20110507 Four Elements are Void and Meditation

Updated Mar 2010

加拿大佛教會湛山精舍　

禪修學佛入門 Introduction to

Buddhism and Meditation2011/05/07

Buddhist Association of CanadaCham Shan Temple

Updated Mar 2010

Buddhist Association of CanadaCham Shan Temple

ná mó fó tuó南無佛陀

Namo Buddha

ná mó dá mó 南無達摩

Namo Dharma

ná mó sēng qié南無僧伽

Namo Sangha

加拿大佛教會 © 2006 Buddhist Association of Canada

Buddhist Association of Canada

Basic Terms 5 aggregates (skandhas) 4 elements 6 sense organs, 6 sense objects, 6 sense consciousness 12 links of causation (nidāna) 4 noble truths and 8 fold path 6 paramitas 4 persuasions 3 / 5 vehicles 10 realms



Basic Terms10 Chinese schoolsLife story of the BuddhaBuddhist History in IndiaBuddhist History in ChinaPractice



1 Take refuge in the Three Treasures of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

2 Earnestly cultivate the Three Perfections of Morality, Calmness, and Wisdom.

3 Shed the Three Poisons of Greed, Anger and Delusion.

4 Purify the Three Karmas of Action, Speech and Thought.

Buddhist Practice and Cultivation in Four Lines



皈依佛法僧 ( 三寶 )

勤修戒定慧 ( 三學 )息滅貪瞋癡 ( 三毒 )清淨身口意 ( 三業 )

Buddhist Practice and Cultivation in Four Lines



Shenxiu:The body is the Bodhi tree; The mind is like a stand of bright

mirror. Be always diligent in polishing it; Do not let it attract any dust.

Huineng:Originally, there is no Bodhi tree; Nor any stand of bright mirror. Originally, there is not a single

thing, Where could any dust be alight?

The Sixth Chán Patriarch Dàjiàn Huineng (638-713, 六祖大鑒慧能大師 )

身是菩提樹，心如明鏡臺，時時勤拂拭，勿使惹塵埃。

菩提本無樹，明鏡亦非臺，本來無一物，何處惹塵埃。



How unexpectedly, the self-natures are originally pure. How unexpectedly, the self-natures are originally

neither born nor ceased. How unexpectedly, the self-natures are originally self-

sufficient. How unexpectedly, the self-natures are originally

without movement. How unexpectedly, the self-natures are able to generate

everything.

何期自性，本自清淨；何期自性，本不生滅；何期自性，本自具足；何期自性，本無動搖；何期自性，能生萬法。

The Sixth Chán Patriarch Dàjiàn Huineng (638-713, 六祖大鑒慧能大師 )



Traditional Teaching of the PatriarchTraditional Training method of the PatriarchTraditional Practice method of the Patriarch

Current teaching of the MonasteryCurrent training method of the MonasteryCurrent practice method of the Monastery

Pilgrimage Questions:



Towards a

Liberated and

Enlightened Life

煩惱輕智慧長

Meditation禪修



Samatha – Calm Abiding

How to train our monkey mind?

Use tools to progress in nine stages of calming abiding i.e. mindfulness and vigilance

Use methods discribed in “Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment” by Atisha.

To be successful in calm abiding and the perfectly concentrated, you need to begin with six collections of causes/conditions.



Six Collection of Causes/Conditions to Samatha

(1) Abiding in a harmonious or a conducive place

(2) To have fewer desires(3) To be content(4) To be free of the hustle and bustle of a lot

of different activities.(5) To be able to protect well whatever

resolution one has taken. ["pure morality" or moral discipline.]

(6) Reduce one’s attachment to objects of desire.



Nine Stages of Calming Abiding 九住心

1. Placement - Monk chasing elephant and monkey 內住

2. Fixation with some continuety 續住3. Patch-like placement 安住4. Close placement or Good fixation 近住

5. Becoming disciplined 調順6. Pacifying or becoming peaceful 寂靜

7. Fully pacifying 最極寂靜8. Becoming single-pointed 專住一趣9. Fixed absorption or meditative

equipoise 等持



Five Hindrances1) Laziness; 2) Forgetting the Object; 3) Sinking and excitement; 4) Not applying the antidotes;5) Over-application of the antidotes.



Antidotes1) faith; 2) aspiration; 3) perseverance; 4) blissful pliancy of mind; 5) mindfulness;6) introspection; 7) applying the antidotes;8) non-application of antidotes when they’re not necessary.



