The Eight Realizations of Great Beings: Essential Buddhist Wisdom for Waking Up to Who You Are - Softcover

Phap Hai, Brother

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1946764868 ISBN 13: 9781946764867

Verlag: Parallax Press, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

A pithy guide to the Buddha's instructions to unlock the powerful insights that make us "great"—by wise, warm, and humorous Brother Phap Hai, the most senior Australian Dharma teacher ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh  

In this essential sutra for sincere practitioners, the Buddha says, "If you would like to be enlightened, take on these eight subjects for meditation and apply their corresponding insights to your daily life." Brother Phap Hai's lively, down-to-earth explanation of spirituality's original self-help manual makes this book a must-read for all seeking inspiration on the path of self-realization and compassion. Beginning with a brief historical overview of the sutra's origins, Brother Phap Hai explores each of the eight realizations and shares a story in each chapter from his own journey to become a monk himself.

Ordaining as a Buddhist monk in 1997 while still in his twenties, Brother Phap Hai has been practicing mindfulness on a daily basis for much of his adult life. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh authorized him to teach in 2003, and since then, he has guided and mentored thousands of students in meditation. Brother Phap Hai calls the Buddha's Discourse on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings his "'Desert Island Sutra' because it distills the essence of the Buddhist path." In his words, it is everything you need in a practical meditation manual, "a very structured exposition of realizing the entirety of the Buddhist path for yourself."
 

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

BROTHER PHAP HAI (Dharma Ocean) is a senior monastic disciple of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. He ordained as a monk in 1997 and was formally authorized to teach in January 2003. Originally from Australia, he is an active meditation teacher who leads retreats, days of mindfulness, and talks throughout the western United States, Australia, South America. and Asia. Much loved for his warm, accessible, and humorous teaching style, Brother Phap Hai's charming blend of Dharma scholarship, sharp social awareness, and application of ancient wisdom to contemporary issues makes him one of the most compelling Buddhist teachers today.

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Preface

Like many students of the Dharma, I’ve noticed from time to time in my life of practice that certain sutras and their related teachings and practices will speak very strongly to me. If I try to ignore their call, it will seem as if their lessons are being placed right in front of me every time I turn around! Over the years, I’ve learned to be attentive and listen, not only with my ears, but with my whole body and mind to the Dharma that wants to come forth and be heard. I’ve learned to honor what’s arising rather than dismiss it, since often the inspirations that I’m quick to dismiss end up being the most transformative and important at that point in my life.

When I’m struck by a sutra, a teaching, or a practice, I sit, eat, walk, and breathe with it as if it were a friend on the path. I do this for a period of time—sometimes days or years—allowing it to sink deeply into my mind-stream, using the lens of insight and the perspective that it provides as a framework to reflect on my own life and the world around me. In the Plum Village tradition founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh—the tradition to which I belong—we emphasize practicing with the teachings in each moment of our daily lives, as well as during formal meditation sessions. Mindful of my teacher’s guidance that every hour of study needs to be balanced with at least seven hours of practice, I begin my research.

Dear friend, every single time I’ve allowed myself to practice with a sutra in this way, I have been profoundly surprised by the discoveries that have emerged.

About six years ago, I found my attention being strongly drawn toward the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings. To date, it has been published in English by Parallax Press three times: in a small pamphlet by my teacher called The Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings, in the Plum Village chanting and recitation book Chanting from the Heart, and with commentary in the book Two Treasures. My teacher, Thay—the Vietnamese word for “teacher” and the term that all of Thich Nhat Hanh students use to address him—valued this sutra greatly. However, I didn’t share his feeling at first.

To say that my attraction to this sutra surprised me is the understatement of the century, since for many years of my monastic life, I didn’t understand its appeal at all. None of the aspects of sacred texts that I usually enjoy were present in it. There’s no poetry, no great narrative to hook me in, and certainly no grand visions of celestial bodhisattvas offering to help the Buddha transmit the Dharma!

Truthfully, I would have to say that in my early years of monastic training, I found the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings boring and pedestrian, almost like a shopping list. I remember stoically enduring its recitation many, many times. I would close my eyes and zone out whenever I heard the first line, “Wholeheartedly day and night …” and then breathe a big sigh of relief when I heard the final words, “… dwelling forever in peace.”

Now, I’ll be the first to say that I may not be the sharpest student. But for many years I was absolutely mystified as to why this particular sutra—out of all the other great candidates—was praised by great Buddhist masters throughout history. The Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings was so important to Thay that he offered it to the boat people whom he rescued while working on the ship Roland in the South China Sea in the 1970s. In Plum Village, while training us, Thay would remind us again and again to “Please treasure this sutra.”

With this background you’ll understand why I was initially unenthusiastic when the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings kept popping up on my radar! But over the years I’ve learned to trust these inspirations, so I began reading one insight from the sutra each morning and practicing with it throughout the day. After some time, I noticed that each realization was incredibly condensed, and that I would discover something new each time I practiced with and reflected upon it. To give each realization more time to unfold in my mind and life, I then decided to practice one per week, and had a similar experience. Later on, I found that what worked best for me was to sit, walk, breathe, and eat with each realization for about a month at a time.

After some time, it seemed as if it might be useful to offer some of my journey with this ancient text to friends who were coming to Deer Park Monastery for Days of Mindfulness in the hope that it might spark a love of and appreciation for the sutras in general, and the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings in particular. So, over the course of a couple of years, whenever the community invited me to offer a teaching, I continued to share my reflections on this sutra. A number of friends wrote to the monastery saying that they had found these talks very useful in their practice, so eventually I thought it might be useful to offer this humble book with the hope that it would inspire you to discover for yourself, and more importantly, apply the riches contained in this text.
I recommend that you read this book slowly, perhaps a chapter a month. Then you might like to start over again, because I think you’ll find—just as I did—that the teachings contained in this sutra are profound and they’ll keep revealing themselves to you just like a rose that slowly opens its petals to reveal layer upon layer of beauty. In this simple book I’m merely bringing forth a few of the treasures already present in this pithy sutra. My commentary is by no means complete, and that’s intentional. The Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings is part of a lifelong process of discovery for me, and I hope it will be for you too. I hope that you’ll savor these eight realizations, letting them sink deeply into your body and mind until you experience them welling up from within yourself. In this way, you may go deeper and further than I have.

So, with this in mind, it bears repeating: please don’t approach the sutra or this book like a novel, rushing through it in order to reach the “big reveal” in the final pages, where all the plot points come together. In Buddhist practice, as in life itself, the big reveal is in each and every moment. The advanced practices are the most basic, and the deepest insight is often the simplest—the kind of insight that will bring you back to what part of you has known all along.

As you’ll discover, the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings is not an analytical text or a theoretical treatise; it is a practical and down-to-earth meditation manual which provides a very structured and concrete exposition of the steps we can take to realize the entirety of the Buddhist Path for ourselves. In fact, in this concise sutra we’re offered a complete overview of the Path in seed form, from the simplest understanding to the most profound. The great masters have said that if all the Buddhist sutras, texts, and commentaries were suddenly lost, the entirety of the Buddhist Path of practice and insight could be recreated from this one sutra.

Have you ever thought about what your “desert island sutra” might be—the text that you would take with you on a journey if you could take only one? Mine would certainly be the Sutra on the Eight Realizations since it contains within it the distilled essence of all aspects of the Buddhist Path. In this deceptively simple text, we’re presented with the fruit of the essential insight of the Buddha in concentrated form. He’s...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Parallax Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1946764868
• ISBN 13: 9781946764867
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar