jixiao

Master Haikong's Teachings on the Terminologies of 'Opening the Essence of our Mind', 'Connecting to the Dharma Nature' and 'Purifying the Mind and Revealing Its Nature'

Q: Presently, many practitioners are not clear about the concepts of 'opening the essence of mind', 'connecting the Dharma nature' and 'purifying the mind and revealing its nature', could you give us some teachings?
A: The key of 'opening the essence of mind' is 'to open', the key of 'connecting to the Dharma Nature' is 'to connect', and the key of 'purifying the mind and revealing its nature' is 'to purify and reveal'. They appear in sequence.

Q: I still do not understand sufficiently, could you explain them more definitively?
A: For example, there is a dark and messy room with the door closed, and we want to clean it up. What is the first step? Is it pushing the door open? And this is what we say 'to open'. It means to break the barriers of the practitioner's eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. After the door is opened, sunlight shines into the room and dissipates the darkness, and this is what we say 'to connect'. It is to connect our self-nature which constituted by body, mind and speech with the Dharma Nature which is represented by Mantra, Mudra and Visulization. When Mantra, Mudra and Visulization take effect on the practitioner's deep consciousness, the obstacles from the practitioner's body and mind are cleared up. In virtue of the sunlight, we can see clearly the dirt in the room, and clean them up bit by bit, and this is what we say 'to purify and reveal' - to obviously see and clear the ignorant habituation of defilement. The practice of Buddhism is a process of clearing this habitual ignorance. All living beings become deluded due to the ignorant and contaminated habituation and awakened as Buddha when the contamination is cleaned up and the mind is purified.

Q: I see! Then how should we regard connecting to the Dharma Nature in TWDD?
A: The opening teaching of TWDD adopts the form of 'Dharma Power Communion Empowerment', and makes the practitioner achieve the stage of 'opening the essence of mind' and 'connecting to the Dharma Nature' within a short time under the blessing of the guru. But having attained the state of 'connecting to the Dharma Nature' does not mean one have 'purified his or her mind and revealed its nature', therefore the practitioner shall continue to practice in light of the guru's teachings, and to prove from our mind inward to attain the state of 'purifying the mind and revealing its nature' (because this is the proof within). To be pointed out, purifying the mind and revealing its nature is not equivalent to the perfect enlightenment and final accomplishment. After having purified the mind and revealed its nature, the practitioner shall keep moving forward in training the mind and accumulating meritorious supply and provision to awaken him or her self and others, until the perfect enlightenment and accomplishment is attained!

Thanks for your teachings!