In Buddhism, the four Great Elements (Pali: cattāro mahābhūtāni) are earth, water, fire and air. Mahābhūta is generally synonymous with catudhātu, which is Pāli for the "Four Elements."In early Buddhism, the Four Elements are a basis for understanding and for liberating oneself from suffering. They are categories used to relate to the sensible physical world, and are conceived of not as substances, but as sensorial qualities.

Four Great Elements

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Four_elements_representation.svg



The Buddha's teaching regarding the four elements is to be understood as the base of all observation of real sensations rather than as a philosophy. The four properties are cohesion (water), solidity or inertia (earth), expansion or vibration (air) and heat or energy content (fire). He promulgated a categorization of mind and matter as composed of eight types of "kalapas" of which the four elements are primary and a secondary group of four are color, smell, taste, and nutriment which are derivative from the four primaries.The Buddha's teaching of the four elements does predate Greek teaching of the same four elements.[citation needed] This is possibly explained by the fact that he sent out 60 arahants to the known world to spread his teaching; however it differs in the fact that the Buddha taught that the four elements are false and that form is in fact made up of much smaller particles which are constantly changing.[citation needed]

Kalapas



•Earth element (paṭhavī-dhātu)Internal earth elements include head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bone, organs, intestinal material, etc.[9]

•Water (or liquid) element (āpo-dhātu)Internal water elements include bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, nasal mucus, urine, etc.[10]

•Fire element (tejo-dhātu)Internal fire elements include those bodily mechanisms that produce physical warmth, aging, digestion, etc.•Air (or wind) element (vāyo-dhātu)Internal air elements includes air associated with the pulmonary system (for example, for breathing), the intestinal system ("winds in the belly and ... bowels"), etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah%C4%81bh%C5%ABta#cite_note-8




Fifth andSixth elementsIn addition to the above four elements of underived matter, two other elements are occasionally found in the Pali Canon:[13]

•Space element (ākāsa-dhātu)Internal space elements includes bodily orifices such as the ears, nostrils, mouth, anus, etc.•Consciousness element (viññāṇa-dhātu)Described as "pure and bright" (parisuddhaṃ pariyodātaṃ), used to cognize the three feelings (vedana) of pleasure, pain and neither-pleasure-nor-pain, and the arising and passing of the sense contact (phassa) upon which these feelings are dependent.




Soteriological ApplicationThe Four Elements are used in Buddhist texts to both elucidate the concept of suffering (dukkha) and as an object of meditation. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are the sensory qualities solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility; their characterization as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively, is declared an abstraction – instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, perceived.[18]




Understanding SufferingThe Four Elements pertinence to the Buddhist notion of suffering comes about due to:•The Four Elements are the primary component of "form" (rūpa).•"Form" is first category of the "Five Aggregates" (khandhas).•The Five Aggregates are the ultimate basis for suffering (dukkha) in the "Four Noble Truths."Schematically, this can be represented in reverse order as:Four Noble Truths → Suffering → Aggregates → Form → Four ElementsThus, to deeply understand the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, it is beneficial to have an understanding of the Great Elements.



"My friend who has retired from the world and is angry with this man, tell me what it is you are angry with? Are you angry with the hair of the head, or with the hair of the body, or with the nails, etc.? Or are you angry with the earthy element in the hair of the head and the rest? Or are you angry with the watery element, or with the fiery element, or with the windy element in them? What is meant by the venerable N. N. is only the five groups, the six organs of sense, the six objects of sense, and the six sense-consciousnesses. With which of these are you angry? Is it with the form-group? Or is it with the sensation-group, perception-group, psychic constructions-group, or consciousness-group? Or are you angry with an organ of sense, or an object of sense, or a sense-consciousness?"

With Which Element of This Man are You Angry?



www.ChamShanTemple.org

www.shengguangshi.blogspot.com

[email protected] Shi 釋聖光Tom Cheung 張相棠Kam Cheung 張仁勤Dennis Yap 葉普智

Questions and Comments 討論



yuàn xiāo sān zhàng zhū fán năo

願消三障諸煩惱We wish to rid ourselves of the three hindrances and all klesas.

yuàn dé zhì huì zhēn míng lĭao

願得智慧真明了We wish to gain wisdom and real understanding.

pŭ yuàn zuì zhàng xī xiāo chú

普願罪障悉消除 We wish all sinful hindrances to be totally eradicated.

shì shì cháng xíng pú sà dào

世世常行菩薩道In one life after another we always follow Bodhisattvas’ paths.

回向Parinamana (Transfer of Merit)

20110507 Four Elements are Void and Meditation

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