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The 2024 Fo Guang Shan North America Water and Land Dharma Service Lecture Series invited Most Venerable Hsin Ting, the abbot of Fo Guang Shan Taihua Temple (Thailand), to give a lecture on Right Understanding and Right View at the Ding Hall of Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple on April 23. He encouraged the audience to observe the impermanence of the world through the "Three Dharma Seals", that the Five Aggregates are selfless, and to firmly believe in cause and effect. He urged cultivating a focused mind and diligently practicing the "Four Right Efforts" to create a happy life of Buddhist practice. The lecture was simultaneously translated into English, with nearly a thousand people attending in-person and online to receive the Dharma teachings.
Most Venerable Hsin Ting stated that the devotees diligently cultivating during the Water and Land Dharma Service deserve affirmation. The founding master of Fo Guang Shan, Venerable Master Hsing Yun, emphasized that a "Dharma Service" is not just devotees reciting sutras, eating vegetarian meals, and making charitable offerings. Rather, the true meaning is for monastics to offer the Dharma to devotees, with both monastics and lay practitioners equally making offerings of materials and the Dharma, connecting through the Dharma, establishing Right Understanding and Right View.
Why is it important to establish the Right Understanding and Right View? Most Venerable Hsin Ting stressed that for Buddhist practitioners, it is crucial to correctly and truly observe the world through Right Understanding and Right View and to practice according to the truth. From a worldly perspective, blessings like wealth and longevity are what people seek. However, in the Noble Eightfold Path, the Right View, which is also included in the idea of "Three Dharma Seals" - impermanence, non-self, and nirvana is perfect tranquility - represents the ultimate truth that Buddhist practitioners should constantly contemplate and uphold.
Most Venerable Hsin Ting analyzed the impermanence and non-self nature of all phenomena by relating the six senses, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses to the Five Aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness mentioned in the Heart Sutra. Although the 260 words of the Heart Sutra are simple enough for a three-year-old child to recite, how many people can truly comprehend it as "Avalokitesvara, while practicing the profound Perfection of Wisdom, perceived that all five aggregates are empty"? The reason beings cannot transcend all suffering is because of the notion of "self" and the grasping, clinging mind that causes suffering.
Most Venerable Hsin Ting encouraged the audience to observe the arising and cessation of all things in the world with clarity, understanding, and discernment, but without grasping or generating the mind of renunciation and liberation, as the Buddha rarely emphasized renunciation and liberation. Instead, he advocated that practitioners be mindful of every thought and intention, acting to benefit others, and cultivating generosity, moral discipline, and meditation. Believing in karmic cause and effect, one should prevent wrongdoing from the fundamental level of thoughts, and accumulate virtues and blessings. Most Venerable Hsin Ting used the "rhyme of karmic retribution" to illustrate that "good deeds are rewarded, evil deeds are punished, not that they go unrewarded, but the timing has not arrived."
"Firmly believing in the causes and effects of the three periods of time, guarding the body and mind, raising right mindfulness, and diligently practicing the Four Right Efforts is Right Understanding, which is also right wisdom." While "Right Understanding" sounds easy, it tests one's cultivation when faced with conflicts of interest. Most Venerable Hsin Ting further explained the importance of cultivating the "Nine Stages of Mindfulness", corresponding to the "non-abiding" mentioned in the Diamond Sutra, which refers to non-grasping. The "abiding" in the nine stages means dwelling, but not letting the mind follow after conditions. Ultimately, one's body and mind will be at ease, and even if one achieves some attainment, one will not develop arrogance, but will constantly reflect on whether one's actions of body, speech, and mind have inadvertently harmed others.
"Practicing Buddhism is the most blissful thing," Most Venerable Hsin Ting encouraged establishing Right Understanding and Right View, firmly believing in the causes and effects of the three periods of time, understanding that such causes lead to such effects, and not blaming others. Happiness lies in one's own hands and can be anticipated in the future. Finally, he offered his blessings to the audience, "May the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas protect you all to be happy, healthy, prosperous, and safe every day," and provided each audience with a copy of his new book Interviewing Most Venerable Hsin Ting's: Walking the Buddhist Path – Taking the Teacher's Heart As One's Own.
(Photos by Chihcheng Chang)
