Eight stages of becoming a Buddha.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

We know there is no Buddha in the monk's time but just resting, going out, cypress shopping everywhere, eventually becoming a Buddha.

All Buddhas who have become, will become, will go through the process of practicing Buddhism, diligently, diligently and irrevocably for a long time in countless lives. They lived, practiced, made vows, suffered all the hardships and hardships in life to achieve Buddhism. Usually we learn, in their countless first lives in the Ten Faith, Ten Head, Ten Hanh, Twelve Direction, it is forty basic levels. Countless second lives from the beginning of the Land to Bat Dia Bodhisattva. Countless third lives from the Eightfold Path to Decadent Land, Dang Giac, Dieu Giac become Buddha.

We are now in countless lives, how much have we walked, how do we practice? No one knows. Occasionally there was a monk who did not become a Buddha, offered incense to Buddha and said to him: "White Master, I have been a Buddhist monk for many years but did not become enlightened. Things that are full of intention, how can I release it? ” As we have said, we have not known ourselves in countless lifetimes, on the process from the human to the Buddhist religion, therefore, we need to explain by virtue of our own experience.

Here, we outline eight stages of experience for fraternity to contemplate and share on our spiritual path.

The eight stages are like this:

1. Pure gender boys:

Let's have a good time to see if our boys are peaceful? If not yet complaining white Buddha "tu nostalgic not finished" then they must adjust themselves. Most Buddhists have received the precepts, at least five. Through the five precepts, we see if we can hold any precepts, whether the practice is solemnly complete, or the precepts still cannot be observed. If there is a little unsolved, then we have not completed the first step. The first step is not complete and jumping through the second step, it may have to turn around.

In fact, there are also a decent religious, dignified, moral virtue, full of virtue, but there is a world of surprises when hearing him return to the secular world. This type of jump due to leaps, not basic, unstable, so that happened. Therefore the practitioner must first complete the stage of pure gender. We can test and know whether we are pure or not. Purity to what extent?

On the lay Buddhist side, at least you take the five precepts, in addition to the ten more Ten-Precious Precepts, you have the fifty-eight Bodhisattva precepts. In summary, among the laity there are three levels of education. The first level is the five basic precepts, the second level is the Decade precepts. Who holds the ten precepts of the Ten Decent precepts will be born, if not kept, instead of going straight to the celestial world, he dodges to one side into the realm of A Tu La. It is said that everyone in the Arahant world is bored because it is strange. A female priestess is very complete, and male male priestess sometimes has buffalo head, horse-tempered. Therefore, they often wage war with gods. We learn in history that Mr. Long Tho, Ma Minh, from wisdom saw the head, hands, feet ... from where they fell, covered with gore. Ladies and gentlemen, it is because they A Tu La fought with some gods. Saying that, it is not that Amitabha is not blessed. Blessed are almost gods, but because they are so angry, they don't cover heaven. Should know the consequences of great great anger. Like a small fire we don't put out, it will spread all over. 

Back to the issue of practice at the beginning is the study. When teachers give the precepts to Buddhists, they often say, "You can keep those precepts as a monk." Study is a practice, Buddhists keep the precepts that preserve their personality. Keep your precepts free of fear of being caught by the devil in the eyes of tomorrow. Keeping the five precepts is absolutely certain that Buddhists will live safely and happily. When death knows the way, there is no fear or doubt. It is at the level of the five precepts.

If not maintained, in the human world goes down, the time is extremely. The saints said the hell realms one day a night equal to the human world one hundred years. Although the Buddha says all dharma are false, one hundred years is not short. People from birth, beautiful and wise like that, but up to seventy-eight is gone. When he was forty or fifty he could go away. Although time is not true, but the retribution suffered significantly, not often.

The Buddhists at home have received the ordination or the five precepts, the ten precepts, in this level, each step of practice you have experienced, elaborately. From there you realize the direction, your destination like. More specifically, if any person develops the mind of fifty-eight bodhisattva precepts, is a lay Buddhist but acts like a Bodhisattva. This is valuable, encouraging. So every Buddhist need to preserve the original achievements like that, to make the stairs to the results of liberation and saving glass.

Talk about boys. Buddhists still remember in the refuge ceremony of the Three Jewels, the teachers taught, "Be vegetarian or salty all tu, keep the five precepts as a monk," but "Be vegetarian develop compassion, close to compassion, easy to go to the attainment of great compassion. " We are Buddhist disciples, we start to take refuge, practice living the life of Buddha, and the Bodhisattva, for vegetarianism, we should practice to cultivate and develop kindness.

