Having Faith in Practicing Buddhism

    The Buddhist teachings stem from the wisdom of the Buddha and relate to a cultivation process that includes fifty-two predetermined stages on the path to Buddhahood (Mahayana)[The Avataṃsaka Sūtra; Flower Garland Sutra] for a bodhisattva, and four stages of practice for the path to liberation (Hinayana) for Two Vehicles practitioners.

     The first ten stages of faith (Mahayana) include people at various levels of belief in Buddhism and their acceptance range from strong to mild. The intensity of one’s belief is related to the merits and virtues that each and every individual possesses. If one has not accumulated sufficient merits and virtues, one is likely to encounter all kinds of drawbacks when practicing Buddhism. You can introspect on yourself of the difficulties that you might have encountered for practicing Buddhism. Such as being unable to afford the time and effort to practice, physical well-being, accessibility that is too far away from the cultivating center, etc. However, please do not be discouraged by these difficulties as every practitioner ought to complete the cultivation of the ten different stages of faith as the first requirement. We ought to feel blessed being born as a human and being able to practice Buddhism. As a parable taught by the Buddha in the Miscellaneous Āgama Sutra, encountering a Buddha’s teaching is as rare as a blind turtle hitting driftwood in the ocean; even more so, it is hundreds of millions of times more difficult to be born as a human being.

     When one’s faith and cultivation of Buddhism progresses, the cumulative gains in virtues and merits throughout countless past lives will foster the maturation of his bodhisattva capacities. For example, when the individual hears the preaching of the Ultimate Reality, he/she would have been able to initiate his/her faith and confidence in Buddhism. This individual can be considered as “one who had not only accumulated his wholesome root before one Buddha, two Buddhas, three, four, or even five Buddhas, but had accumulated myriad wholesome roots before immeasurable thousands and ten thousands of Buddhas” as stated in the Diamond Sutra.

 Buddhist cultivation encompasses the Path to Buddhahood and the Path to Liberation. One of the significant differences between the two paths of cultivation is that practitioners on the path to liberation aim to achieve the attainment of nirvana within foreseeable lifetimes. In contrast, those on the path to Buddhahood strive to attain Buddhahood after cultivating the period of three immeasurable eons (asaṃkhyeya-kalpa). Therefore, one’s orientation toward cultivation would also be different. Practitioners on the path to liberation focus primarily on observing their own deeds. As a result, they concentrate on themselves most of the time. They are definitely inclined not to create new karma by distancing themselves from mundane affairs.

     By orderly practicing Buddhist teachings and applying them to our daily lives in various fields such as psychology, sociology, science, or research field, one will learn to appreciate the Buddha’s wisdom and realize how afflicted and impure (full of greed, ignorance, and hatred) sentient beings really are. Most importantly, Buddhism is not mere academic research but requires actual practice and factual realization in specific stages.

 #Buddha #Buddhism #enlightenment #Mahayana #Hinayana #Buddhahood #Buddhistteachings #nirvana #Ultimate Reality