Lake of Lotus (11) - The Application of Wisdom-The Wisdom in D

By Vajra Acharya Pema Lhadren
Translated by Anne W.M. Chow

The Wisdom in Directing
Ones Dharma Practice (11)
Excerpt of Last Issue
The Skills in the Setting-up of Plans
The primary condition for success is the setting-up of an
objective (please refer to Issue 2 of the Lake of Lotus).
In the setting-up of an objective with regards to ones
preference, capability and ideal, to be supplemented
with the skills in the setting-up of an objective (please
refer to Issue 3 of the Lake of Lotus), a blueprint of
grandeur for the ideal of ones life has more or less been
drawn up. Then, what is the next step to proceed in order
to ensure success in achieving the objective?
The next step is to draw up a detailed and concrete plan
which is also strategic and effcient in nature. To work
out a series of plans for the major, medium-term and
small objectives is like the building up of a network of
interconnected highways which would eventually lead to
success. In designing the numerous plans, attention
must be paid to the following items:
1. Complementarity and the Enhancement of
Effectiveness: The links between plans should have
compatible, complementary and interdependent
effects(please refer to Issue 4 of the Lake of
Lotus).
2. A thorough elimination process to decide what to
adopt and abandon: Irrespective of working out
major, medium-term and small plans, there must
be a process to prioritize and eliminate with regards
to some designated elements and conditions. A
thorough elimination process to determine what to
adopt and abandon
Designated Elements & Conditions
in Determining What to Adopt and
Abandon
(i) Importance: To what extent would the plan help
in achieving the objective? To what extent would
this objective, in which one is prepared to achieve,
help in achieving the major objective?...... (please
refer to Issue 5 of the Lake of Lotus).
(ii) The Price to be Paid: Life is short and limited. All
the resources that you presently possess could be
lost at any moment. One must clearly understand
the characteristics of the Combination of
Resources and its relations with Destiny in ones
own life before making any changes, to realize the
price that one has to pay for the different plans,
Wrong Planning of Time
1. Inability of Linking-up the
Effectiveness
2. Inability in Grasping the Key
Points
How to Become Liberated From the
Huge Network of Karmic Forces?
Issue no.11
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and then go through the processes of elimination
and deployment in order to adopt and abandon
in these various plans. In this way, this would
enable the limited resources to become ever-
renewing, inexhaustible and of unusual value for
money within a limited framework of time and
space (please refer to Issue 6 of the Lake of
Lotus).
(iii) Strength and Weakness: Every person has his/
her own strengths, merits, skills, as well as his/
her weaknesses and the Achilles heel (weakest
point). In order to achieve success of any
objective or of any plan, one must be very
clear of ones own strengths and weaknesses;
and then through various skillful arrangements, try
to complement and make use of ones strengths
and weaknesses in designing the contents and
procedures of the plans. This is an important
strategy in eliminating and deploying the plans,
and thus should not be underestimated (please
refer to Issue 7 of the Lake of Lotus).
(iv) The Factors of Time and Effectiveness (1): In
drawing up any plan, one must take into account
the planning of time. The principles for the
usages and wastages of time must be clear,
and have to be linked up with the effectiveness of
the plan. Hence, time should be spent on those
plans which are most effective and can bring
the highest rate of return. One should prioritize
ones different plans according to the long or
short durations of time used and their relative
effectiveness. Plans that require one to put
in a lot of time and effort, but with low rates of
return and low effectiveness, should be scrapped.
One should refne and improve ones plans by
making reference to the principles for the usages
and wastages of time. This is a major direction in
the selecting, eliminating and refning process of
ones plans (please refer to Issue 8 of the Lake
of Lotus).