Talking about "boys" refers to the diet of Buddhists. This is not mandatory for anyone, but if you have a good diet, it will also support the practice very much. The first step is to keep the pure precepts, of course, but the mussels have a bad taste. There are also non-Buddhists who are vegetarian. Currently, medical research shows that vegetarianism prevents some incurable diseases, so many people in the world are vegetarian. If any Buddhist has just kept the precepts and is vegetarian, then it can be said to be complete gender. Any position that only holds precepts but does not hold a son is not complete yet. Thus the path of Buddhism is still very far.

 2. No retreat on the Buddhist path:

 Here would like to emphasize not regressing Bodhi mind. Bodhi mind is the mind of Buddhism, enlightenment. How can Buddhists build a fundamental step forward, always firm, not for any reason withdrawing from Bodhi. When the Bodhi mind has withdrawn, the Buddhist path seems to be ignored, so we turn away. Once we have ignored, turned away, we do not know when we will seek and accept the Buddha really available to us. So you guide the Buddhist practice, always concerned at this stage. Maybe for some pressing reason, Buddhists go to the temple for a while to get bored, to practice for a while and get bored. That is the manifestation of Bodhi regression. Once depressed, turned away then, back to building very difficult.

In history, there is talk about the family of Cap Loneliness, the great benefactor of the sangha while Buddha was alive. He was willing to give all his treasure to the Three Jewels. So Buddha needs to build somewhere, monks need to do something, he provides it all. Because he was so interested, there were a few people in his family who didn't like him, including her who kept the warehouse. She specialized in keeping the warehouse, when monks need something, there is a paper of the false author, besides her face, she does not dare to speak badly, but in her stomach, she complains, "why do monks keep asking forever and shameless?" Seeing the monks from afar, she thought she did not know what the other teachers would do today? She was very upset.

One day, the Blessed One thought that she had deep karma, and he wanted to do it, but he knew that the old lady didn't have a predestined relationship with him. When she saw Buddha walking over there she looked away. Buddha knows so it appears many bodies, present in every direction. Wherever she looked, there was a Buddha, she immediately looked to the ground. Buddha knew that he had no affinity with her. That is Rahula. Whenever she saw Rahula from afar, she stood up and ran to celebrate. No wonder, because she had been his mother for many generations, she was still slightly affectionate in her childhood, so Venerable Rahula was her kindness.

Here on the long path of Buddhism, we step by step build and care to keep our Bodhi mind firmly, not to give up. Trying to preserve the events that arise during the practice phase do nothing to us. Must know nourishing Bodhi mind, because that is protecting your awareness. The Buddha never accepted anyone who inspired today's meal to sit down and eat all night all day long. Made two or three days, then tired. Tu like a sunny ten rain so definitely can never be successful.

The Buddhist path is continuous, enduring, and takes a straight forward to arrive. So in the second step, we have to protect the Bodhi mind. It means that from the time we first came to the religion, we did not know anything about the religion, and then slowly learned the Buddha, developed the mind to practice and cultivate gradually until we understood the path and applied the practice. We keep it constant, do not let any reason ruin it. Strains Tanh Bodhi that was rotten then how can not rebuild. Always with sincerity, forward, knowing the long road uphill, we must try to go from wood to wood. So do not count time, just keep struggling just straight ahead, will definitely succeed.

 3. Generating great vows:

 Any spiritual practitioner also makes a great vow. During the course we practice every day there are twelve prayers, which are the great vows. Why is it called great vow? Because these are lucid, lucid prayers for the attainment of Buddhism. We cannot pray for how much gold, so many possessions, may not have the body as heavenly as the king, but may Bodhicitta be fortified, may all the friendly and helpful beings be in the ten directions because of compassion. but support me to accomplish my vow. We also know that they are progressing or advancing some distance on the path of Buddhist practice, they are not finished. So maybe they don't give themselves anything either. But I just hope they can support me, like two friends do business together. A person in a situation of collapse, a business failure, an asset exhausted. A person who is able to promote becomes extremely wealthy. Now my best friend was impoverished and didn't expect the other person to give him the property, but only borrowed it, when building a career, he would return it.

Also, a disciple of Buddha's knowledge in a concrete way, living firmly with the basic Buddhist spirit is that he only depends on him temporarily. Here the good is supportive of its knowledge. We have not become a Buddha, but we have made a vow to become a Buddha, we have not made any sentient beings yet, but making a vow when enlightened will save all sentient beings. When Venerable Ananda realized that he was weak, he made a vow before the Blessed One: "I pray that all sentient beings will become Buddhas and I will become Buddha. May the Buddha prove and support me in fulfilling this prayer ”. This is the way of the Bodhisattva's great vows.

