Specific Insights into Attaining Buddhist Inner Wisdom

  Most Buddhist disciples know that Buddha Sakyamuni’s teachings consist of three vehicles: the Sound-Hearer Vehicle, the Solitary-Realizer Vehicle, and the Buddha Bodhi Vehicle. However, from another perspective, the contents of Dharma teachings in the secular world can be classified into five Vehicles: the Human, Deva, Sound-Hearer, Solitary-Realizer, and Bodhisattva Vehicles as taught by the Buddha. The cultivation of Buddhahood requires the mastering of all these five Vehicles.

  The first two of the Five-Vehicle Buddhist teachings, the Dharma teachings of the Human and Deva Vehicles, teach us why and how sentient beings can gain rebirth as humans and also be reborn in the heavenly realms. These Dharma teachings are the same as some of the beliefs of non-Buddhists.  On the other hand, the latter three Buddhist Vehicles enable us to transcend the three realms and enter nirvana.  Thus, the Buddhist teachings of the Sound-Hearer, Solitary-Realizer, and Bodhisattva Vehicles are distinct from the beliefs of non-Buddhists. Given this, we understand that only the teachings of the World-Honored One derived from His personal experiences and realizations can guide sentient beings toward achieving the true and ultimate liberation. Thus, Buddha Sakyamuni has been provided ten epithets.

  Therefore, prior to Buddha Sakyamuni’s appearance in the world, although many in India assumed to have attained nirvana and proclaimed themselves as arhats and Brahmans, they were not the real arhats. In light of this, while starting His public preaching, the World-Honored One openly refuted the Dharma errors of these Brahmans and of six heretical masters one by one.

  In various scriptures, such as the Agamas or the stories of the Buddha’s life, Buddha Sakyamuni enabled us to apprehend that all sentient beings who could hear the teachings of the Buddha and then are able to eliminate fetters to realize fruitions could attain arhatship and even the perfect Buddhahood, which indeed would have taken them countless eons of diligent right efforts on the cultivation path in serving and making offerings to Buddhas in their past lifetimes to achieve. For example, in the Jataka Sutra, the Buddha repeatedly stated that the noble disciples who achieved arhatship in this current life under His supervision did not only meet Him in this life but also had been with Him as His disciples in their past immeasurable lifetimes.

  Moreover, the Diamond Sutra, a universally known text, states that even if we are only now able to have faith in the teachings and principles of the profound prajñā verses contained in the Diamond Sutra, we must already have accumulated countless wholesome affinities with the Buddha and the Dharma in our past lives.

  As the Diamond Sutra states, “Five hundred lifetimes after my passing away, there will be those who observe moral discipline and cultivate merit, who will be able to give rise to the mental state of faith and take these words to be the truth. You should know that these people have not merely cultivated wholesome roots with one buddha, two buddhas, three, four, or five buddhas. They have cultivated all kinds of wholesome roots with hundreds of thousands of buddhas.”

  Although it is beyond our secular comprehension, all of us definitely have already had continuous strong affinities with the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) over many eons in the past. Only then can we have faith in this life in the Three Jewels and in the teachings of liberation.

  Every Buddhist disciple must have experienced and fully accumulated sufficient virtues and merits in the first two Vehicles (Human and Deva Vehicle) mentioned earlier during their immeasurable lifetimes. Only then can we have a chance to learn and practice the right methods pertaining to the liberation in the latter three Vehicles (Sound-Hearer, Solitary-Realizer, and Bodhisattva Vehicles). That is, without accumulating sufficient merits and virtues in the former Vehicle, practitioners cannot proceed to the advanced correct practice in the subsequent Vehicle.

  As most Buddhist disciples are unaware of the cultivation-related principles, even though they seem to have planted good roots in the Buddha Dharma by practicing one life after another, they are still unable to encounter any enlightened mentor, not to mention to attain awakening to the Three-Vehicle Bodhi. This may be the reason for their lack of success in the latter and for their inadequate resources of moral and intellectual virtues and merits, which are needed in the Human and Deva Vehicles basically consisting of the Buddhist five precepts and ten wholesome deeds.

  Therefore, being reborn as a human and being a human are a must; only then can one make the best effort to cultivate the Buddha Dharma rapidly. We must be guided by a true mentor with penetrative wisdom and must thus strive to become close to wholesome and virtuous Dharma friends, listen to the true Dharma, and correctly understand the doctrinal principles and practice to attain enlightenment according to the Dharma. Only by reviewing all that we have learned and putting these into actual practice can we bring forth the virtues and merits that will enable us to attain the Buddhist inner wisdom.

#Buddha #Buddhism #dharma #fivevehicles #buddhistwisdom #threejewels #threevehiclebodhi