what is Tao?道是什麼？英文開釋道義
okay so thanks to the grace of heaven the holy teachers the doubt the masters the dow seniors and everyone here today for giving me the opportunity to present today's lecture why should one receive down emily since you're here we don't have any new weekly announcements but let's just test your knowledge emily what is the first thing you should do when you arrive at the temple a job yes um can you walk me through the process so what should you what should you do at the front door okay and then after doing three bows you want to head upstairs and then do okay and then and then what do you what would you be doing after the sanjali uh go say hello to all the masters that everyone yes that is correct you do say hello to the masters with how many vows one okay you forgot one thing though so then after during the morning and after doing the tanja there's also a large donald trump and uh yeah i'm just gonna see the portraits and you also want to make sure you do three bells to show your respect to them too all right okay thank you emily so we are good for that and then common temple terminology emily let's test you i guess uh refer to yourself as okay refer to others as do you remember the second one no so it would be a chen shin and then refer to masters as refer to temple hosts and finally refer to lectures as okay and can you tell me which two are more uh optional terms that you do not necessarily have to be using that's correct thank you okay so today's lecture uh first we'll be going over receive what thou and then afterwards what is dao and then where can one find thou and finally why should i receive dao and then i'll summarize this with a conclusion so receive what thou the thou we received today is the same as the thou of the buddhas in the past the dow cultivators of the past had to travel over 1 000 kilometers to find a master over 10 000 kilometers to get three treasures and they had to earn over 3 800 merits in order to even have a chance for buddha to pass down the dao so in the past what happened was you had to first cultivate and then you can own and then after cultivating you can you have the possibility of receiving dao in order to become a buddha these days we are much more fortunate because of the difference the new the time period everyone today has the opportunity to first receive doubt and when after receiving doubt then we begin cultivating so the spread of dao is no longer limited to a single individual passing it on to another because in the past when you passed down without through generations it was always from one individual to another but now everyone has the opportunity to receive doubt and this is very important because by receiving doubt we can have the opportunity to escape the cycle of reincarnation and find our true soul and only by receiving doubt will we understand what thou is really and we'll find we'll learn that that is the roots of our origin so if we do not receive doubt it may be very hard for us to realize our origins and if we don't realize our origins we might not be able to determine what's the purpose of life on earth and what's the purpose of death and what happens after that so what is that exactly that'll be that can be just categorized through three statements first that was the truth second that was the path and third doubt comes from pure heart so you might think now that that was something that's very good but you might be unable to exactly define it or you might just be uncertain uh you may just be uncertain what doubt is that is at all and this is a very normal feeling because originally that was supposed is only the truth that can be understand through emotions something that was not describable through words once we receive that however we now know the existence of doubt that thou exist but where exactly is dao where can where exactly can we see hear smell or touch down that was shapeless it's soundless and it's odorless that exists so how where exactly is it well in reality that was actually everything and everywhere although this is still not a complete and entirely accurate explanation because once again thou cannot exactly be explained through words it's mainly understood through emotions but to give an example of something that we can use to relate to what dao really is if it's undescribable think of dao as like the wind [Applause] when we use our hands to make a sweeping motion on our skin we can feel a very light breeze most likely unless you sweep really hard and you hit something you will not hear anything when you make this motion you cannot see the breeze and there should not be any smell to the breeze but you can feel it and by feeling it you know there's something there that was just like this breeze but it's on a much greater scale so instead of just applying this uh this breeze example to your hand apply the idea of doubt to everything in life so so now going into the three statements first that was the truth so we all know that there are some things that can easily be described about where about earth for example the sky has stars the moon rises at the night and the sun in the day we have four seasons that change periodically in the same order every year and each season always has very similar characteristics we have daytime and we have nighttime and we have the weather the earth has trees that and trees will always be going upwards or at least it won't be going it won't be growing downwards and if we follow the flow of water water always flows downwards by nature so unless there's some kind of human intervention through a machine water would not be flowing upwards the people are generations the people are categorized into generations and we have ancestors that we are related to so all of these things i said can be considered essentially facts and all of these are facts because the doubt controls all of these and the dow plays a role in determining and making all of these be considered true so even though it might even though it might seem hard to believe that everything i've described and what we take for granted is related to doubt the truth is doubt is affiliated with all of these whether we