The way of Bodhisattva Nembutsu (2)
To create a shining future
You might wonder why we spend so many hours doing the Buddha Dharma sangha, Nembutsu. What are we doing? Why aren’t we spending more time working and make money? Some people might think this way.
Why are you guys spending so many hours for nothing!?
But wait a minute. If the purpose of our life is just to make money, it means that we are not so different from animals.
Many people live and make it their life’s purpose to make money and to survive, but this means that they are thinking how not to die. But it’s impossible to not die. Because you’ll die anyway. And we don’t want to live and create our life only in an effort “not to die,” …
Usually, people think about how to survive.
Concentrating only on how to survive means that people always have fear about what will happen if they lose their money, if they can’t make a living. Always thinking only about how not to die.
It’s the same as always having fear about what other people think and/or say about you. It’s the same.
If our reputation becomes bad, we have a primal fear that other people will reject us and it will become difficult to make a living; it has been like this since ancient days, and so we have the primal fear that if our reputation becomes negative, it will be difficult to make a living. That’s why people have always fought to find ways not to die, but this doesn’t make any sense for creating a life.
We have to totally change our attitude. The purpose of our life shouldn’t be “not to die,” because we die anyway. The purpose of our life is “How we can make our life shine,” not just survive, ”but how we can create a shining future.”
This has to be our purpose and this is possible.
And the way to create our existence as most meaningful, and most valuable, and most shining is through Bodhisattva Nembutsu.
In Tao Sangha Bodhisattva Nembutsu there are two aspects:
1) Spiritual
Spiritual, of course, but there is one more aspect:
2) Body
How to use our body, and that means how to use our ki. The body is equal to ki Don’t think the body is material, don’t think the body is physical. The body is subconsciousness itself. The subconscious is equal to ki, that’s why the body is equal to ki.
So, how do we use our body in Nembutsu?
There are altogether 13 important points to using our body and spirit in the most effective, most useful way, but today I would like to show three points. We call it “Three Cores.”
Three Cores:
There are two points in the hips and the tail bone point.
The hip point are at the side of the hips, and if you press on one or both of them, the body collapses. Both sides of the hips.
This is the weakest point. but also strongest point.
We have to know that the most weak point is the most strong point. If a person is conscious of these two points, and only if the person is conscious, I cannot move that person when I push on the hip point– I cannot make that person collapse.him anymore.
The strongest point is the weakest point, but the weakest point is the strongest point.
These two points and one more point. The tailbone point. The most bottom point. So I just imagine the point and tap the person’s tailbone point at the back and that person will collapse will
If the person is conscious of these three points and I push on any of the points, the person will not collapse. The person will be very strong.
When we sit and chant Nembutsu …
sit and chant Nembutsu a while.
conscious of these three points, we will be most effective in our practice.
So, we’ll continuing from last week, which was about the first two steps of Medium Nembutsu.
• Accept the nose form of Amida’s face into the gogyoku.
The gogyoku point is the strongest point, most solid point in the chest.
This is the first step. But what I said was, and this is the important part, as a Mahayana practice, this is not enough.
We easily drop into the idea that “we” practice, “I” practice, “I” accept the nose form of Amida’s face into the gogyoku.
We easily take this attitude, we easily think that this is practice. But it’s not. Mahayana Buddhist practice is not like this.
Tao Sangha Bodhisattva Nembutsu made it possible to practice the real and actual way of Mahayana. So instead of “I” accept, what would it be? We have to make it like this:
• Let all beings, let others accept the nose form of Amida into the gogyoku for each other.
I apologize for it being so complicated an expression. Even in Japanese I almost become crazy when I try to express it in words, how to verbalize it.
• Let all beings let others accept the nose form of Amida into the gogyoku for each other.
Do you understand that? It’s really become kind of crazy, right?
The attitude of Theravada Buddhist practice is “I” accept the nose form, but in the Mahayana attitude, it is “let everybody accept the nose form into the gogyoku.” But, this is not only “one to all,” but “all to all.”
So it’s going to be like this:
[Picture the universe again as a circle with dots inside it, but this time all of the dots are connected by lines, one to the other, all of them, everywhere.]
All to all, letting others accept the nose form of Amida Buddha into the gogyoku.
This is our real prayer:
“Let all beings get others to accept the nose form of Amida into the gogyoku, for each other.”
Now it’s become a little bit clearer. This helps to awaken you into the enlightenment of the Flower Sutra. The enlightenment of the Flower Sutra is “nothing individual exists, but everything is included, every moment, each other.” And this is the real meaning of emptiness.
Thinking about the representation of the universe in which all being are connected, they include each other every moment and affect each other. This is really how the universe is every moment.
Let all beings, make all beings, or pray for all beings to accept the nose form of Amida Buddha into the gogyoku—for each other.
This is the first step of Nembutsu. The first step.
Really concentrate until your ki becomes 100 pure this opens up the center core.
This will be the next step. What to do with the center core.
The next lesson will be about the second step, how to open up the center core. What to do with the center core. This brings you to a deeper state of your heart.
But you don’t exist really.
The important thing is how to affect all the universe, how to change the world, and this is possible, to create a shining future for all beings.
OK, thank you everybody! See you again, same time, same channel.