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Nanhua Temple Dharma Talk
Returning to the Nan Hua Temple, the home of the Sixth Patriarch, the delegation acknowledges the Chinese tradition as the root and trunk, while the practice in the West represents the branches and leaves. The teaching in Europe and America has been adapted to be practical, aiming to help young practitioners transform daily suffering rather than merely offering academic diplomas. Graduation is determined by the degree of understanding and the ability to handle suffering, marked by a lamp transmission ceremony. The community operates as a family, fostering brotherhood and sisterhood, with over 900 lay Sanghas established. Traditional texts and precepts have been modernized, including the translation of daily chanting and the expansion of mindful manners from twenty-four to thirty-nine chapters, covering contemporary activities like driving and using the computer.
A central insight concerns the nature of the Pure Land and the role of suffering. While the Amitabha Sutra describes a land with no suffering, true compassion and understanding require contact with suffering, just as a lotus requires mud to grow. The description of a place without suffering is understood as a skillful means, a “magic city” created to encourage practitioners, similar to the parable in the Lotus Sutra. The definition of the Pure Land is re-established not as a place devoid of pain, but as a place containing understanding and compassion, found in the here and the now.
Mindfulness and concentration allow for the touching of the Pure Land in the present moment, regardless of location. This is practiced through walking meditation, utilizing the gatha: “I have arrived, I have arrived” (in the Pure Land) and “I am home, I am home” (in the here and the now). Impermanence and non-self are insights that prevent suffering, while the boat of mindfulness and the support of the Sangha prevent sinking into the river of suffering. Understanding the nature of suffering, a practice of the First and Second Noble Truths, reveals the path to transformation for oneself, parents, and ancestors.
