of the doctor, and I can use my own and the teacher’s experience to help other patients and would I dare to treat other people."

"The relationship between gurus and students is the same."

"As the example above, Guru is the doctor, and the medical books the Dharma scriptures. If we only get information through words, however diligently we study the medical books, we could not diagnose our illness nor recognize the medicine. But an experienced doctor will recognize our illness and give medicine accordingly."

"As an experienced doctor, an experienced and realized guru knows what the students need."

"If we read the Buddhist scriptures by ourselves, though there are many explanation and methods of practice, but as students, we don’t know our own illness and don’t know which method will fit for our mind."

"But an experienced Guru will know our mind situation and he will know what kind of medicine, what kind of practice we need."

"Why do we rely on Gurus? Because we don’t have this insight. We don’t know the situation of our  mind and we don’t know which practice from the book could treat our affliction. But the Guru knows. So we must rely on the Guru to get the necessary practice in accordance with our illness."

The Guru said, "I think so. What do you think?"

All answered, "Yes, it is so."

The Guru said, "Have good medicine, recognize it and taking it are two different things. Have the good medicine is like that we have read all the scriptures and theories, while taking it is like real practice. To see it and to eat it is different and thus hearing and contemplating are different from meditation."

The Guru said, "I think so, do you think so?"


All answered, yes.

The Guru said,"First you should study diligently on the internet, the Great Perfection (Dzogchen) and the Entering into the practice of the hodisattva are all very important. Study them and then see whether you could put them into practice."

"Study through hearing and contemplating is different from the real meditation afterwards. Lama Achuk insisted this opinion."

The Guru said, "Some people studying on the internet, after finishing the Preliminary Practice then the Middle Way (Madhyamaka), then the Tsema, then the Prajna, the Kosha, lots and lots but just hearing and it is meaningless."

"If we just study the Preliminary Practice and really understand the meaning then to practice, it will be effective. If one does not clearly understand the meaning of a Dharma book, even if one studied a lot, it is just hearing. H.H. Khenpo Achuk Lama also said, such study were useless. Only after really understand the meaning of the Dharma and put it to practice then it will be effective."

The Guru said," I think so. Do you agree?"

All answered, "Yes."

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