Buddha during the Bodhisattva religious practice, about a time he fell into hell, seeing many sinners suffering extremely miserable. The devil forced them to pull a heavy iron car, they slammed into the car and slammed at the criminal. Or let the sinner turn on a fire Hearing the cries and screams of their agony and pain, He was too pitiful to make a vow: “I pray for all this suffering for sentient beings, and from now on, whoever builds up bad people to fall into hell suffer so much suffering like this. When he had made such a vow, all the iron cars fell out, and suddenly he found himself flying into the air. Thanks to the compassionate mind opened, he made a vow to replace suffering for all beings, praying for the ten directions of the holy sages to help all beings be deluded, not to create unwholesome karma, so that they won't fall into the land prison,

Here the saying vow to be like that, ie the venerable mind. Having heard the mind, all the doors opened. We are happy when we are happy, open in our hearts. On the contrary, if accepted, the test will be lost. Like people who are afraid of thieves, make rails, electric bells and everything, the more they are afraid of finding it. Eventually every industry that followed the rolling drift. When we study the Dharma, we find it difficult for people to resist their karma, not because they don't know it.

Speaking of which, I remember when I was young at Van Duc Pagoda. In that area, there was a group of fierce people in the dust. The lord has a hobby of wanting to eat chicken porridge at night, so his juniors would cook for him every night. His swordsmen are so scared and scared, because they protect the chicken very well, eventually he went personally. That day he saw him dead, I did not dare to look anymore. The farmer raised electricity on the fence, he just jumped in and out across it. He was shocked by electricity. They pulled out to the street from morning until afternoon, his whole family did not dare to accept. People spit and laugh. In fact, he did not know that electric shock would die, but it was caused by his karma that led him to do so.

In short, the great vow is to open your heart, clear your mind, and eliminate all karma practice and practice until you become a Buddhist.

 4. Loving kindness:

 Mercy spreads equally without distinction. It is very arduous to obtain the mind from equality. In life there are cases, people who just met nature they love. Someone I have to analyze, I have to be very compassionate. Now how do you love the guy who stole your house, this is very difficult. My grandfather is going here, if they run away without apologizing, it seems that the channel is that I want to beat, but there I say I love them. But in the spirit of the Buddha taught us to love, erase, be equal with such people.

To practice this, we must remember the Buddha's teaching that all beings have Buddha nature, all are Buddhas. That way no Buddha will be angry at any Buddha. I'm angry it's not Buddha already. We have no heart to deny that we are not Buddha. So no matter what the problem happens, we try to practice this place. Not being angry with any future Buddha, it is to maintain an equal mind between Buddha and Buddha.

In the Lotus Sutra, there is a product that records the practice and propagation of the Unrequited Bodhisattva. "Often" is always like that, "Disdain" is not dare to look down on anyone. His method of teaching is to go where, to meet someone from afar regardless of monks and nuns, he embraces Bai Bai loudly and said: "I do not dare to despise them, they will become Buddhas". His sermons and actions were always like that. The sermon reminded us that we will become Buddha, that is, we have a family, a Buddhist seed. To promote the spirit of practicing the Bodhisattva path of Buddhists is like that.

Phat great vow, play Bo-slapped mind, build up the spirit of radical equality, is starting to take difficult steps already. So said the path of practice Bo-slaps to go to the members of Buddhism is a long road, countless lifetimes boundless. The Blessed One has told us that he went through such stages in three lifetimes. Therefore, it is necessary to have a firm and firm mind, diligent diligence, not counting the limit, only one mind towards the practice.  

 5. Lower yourself to pray to the Dharma:

 When we practice, we are guided by the monks, the teachers who often teach, Buddhists who meet the monks and nuns and their companions, must bow to the hands: "Amitabha Buddha". Meeting each other, ladies and gentlemen, is a rule in real life. Because there are brothers and sisters, they are either cousins, or cousins. Then the siblings in the paternal side are closer than the paternal siblings in the paternal side or vice versa, etc., as much as possible, when afflictions arise. In the religion is not like that, meeting adults and small people, acquaintances of unfamiliar people are all relatives, because all are Buddha will be finished, so accept the amnesty: "Amitabha Buddha". Now that we cultivate the Bodhisattva path to become a member of Buddhism, most people will move towards Buddhism.

So in the fifth stage, we have to humble ourselves to study the religion. All elaborately, working in the religion, can not hear briefly that can do, must learn, must have a teacher. We are always guided and molded the spirit of practice in an environment, a certain condition. Buddhists see monks and nuns like us, being cast in a monastery to nurture the spirit of enlightenment and enlightenment. Because it's hard, not easy, not impossible. Sometimes we can talk and say it very well and cannot do it, so we have to close it in a frame so that we can do it step by step. Therefore, the person who enters the first step must be humble and humble to learn, no matter what kind of person he is.