(v) The Factors of Time and Effectiveness (2): Due
to the simple fact that one has only very limited
time and energy in ones lifetime, and if ones own
objective is either to be liberated from the cycle of
transmigration (known as Samsara in Sanskrit),
or to attain full enlightenment (Buddhahood)
within this very life, then your planning of time
and the principles for the usages and wastages
of time for this life will become one of the critical
points in determining whether you would succeed
or fail. Hence one must be very cautious and
rational about this. If your objective is to be reborn
into the Buddhas Pure Land within this lifetime,
then you would have had greater fexibility in
the handling of your planning of time and the
principles for the usages and wastages of time,
but they still should not be neglected. Hence,
what will be the most wise and effective way in
the planning of time for ones life while one is on
the path for Dharma practice?......(please refer to
Issue 9 of the Lake of Lotus).
(vi) The Factors of Time and Effectiveness (3): Does
it mean that if one is unable to undergo long-term
retreat, one would not be able to achieve the
objective to become liberated from Samsara
or in attaining Buddhahood within this lifetime? If
you want to know the answer, please answer the
following three questions frst and to know about
the three essential factors in the application
of Buddhist teaching in our Daily Living ..
(please refer to Issue 10 of the Lake of Lotus).
(vii) The Factors of Time and Effectiveness (4): Wrong
Planning of Time
It is no easy matter at all for one to be able to master
the keys to success of Dharma Practices in
ones daily living in order to have achievements,
as well as to be able to achieve the objective of
becoming liberated from Samsara or in attaining
Buddhahood within this lifetime. Even if one does
possess the three best conditions (please refer
to Issue 10 of the Lake of Lotus), it will still be
unavoidable that one can fall prey and become
lost again in this tidal sea of sorrow in Samsara,
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as one goes through this undulated waves of ever-
changing life cycle. If one tries not to fall again,
and instead wants to further consolidate upon
ones own foundation, one of the best methods is
to merge ones own Dharma practices into ones
daily living so as to ensure ones mastering of
the Planning of Time.
No matter in the setting of what kinds of plans, one
has to try and predict what would be the outcomes
that would be brought upon you by this plan?
What will be the side-effects and how many?
One always hopes for the best but be prepared
for the worst. Many a Dharma practitioners, when
planning the times for their Dharma practices,
will tend to take care of one but then lose hold
of the others, making it more contradictory, and
also more confusing, for ones own daily living,
and thus ending in the loss of what to adopt and
abandon.
Wrong Planning of Time
The most common contradiction is to defne real
Dharma practice as the practicing of the Holy Dharma
during meditation. Thus, one will have to set aside a
certain period of time solely for doing homework of
Dharma practices during meditation each day, such as
reading sutras, reciting mantras, visualization. If ones
state of mind and the actual planning of time have
rigidly identifed that the practicing of the Holy Dharma
during meditation is the only real Dharma practice,
but then disregards those practices that one engages in
ones post-meditational daily living as not real Dharma
practices, then this will result in generating various kinds
of bad side-effects. For example:
1. Inability of Linking-up the Effectiveness
Most of the Dharma practitioners can maintain
a more pious, devoted state of mind when doing their
homework of Dharma practices, like reading sutras,
reciting mantras, visualization while they are practicing
the Holy Dharma during meditation. Even though these
are just routine homework that they do habitually, most
the Dharma practitioners state of mind would consider
that since I have already put in my efforts and have
maintained the devotion while doing my practices, I
have now fnished my job, and thus, for the majority of
them, they can obtain varying degrees of satisfactions
for practicing the Holy Dharma during meditation.
For example, certain degrees of tranquility, serenity,
satisfaction, or even driblets of mental concentration and
meditational power will make many Dharma practitioners
to think that their practicing the Holy Dharma during
meditation is the only real Dharma practice.
Whereas, on the other hand, one will engage
oneself in unpredictable changes during ones post-
meditational daily living, which is so full of pressures,
temptations, stimulations, confusions, complexities,
disturbances and disorders, and thus causing upheavals
in ones feelings and emotions. There would be
restlessness without any particular cause, anxieties
caused by indistinct uncertainties, happiness due to
getting what one has longed for; warmth and cosiness in
mild conditions, painfulness due to illnesses, unbearable
exhaustions caused by work pressures, entanglements
of battered emotions, annoying disputes, uncontrollable
desires, feelings of emptiness due to not knowing what
needs to be done, the sudden happenings of disasters,
the satisfaction for earning a huge sum of money, and
also the fnancial distresses that could not be solved
The ups and downs of these waves will cause ones
emotions to be in a constant state of anxiety all year
long without having any rest in between. All these never-
ending disturbances and interferences will make Dharma
practitioners to feel that by engaging oneself in practicing
the Dharma in post-meditational daily living is not an
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ideal environment for ones Dharma Practices, neither
could one really practice the Holy Dharma within this
kind of a framework. Therefore, the planning of time
for ones Dharma practices in daily living will have to
become how to plan a period of time within ones daily
living that is suitable for practicing the Holy Dharma
during meditation.
This rigid kind of thinking makes many Dharma
practitioners to set boundaries for themselves by thus
dividing up completely, in their own state of mind,
ones practices of the Holy Dharma between that during
meditation with that in post-meditational daily living.
This kind of thinking makes the effectiveness of ones
Dharma practices obtained during meditation could
not be sustained steadily, and will also not being able
to link up those Dharma practices that are during
meditation with those in post-meditational daily living.
The greatest hindrance that obstructs upon ones
successis the self-bondage of ones own mind;
The most stimulating factor for fostering ones
success is the transcendence of the limitations of
ones own mind.
Many Dharma practitioners can control their bad
temper, evil thoughts while practicing the Holy Dharma
during meditation, but once in post-meditational daily
living they will forget everything. They even think that
since they have practiced many sadhanas, and have
thus accumulated many merits and protections, there is
no need for them to practice the Holy Dharma in their
post-meditational daily living, and so they can continue
in allowing themselves to run wild. This state of mind
will make the effectiveness of ones Dharma practices
obtained during meditation not being able to be
sustained in the post-meditational daily living.
First of all, one has to change ones state of mind of
making a complete separation between Dharma practices
during meditation with those in post-meditational daily
living, such that if one can master the key points for
ones Dharma practices in daily living, and can make
some achievements, then it is quite possible to achieve
the objective of becoming liberated from Samsara, or
in attaining Buddhahood within this lifetime. That is to
say, the planning of time for ones Dharma practices
in daily living needs to be linked up.
2. Inability in Grasping the Key Points :
The side-effects and bad consequences that
are induced by the rigid state of mind in making a
complete separation between Dharma practices during
meditation with those in post-meditational daily living
are very widespread. Since the post-meditational
daily living is so flled with confusions, complexities,
interferences and disorders, all these will cause the
upheavals of ones feelings and emotions, thus making
it impossible to maintain ones mental concentration
and meditational power. This phenomenon will directly
infuence the judgments of Dharma practitioners, making
their moods to be hasty and disordered, and thus they
are unable to trace the sequences of various incidents
and thus hard to fnd out the key positions from the many
confusions of post-meditational daily living. In this way,
it would be more diffcult for them to solve the problems,
or may end up in mismanagement.
Many Dharma Practitioners, once they are in
post-meditational daily living, will withdraw all the
devoutness, devotion and tranquility that were present
during meditation. Because of the infuences of this
rigid and differentiating state of mind, the effectiveness
of Dharma practices during meditation to be developed
to their fullest extent, such as meditational power,
mental concentration and observational power etc.,
that could help them in handling all the changes in
post-meditational daily living and in fnding out the key
positions to solve problems, will thus be hindered. At
the same time, this will make its effectiveness during
meditation not being able to be sustained in ones daily
living through further training and strengthening. The
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benefts, if there are any, are scanty and with only very
limited effects.
Unable to strengthen the speed in fostering success
due to the furtherance of the effciency has not yet
reached the standard;
Unable to get the key points from the confusions
due to the effectiveness of the meditational power
has not been sustained.
If one wants to speed up of the coming of
success, any obstacles that can hinder the furtherance
of the effciency have to be removed. Regardless of how
confused the incident might be, one has to fnd ways
in tracing out its sequences, and in fnding out the key
positions. That is to say, the planning of time for ones
Dharma practices in daily living is to ensure that all
the effectiveness can be fully furthered and sustained.
3. Causing Various Kinds of Conficts:
The most common confict is that when there is
insuffcient time, one has to either reduce or cancel the
time for ones Dharma practices during meditation,
resulting in ones guilty feeling in ones state of mind that
one did not practice the Holy Dharma. As one does not
know the method of practicing the Holy Dharma in post-
meditation, one will have nothing to leave behind when
ones Dharma practices during meditation have been
cancelled, and that, practically, there is no advancement
in ones Dharma practices. If the conficts come from
the blames and dissatisfactions of ones own family
members, who not only do not support ones beliefs
and Dharma practices, but would further request for the
discontinuation of all the related activities, one will then
have to either cancel ones Dharma practices during
meditation, or else one will have to do them secretly.
This will make the struggles and conficts within ones
inner self to become more intense, and will be more
diffcult for one to strike a balance.

There are constant struggles within oneself only
because one cannot strike a balance between
expectations and reality;
Ones mind is so full of contradictions only because
ones cognitions cannot reach a consensus with
reality.
Whether one should achieve ones expectations
by working hard and thus change the reality, or
whether one should bow down to reality by seeking
compromises? Whether one should use wisdom
to elevate ones cognitions so as to surface up the
varied facets of reality and thus help one to remove
the contradictions? Or whether one should bow down
to reality by admitting ones own ignorance and be
willingly bounded up? As a compromise to either family
members objections or to work pressures, some people
would give up their Dharma practices and thus making
oneself to miss out the extremely rare opportunity
of being liberated from bondages, but will instead
continue to be bounded up with family members in the
cycle of karmic existence (Samsara), dragging each
other within the toils of the tidal sea of sorrow. These
kinds of people, whether be in their states of mind or
in their future world of reality, will continue to struggle
miserably, and not being able to be liberated from the
cycle of karmic existence (Samsara).
Some people would give up Dharma practices
because of the appearances of various contradictions in
terms of their cognitions of the Buddhist teachings and
of reality, and so they are willing to continue on within
the cycle of karmic existence (Samsara) for ever. For
example, there was an elderly who has practiced the
Holy Dharma for more than ten years. Each day, he
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would recite sutras, Buddhas Holy Names and offer
pure water in front of the statue of the Bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara. All along, things were smooth for him
which made him truly believed that this was due to the
fact that he had put in his efforts, maintained piousness
and completed the tasks and thus has accumulated
numerous merits, resulting in his getting the blessings
and protections from the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara in
return. These are the rewards that he deserved and thus
gave him a sense of satisfaction.
However, a man cannot be happy for hundred
days, neither will fowers bloom for thousand days.
This elderly who, having practiced the Holy Dharma for
more than ten years, was knocked down by a blow of
bankruptcy all of a sudden, leaving him nothing behind.
As usual, when he carried the water in front of the statue
of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, while preparing to
offer the water, he suddenly becomes so angry in his
heart that he uncontrollably threw the whole cup of water
to the statue of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, saying
angrily, It was wasting my time and all of my offerings
to you for the past 10 years or more. I have recited so
many Buddhas Holy Names in front of you. How could
you treat me like this? You are just useless. From now
on, I will never believe in you any more.
This elderly, who has lived for a long time, only
keeps on reciting Buddhas Holy Names, yet has little
knowledge about the Buddhist teachings. His cognition
of the Buddhist teachings is far from the environment of
true reality and of the real meaning of the Buddhist
teachings. The environment of true reality is controlled
by his own karmic forces and the karmic network
that has been formed by all the sentient beings that
are surrounding him (Karmic network: the network of
tractions formed by the mental power due to virtuous
and non-virtuous deeds amassed over countless
past lifetimes. These karmic forces would affect the
mental strength of ones inner self as well as that of
other sentient beings, and are being so much mutuality
intertwining and infuencing with each other that it forms
the network of tractions known as the karmic network.
Please refer to the VCD on the Unconceivable Law of
Karma, published by the Dudjom Buddhist Association).
The objective of Dharma practice is to be liberated
from the control of such kinds of tractions, and thus
help to revert back the great abilities of ones own
intrinsic nature, to be carefree in a leisurely manner
(please refer to the articles on The Meaning of Near-
death Experiences in both the 4
th
and 5
th
Issues of the
Lake of Lotus).
In order to be liberated from the control of such
a huge network of tractions, one has to, frst of all,
train the concentration power and meditational power
of ones mind during Dharma practices. From there
on, wisdom and awareness will be slowly induced.
In matching with the appropriate keys to success and
methods, these are suffcient to enable one to revert
back the great abilities of ones own intrinsic nature,
to be carefree in a leisurely manner. All the different
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, various Buddhist sutras,
and even all the teachers of the righteous path of the
genuine Buddhist teachings can only offer guidance
and assistances by the side, but cannot remove those
tractions that are generated from the minds of all
sentient beings.
It needs the same person who ties the bell to untie
it; as well as to cure the mental disease with medicine for
the mind. All the different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
various Buddhist sutras, and even all the teachers of
the righteous path of the genuine Buddhist teachings
are not magicians, witches and deceivers and would
not shoulder nor remove all karmic forces for a person
simply because he or she has made offerings or diligently
reciting Buddhas Holy Names. If making offering and
diligently reciting Buddhas Holy Names is purely for
satisfying ones endless desires when ones mind is so
full of greedy desires, then it will be diffcult for one to
cultivate ones concentration power and meditational
power. How can ones wisdom and awareness be
induced? Even if one does possess the keys to success
and methods for liberating from those tractions, one
still cannot fght against the dragging of the tractions
within ones own mind. Hence, this elderly offerer
will only go to the extremes and be bogged down deep
in the mud, and thus can never be liberated from the
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control of the tractions of this karmic network. The
reason is as simple as one plus one equals two.
Even though the reason is simple, yet there
are countless sentient beings who are still unable
to understand this simple reason for countless past
lifetimes. The reason is simply because that one just
cannot control the generation of desires, and so both
wisdom and awareness will all be drown and lost
among the desires, resulting in the fact that they still
could not understand it even though the reason is so
simple. The mind of this elderly is as hard as fossils, and
so he was unable to accept any real Buddhist teachings.
Even an ordinary person who does not have any
religious belief will consider his act of splashing water
onto the statue of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is
stubborn and unreasonable, yet he himself considered
this to be right and natural. If this elderly knows, from
the very beginning with a correct state of mind, that
those devotion, pure state of mind and dedication of
practicing the Holy Dharma during meditation should
have to be linked up and be sustained with those
practices in post-meditational daily living, the above-
mentioned many conficts and wrong-doings could have
been avoided.
Unable to see the real picture of the matter simply
because ones mind has been deluded and
perplexed by desires
Unable to fght against desires with meditational
powers simply because ones mind has been
willingly deluded and confused.
How can the planning of time in daily living
be designed so as to avoid the various wrong doings
as mentioned above? How should we practice the Holy
Dharma so as to make the effectiveness of Dharma
practices during meditation be linked up and steadily
sustained with that in post-meditational daily living so
as to further it and let it become fully developed? If
one wants the success to be speed up, how should
it be planned so as to remove those obstacles that will
hinder the effectiveness? How can the sequences of
incidents to be traced out of those confusions, and the
key positions to be found in solving the problems? How
can a consensus be reached between ones cognitions
and reality so that the contradictions can be
resolved? How can the devotion, pure state of mind and
dedication of Dharma practices during meditation be
linked up and be sustained with that in post-meditational
daily living with a correct state of mind? This will be
further discussed in the next issue of the Lake of Lotus.
Thank you! .(To be Continued)
Dharma practices
Training the power of the mind
Match appropriate keys
to success & methods
Meditational power Mental Concentration
Revert back to ones
intrinsic nature in
attaining Buddhahood
Awareness Wisdom
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Lake of Lotus (11) - The Application of Wisdom-The Wisdom in D

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By Vajra Acharya Pema Lhadren

Translated by Anne W.M. Chow

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