believe them or not second that was the path so you can think of dow as like a non-stop airplane that prevents us from straying off the path now where exactly is this path headed to well the path is the guiding the path is headed us to is heading us and guiding us to heaven so there are many ways of you can think of getting to heaven as in many ways for example you might you can think of traveling by boat by car there's many different forms of transportation and that's the same without and trying to get to heaven although there may be other ways of getting to heaven there the the other ways will not be as efficient as um as receiving doubt and using thou as the our path to get into heaven so even if we don't receive doubt it is still possible for us to return to heaven but there will be many stops along the way and it may take more merits needed if we receive them what what this is describing is reincarnation so we can think of this as the same as the using the transportation analogy because that was a non-stop airplane right that would take us from point a our starting point which is here on earth to point b which is heaven and and as long as we continuously cultivate and try to improve ourselves and earn merit it will be non-stop and we won't have to take any detours but there are other ways of traveling such as car walking biking and so those ways although they can still get you to your destination depending on what your destination is exactly it will most definitely take much longer time than to do so by an airplane finally thou comes from pure heart so we want to categorize our we want to categorize um our heart into two different hearts one is the human heart and the second is the heavenly heart and let me just just briefly describe what's the difference between these two hearts so when we talk about the human heart we talk about the things that we are most comfortable and familiar with our emotions such as happiness anger greed sadness selfishness so everything that makes us human essentially and what we face on a daily basis and these emotions although there are some that are very positive many of them can create problems and cause a lot of pain and many of these are what we are trying to improve on and hopefully get rid of or at least decrease the um the intensity over time such as anger and greed and selfishness whereas the heavenly heart is what we as humans currently do not have and what we are trying to strive for when we cultivate so what can we use to describe the heavenly heart some words can be like the buddha's heart our true heart wisdom our soul so think of this think of the heavenly heart as the pure essence of what we used to be before we became humans before we came to this earth and when we came to this earth we no longer have the heavenly heart and that is what we strive to aim for to get back our heavenly heart so we have to occur without cultivators we have to try to be using our heavenly heart to complete our actions and this is essential this is what we would be calling doubt for example think of this think of it like this and many of us may not realize that we actually have two hearts because we no longer have the heavenly heart so we may not realize what we have really lost and we may just think that we only have one heart the human heart but think of this as an example fish need water to swim but they may not be they they may not really realize what water is until they leave until they are forced to leave the water and only after they leave will they then realize how important water is so this is the same for us many of us can be thought of as these fish we don't know that we need to be cultivating ourselves because um because that because once we revive once we are here on earth we no longer have our heavenly heart but once we receive thou and we start cultivating then we learn about heavenly heart and how important it is and then we realize that we should be striving and working towards the heavenly heart when humans meet disasters it is often only in these situations do you realize the importance of breeding and living so it is very important that from today we realize the importance of dao because that was essentially our own soul so i've been talking about what is thou but where exactly can we find them tama gave up his status as a prince to cultivate and became a monk nan haiku fall was also a princess and she too gave up her status to cultivate so both of these predecessors and many others they had to travel very far and they had to go on pilgrimages to find masters in order to try to cultivate doubt and find where exactly dao is so even in the past they have faced the same question as we do today which is where is that and although to even to this day there are many people that still do so they still go to pilgrimages they go to more isolated places to try to find to try to find a location where they can be cultivating especially those from educated places such as america people might go to places such as china and india to find to try to seek the answer to this question few actually find out and cultivate and this is because that was not something that is accomplished by going into caves and meditating in isolation instead thou is found on the people it's found within you and me and everyone else so you do not actually need to seek for it elsewhere instead if you want to if you want to find the answer to this question all you have to do is look to yourself your inner self and that from your inner self you can find dao and you can learn to cultivate it so if people who are cultivating are good people that are building their character every day they're constantly striving to improve themselves then other people that do not necessarily know at this time what thou is will say thou is good and also try and also begin cultivating but if the people who cultivate are not that good others will also say thou does not seem so good so as cultivators we should always start from ourselves and we should always be trying trying to do things that are morally right so that when others see us and they see our actions they will feel that whatever we are doing we are