The Buddha said: Authentic cultivation is a true offering. If you practise diligently, with the Buddha and Bodhisattvas as your role models, then you are genuinely practising Buddhism and cultivating the mind. “Authentic” means real, with not a hint of deceit. When you cultivate sincerely, you are truly making offerings to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Consider this, when you emulate Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s dedication to awakening and liberating sentient beings, aren’t you making offerings to the Bodhisattva? You learn from Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s Dharma teachings, benefiting others, encouraging them to transform themselves, spreading the Dharma for the benefit of all beings. Each person is expressing gratitude to Guan Yin Bodhisattva, praying to the Bodhisattva for salvation. Isn’t this also an act of making offerings to the Buddha and Bodhisattva? Guan Yin Bodhisattva’s vow is to respond to cries for help, to alleviate suffering, and to embody great compassion. Your actions, in this manner, represent the offering of the Dharma, and in itself, it’s an act of making offerings to the Buddha and Bodhisattva.
Now, let me give you a brief introduction to the Ten Great Conducts and Vows that are essential in the path of cultivation.
1. Paying Homage and Respect to All Buddhas: This vow involves giving utmost respect to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, observing appropriate etiquette and manners, and honouring the Buddha with sincerity. This is a ‘conduct and a vow’.
2. Praising the Tathagatas: Tathagata is a term used to describe all the Bodhisattvas. You should foster a spirit of praise. For example, when praying to Guan Yin Bodhisattva, your heart should be filled with adoration: “You are truly magnificent, rescuing us sentient beings from suffering. Words can’t adequately express our gratitude towards you, we praise you, Bodhisattva.” Similarly, when you see me, your sincere greeting of “Master” is not for show, but a genuine manifestation of Dharma joy rooted in deep respect.
3. Extensively Cultivating Making Offerings: This refers to the practice of the eight types of offerings discussed earlier. You should strive to cultivate and make more offerings – such as fruits, fresh flowers, donations, oil, prostrations, etc. These are all forms of offerings. You should offer these to the Triple Gem (the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha). This is the practice of abundant joyous giving. The merits and virtues of such joyous giving are vast and can lead to the awakening of wisdom, elimination of afflictions, and accumulation of merits and virtues.
4. Repenting of Karmic Obstacles: One should regularly repent for their karmic obstacles to improve and better comprehend the truth. If you think you have no faults, how could you possibly improve? Karmic obstacles shadow us without fail. Only through repentance can these obstacles be removed.
5. Rejoicing in Merit and Virtue: This involves taking joy in the merit and virtue that others accumulate. It’s not about coercing others into action, but finding joy in their deeds. If you’re in a tough financial spot, engage more in the giving of the Dharma, the highest of the three kinds of giving (i.e., giving of wealth, giving of the Dharma, and giving of fearlessness). If you’re affluent, you can make offerings as you see fit, rejoicing in the merit and virtue. You’ll surely gain reciprocal merit and virtue in return. However, you should avoid donating all your money to the point of personal hardship; that would be a form of attachment.
6. Constant Turning of Dharma Objects: I’ve spoken about the constant turning of Dharma objects, which include things like Buddhist beads and prayer beads, etc. When you recite sutras, aren’t you rotating your prayer beads with your hand? When reciting sutras, time after time, with Dharma objects like ritual tools or sutra texts, they also move with your eyes and mind, right? With every wholesome thought, disasters are eliminated, and good fortune arrives.
7. Requesting the Buddhas to Remain in this World: As you show respect to the Bodhisattvas, make offerings to those who manifest in various forms to save beings in this world. Be a diligent Dharma protector. For the purpose of liberating all beings, request the Bodhisattvas to continue living in this world, assisting people to rediscover their inherent nature.
8. Consistently Following the Buddha’s Teachings: You should continuously adhere to and learn from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This is referred to as consistently following the teachings of the Buddha—studying the Buddha’s actions, thinking, wisdom, and enlightenment. You must diligently cultivate morality (precepts), concentration, and wisdom, and extinguish greed, anger, and ignorance.
9. Always Accommodating the Needs of Sentient Beings: When learning and practising the Buddha-dharma, you should align yourself with sentient beings, tirelessly educating and transforming all beings with a heart filled with loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. For example, if a person enjoys speaking, when you guide them, you first need to become proficient in speaking. You need to adapt to their circumstances to effectively guide them. Take me for example. I continuously accommodate sentient beings, responding to their needs, such as health, safety, academic success, or business prosperity. I guide them according to their needs. When everything goes well for them, their spiritual state improves, they grow in the wisdom of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, they will naturally cultivate their mind and character, and fulfil the path to Buddhahood.
10. Universal Dedication of Merit and Virtue: When I cultivate my mind, when I practise Buddhism, I dedicate my merit and virtue, my good deeds, universally. I extend love to everyone and dedicate this expansive love to the world – this is what is known as universal dedication.
People should always maintain right mindfulness, continually cultivating virtuous thoughts and shunning perverse ones. It’s pitiful if people lack right mindfulness, like aimlessly drifting in the vast ocean, unable to find themselves, unable to pay homage to the Buddha. If your thoughts are twisted and perverse, even your prostrations here are in vain; what you pray for is delusional, and your meritorious deeds are merely for show.
Worldly conventions and moral ethics are akin to smoke and clouds in the Human Realm. For example, if your son treats you poorly, through the lens of worldly convention, it’s merely like smoke and clouds – illusory and fleeting. Don’t believe that your son is genuinely treating you poorly; in reality, everything is connected to past karmic conflicts between you and your son. What you perceive now is your son treating you poorly in this life. Therefore, ordinary morality cannot explain this, and you cannot find liberation, because it all comes down to past karma. When the time comes, it will dissipate like smoke and clouds, subject to change and passage. Always remember, it’s all about cause and effect. Practising Buddhism is about helping you to see through, to let go, to go with the flow. The truths that I am now sharing are to help you see through, let go, and go with the flow.
Any type of affinity is a beneficial condition that encourages you to cultivate well, a source to strengthen your progress. You should always cultivate compassion. Cultivate the mind according to conditions, form relationships according to conditions, give according to conditions, fulfil affinity according to conditions – this “condition” or “affinity” here refers to the affinity with Buddha.