One Method or Do It Yourself?

Question: There are so many different schools of Buddhism, is it necessary to choose one school, or can I just accept an umbrella of them and call myself a Buddhist?

Response: If I lived in New York and had a goal of visiting San Diego, there would be many ways to accomplish my goal. I could fly, drive, ride a train, or take a bus to California. I could even walk if I wasn't in a hurry. Once I chose my means of transportation, I would then need to decide on a specific route. There are lots of options here as well.

In Buddhism, our goal is enlightenment. Our means of transportation is like a specific school. Our route is like a specific teacher.

As for my San Diego trip, if I decide to fly, book my flights in a single package through a travel service, and stick to my itinerary, I'll arrive in San Diego pretty much as planned. But if I try to combine flying, driving a car, and riding a train, and want to make all the arrangements myself, it's going to take a lot longer and be much more difficult.

It's the same in Buddhism. The Buddha taught many different ways to reach the goal. All the practice methods he taught are equally good. We just need to find the one that is most suitable for us. But if we try to take a little from here and a little from there, it will be sort of like listening to the airline ticket agent saying we need to go board the plane while the train conductor is directing us to the train. Very confusing and stressful, and who knows when we'll finally make it to San Diego. Choosing one travel package would be much easier.

In the same way, choosing one school in Buddhism makes reaching the goal much easier and will save us a lot of time.

Patience

Patience enables us to counter anger. It lets us persevere, which allows us to achieve our goals at school, work, and home. With others, patience helps us to interact more harmoniously. For ourselves, it allows us to recognize and overcome our shortcomings. It gives us the inner strength to react wisely in the face of adversity, allowing us to remain unruffled and to stop blaming others for our problems. It is the ability to stay with a difficult undertaking without complaint, disappointment, or resentment. Patience brings success and contentment.

Go Veggie and Help Yourself

 

·   In America, 55% of all antibiotics are fed to animals and the percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin went up from 14% in 1960 to 91% in 1988.

·   Vegetarian diets—naturally low in saturated fat, high in fiber, and replete with cancer-protective phytochemicals—help to prevent cancer. Large studies in England and Germany have shown that vegetarians are about 40 percent less likely to develop cancer compared to meat-eaters.^1-3 (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

·   Vegetarian eating plans offer health benefits, too. Vegetarian plans tend to result in lower rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. Vegetarians also tend to have lower body mass indexes and cholesterol levels. (American Dietetic Association)

·   In the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Health Study, compared to non-vegetarians vegetarians had about ½ the high blood pressure and diabetes, ½ the colon cancer, 2/3 the rheumatoid arthritis and prostate cancer.

·   By purchasing meat and fish, we share in the karma of killing. The retribution from killing is to be killed.

Four Great Vows of Bodhisattvas, Fourth Vow

Sentient beings are innumerable;

I vow to help them all.
Afflictions are inexhaustible;
I vow to end them all.
Dharma doors are boundless;
I vow to master them all.
Buddhahood is supreme;
I vow to attain it.

The fourth vow, the attainment of enlightenment, of Buddhahood is our ultimate goal. Only as a Buddha, can we perfectly fulfill the four vows. Only as a Buddha, will our generosity, morality, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom finally be perfected. Only as a Buddha, will our vow to help all beings be perfectly fulfilled and our afflictions perfectly eliminated.

With this fourth vow, we will know our ultimate goal. The second and third vows provide the road map to arrive at our goal. Without this road map, we will not know how to progress or even what direction we are headed in.

The first vow provides us with our motivation—we make the vow that we will help all beings end suffering and attain happiness. 

Four Great Vows of Bodhisattvas, Third Vow

 

Sentient beings are innumerable;
I vow to help them all.
Afflictions are inexhaustible;
I vow to end them all.
Dharma doors are boundless;
I vow to master them all.
Buddhahood is supreme;
I vow to attain it.

 

Learning many Dharma doors, methods of learning and practice, is where most people start. This is understandable because when we are unfamiliar and do not know the right order to do something, we start with the most obvious. For many people that's the Internet and bookstores. If there is a local practice center, then people might also go there to see where to start.  

But as my teacher, Ven. Master Chin Kung, says, starting with the third vow is like trying to build the second floor of a building without having first constructed the foundation and the first floor. 

We undertake the third vow of mastering all the teachings once we have vowed to help all beings and have striven to end our afflictions. Accomplishing this, we will have a clear mind and be able to learn different methods without becoming confused or attached.

With our clear understanding and learning, we will then be able to skillfully help others. Different beings have different needs and capabilities. If we mistakenly use the wrong method to help someone, we may do much harm. So we need to wisely master all Dharma doors to progress further to the fourth vow.