carrying that with us this question often comes up why should i receive doubt often people might say if i'm a good person i don't do anything bad i don't eat meat i don't hurt other people's feelings i try my i volunteer at food banks homeless shelters why do i need to receive doubt i'm already very good well this can be actually explained through several aspects first many people make the misconception that kindness equals not doing bad things but kindness is not only limited to that it's not only just not doing bad things a lot of people think that as long as i am not doing things that are wrong then i am doing fine enough and after i after i pass away i will be rewarded for my actions however many people forget that although they may be thinking that they are living a good life as a moral person the majority of the time they also have day-to-day small moments where they'll face moments of bad bad emotions that come from the human heart there will be moments of greed selfishness blame and they may even dislike others and having these negative emotions will also bring oneself frustration and trouble in addition to causing bad interactions with other people so even if you think you are a good a kind person then it's actually even more important that you should receive doubt because when you receive doubt you'll learn the words of the buddhas and you'll be able to use them as a guideline of what it truly is to be kind and a good individual and from there then you can actually make be sure that you are living your life to the standards that will allow you to live a good that will allow you to prosper in the afterlife the second reason kindness is not enough to stop the effects of karma we've discussed this multiple times in the last few lectures about how karma and bad uh bad depth can only be replaced through merit so many kind people when they are faced with an obstacle or a challenge they may often have difficulties overcoming it they may be defeated they may have feelings of giving up feelings of hopelessness and in doing these moments they may do things that are not necessarily good they have may have bad judgment calls and if they if they do so if they actually carry out whatever they are thinking in the moment then their actions would result in them no longer being timed so life has meant too many obstacles it's like the waves of the ocean that can sweep you away and it is in these challenges during these moments that is very important to have the blessings of the buddha because if you have the blessings of the buddha you have the security and reassurance that there is someone there higher than you protecting you so then you can rely on the buddha during these moments and you will be sure that you will not lose your way finally the third reason kindness cannot help you escape reincarnation so even if you're very fortunate and you not face many challenges in your lifetime there are still a few things that most people that almost everyone will go do most people will get old they will get sick and everyone will one day die these things are inevitable you cannot avoid them so often kindness alone cannot make you be unafraid when these times come when you are old when you're fearing dead and wondering what will happen to you after you pass away and if there will be anyone by your side humans are always being born and always dying it's a cycle of reincarnation born die born die where the cycle is determined based on one's depth of merit that is always constantly changing over time so many people often get swept up in the things that they have in their lifetimes such as materialistic possessions alcohol wealth power fame and they will often forget their souls they will forget the original purpose of why they are on this earth and that the relationships that they have right now like they may be very rich in this current lifetime but they will for they may not remember they may forget that that does not guarantee they will be rich in their next lifetime that everything they have in each lifetime is only temporary that um who their mother is in their la this life may not be their mother in their next life they may not even be related or come in contact so everything is just a temporary connection if you think that everything is meaningless because none of it matters in your next life then you need to receive thou because this is the only way to escape this endless cycle of reincarnation and i just want to use this um bring this back to prince citadel uh said the dark ghutama which i mentioned earlier because siddha darda gutama realized this issue of escaping reincarnation and that's the main reason why he gave up his status because he realized that although to other people it seemed like he had everything he had rich he had power he had um he had uh he had he he was living in a life of comfort but he realized that all of it was meaningless because once he died none of it none of it would follow along with him so we want to escape reincarnation where we keep on getting born because earth is not the best place we can actually be on the earth there is actually countless acts of violence such as death and moral acts you also have sickness hunger disease a lot of pain that people experience and although there are also positive benefits on living on earth we want to escape the bad things everything i just mentioned and the only way to really escape is to receive doubt and cultivate so that we can go back to heaven and i want to bring this up i want to bring this up that even if you do not even if you do good deeds but you do not receive thou yes you will be able to enter heaven if you have done enough but you will only be able to enter the lowest level and even then you you are only able to reside in heaven for a certain amount of time before you are required to come back down to earth so without receiving doubt although you can't go to heaven you still aren't really truly escaping reincarnation you'll have a time limit maybe 500 years maybe a thousand years but eventually you'll be required to come back down to earth and reincarnate again and cultivate and and spend and live on earth as a human so in conclusion i just want to share this story it's called the four wives story and hopefully do this story i'll be able to summarize everything that we have been discussing today so in the four life story long ago there was a king who had four wives the king loved his fourth wife the most and would give her all of his riches as most of his riches he also deeply loved his third wife and was showing her off to neighboring kingdoms because his third wife was very beautiful however because he felt that his dear wife was too beautiful he always feared that she would leave him one day if he was to run if he was now no longer the king or he did not have so much well and his second wife was kind and considerate and was his most trusted advisor that he could seek for advice that he could seek and talk to in his difficult times finally his first wife was very devoted and loyal and although she truly loved she loved them deeply he was not very interested in her and tended to ignore her one day the king felt very ill he was sick he was stuck he was sick to the point that he was unable to move and stuck on the uh stuck in bed and the truth dawned on him that he might be dying his life was coming his life might be soon coming to an end and he thought of the luxurious life he had lived and he feared and he feared being alone because when he died because as king he always had people people tending to him he always had people listening to him whatever he wanted he usually was able to get so he feared that and he decided that he wanted to address his fears so he asked his wives individually what they would be willing to do when he was when he was passed away he started with his fourth wife he told his fourth wife i have loved you the most endowed you with the finest clothing showered gifts upon you and taking great care of you um now that i'm dying would you be willing to follow me and keep me company the fourth wife replied no way i walked away without another wife or without another word the king was very sad but he thought i still have the third wife and second wife so he asked the third wife next i have loved you all my life i am now dying will you follow me and keep me company the third wife replied no life is too good for me when you die i'm going to be married i'm going to make sure i live the current comfortable life i'm living in with plenty of wealth power and attention he felt very sad but he decided that he could at least count on the second wife because the second wife was his closest friend essentially so he then asked his second wife i've always turned to you for help and you've always been there for me when i die will you follow me and keep me company wife however replied with a very surprising response that he did not think i'm sorry but unlike the times in the past where i was able to offer you my advice i this time i really cannot help you out at the very most i can help prepare your funeral make sure you have a very proper burial that way plenty of on so you can then a voice called out to the king and his sadness i'll leave with you and follow you no matter where you go the king looked and i saw that it was his first wife his first wife had became very skinny and undernourished and he had not seen his first and he did not realize this he was shocked because he had not seen his first wife in a very long time greatly grieved the king said he told his first wife i should have taken much better care of you when i had a chance and these four wives are actually representations of our lives each of us actually have all four of these wives our fourth wife is our body no matter how much time and effort we spend in making it look good it'll leave us when we die our body will either be burnt or be chopped uh burnt and it'll be burned or in the past if it was uh chopped up and left alone for the outside for um and then our third wife is a representation of our possessions it's our status and wealth we always many of us during our lives focus on this on our third life we want to build our status we want to be well respected by others we want to build our world we want to have a lot of money and we want to have a lot of possessions so that other people will look to us as having very has having lived a good life but the truth is when we die everything we've worked on so hard in this life the possessions the status the wealth none of us can actually go with us into the afterlife and only go to all of this will actually go to other people may it be our family or strangers in charity the main point is we don't get to keep any of it and he'll be divided up finally our second wife the trusted advisor of the king represents our family and friends no matter how much they have supported and loved us in our lifetime the furthest they can stay with us as they buy us is up to our burial site when we pass away our family and friends cannot go with us so and finally our first wife is our soul it's our inner self and it's what we often neglect and pursuit of everything else the third life the wealth power pleasures the second wife building relationships with our friends and family and the fourth uh the fourth wife our body however it is all our first wife our soul that is the only thing that will follow us wherever we go and so in conclusion every person has things that they feel they have to accomplish in their lifetime and everyone's goals are very different some of them may be very ambitious some of them may not be that ambitious but still important goals the main point thing the main point is though that if there is one thing that every one of us must strive to do in our lifetime is to receive doubt because and not only just for ourselves but to also uh to also spread the doubt to our loved ones and to anyone that we think plays a significant role in our lives because when we receive thou the master is opening our right door and we are already forming a connection with the mila buddha with our heavenly mother so i hope that if you have not already that you and your loved ones could get to quickly get the opportunity to receive down and begin cultivating
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