We read the sutras and saw the Bodhisattvas study the teachings of those who appear to be animal. Bo-slapped learning with the mink, fox, tiger for example. Because sometimes the animal being that is the class of the Bodhisattva to test the mind of the learner. In Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha's teachings do not discriminate against race or class. The Buddha appeared to break the class, especially the four classes heavy on Indian shoulders. In which the Thu Da la class is the lowest class, crushed, exploited, must be enslaved to the upper classes from generation to generation, cannot take off their heads. In the Buddha's congregation there are Arhats, descended from the slavery, like the elder U Ba Li, the most disciplined disciple.

Once the Blessed One was on the way to enlightenment, he met a monk in the Thu da la class. Often these people had a bell attached to their feet, where they went, the bell rang and alerted noble families who knew that there were Thu da la nearby, so they avoided it, because it was very unlucky to meet them. This person is carrying feces, heard that the Buddha is in front, he is too afraid to find a way to avoid. The Buddha observed that this person was predestined, able to transform, so he appeared everywhere. He avoided meeting everywhere. Finally Germany World Religion photographer, this Thu Da La became Bhikkhu-stilts and soon he witnessed the Holy fruit. This incident made King Persia very dissatisfied. Because the king was a disciple of Buddha, every time he went to speak to Buddha, he asked the Buddha Dharma, the king prostrated to the Blessed One and all the Arhat saints, including this Prime Minister.

Can't bear it, the king insisted on seeking the Blessed One, presenting himself: Wanting a good noble congregation, why did the Tathagata receive such people into the sangha? That day he came, the Blessed One was having lunch break, the door was closed. There was a monk sitting outside, he went to accept his hand and said, "White master, please let me in to see the Blessed One." The Bhikkhu-stilts said it was noon, monks and nuns, the Blessed One was resting. The king said, "No, I am a special disciple of Buddha. I have always been able to meet them every time. Frustratingly, he rejoined the reverence and asked that the Blessed One had a King of Concubine to come to the audience. The Bhikkhu-stilts found unable to prevent, across the door of the seminal gate there was a large stone, he used divine power to go through that stone, entering without opening the door. The King felt respectable, and the master held the door of the Buddha and had such magical power, so he did not dare to disregard the congregation.

When the Buddha met the king, he made his first prostration: "Dear Venerable Sir, who is the holder of the door today and who has the special divine power?" The Buddha laughed and said, "That person was the other day carrying the manure in that low-yielding line of Mandala, now ordained as a saint." Upon hearing these words, the king broke his jealousy, stubbornly about his class.

So on the path of cultivation, we have to lower our heart to learn with everyone.

6. Compassionate patience:

 Our loving-kindness is not, but it is very limited. Precursor Germany World Religion religious alms, he vows alms eye. But from morning to afternoon no one came, Bo-slapped very sad. When someone came to ask him very happy, the person could not have asked, he had already hooked his eyes out. The other picked it up and said, "I beg your right eye, you give it to your left eye, you cannot use it". Saying so, he threw the eyes of the Buddha to the ground. If the selfless compassion does not develop then anger arises. Song Bo-slaps tu alms alms Ba la honey, not only not angry but also fun to hook the rest of the eye. Only compassion and equality mind can achieve like that.

So in the world of Bodhisattva practice to go to Buddhism extremely difficult, we achieve the new members of Buddhism. Mercifully patient without seeing oneself, there are new people who can attain the paramitas. The practitioner must be fully courageous, intellectually able to practice this conduct to the place. On the contrary, being weak or unintentional cannot practice compassion in the end.

 7. Effort to liberate:

 Diligent on the path of liberation, eventually doing all the hard work, giving up all the hard work. These two stages are the most fulfilling.

There are things we can show the Bodhisattva spirit, but the Bodhisattva mind is not completely complete. That's why I only do so much. Now we have to expand that boundary, eradicate all enlightenment to become a Buddhist. As the midday sun was hot, the burden was long, if we wanted to get there, everything in the burden had to be removed. This body, this situation, this life, all the facts we eliminate.

The Venerable often taught, this body is not real, the situation is not true, the dharma is not true, my mind is also not real anymore. So I firmly abandoned all that is not true, to live with my awareness. Each of us has available awareness. Who is cleverly performing the Bodhisattva path, must remove all that is not awareness to get back to life with that sincerity. Although we have awareness, but long ago turned away, forgotten so now the delusion delusion fills the awareness. If you want to be enlightened, you have to remove the impurities. Hopefully, on the path of practice, our brothers and sisters have a firm grasp of and understand such a path to step by step firmly.

 8. Completely overcome all suffering, be happily liberated:

 When we have done the previous seven steps completely, we can go to the eighth step. By receiving and being alive with the true awareness that is available to us, we are no longer ignorant, we are no longer afflicted, so there is no suffering. That is to this stage the practitioner completely overcome all suffering, was happily liberated. The eighth step is to reach fullness. We are self-sufficient and fully forgive merit in order to attain Buddhism.

On the first day of spring, the celebration of Maitreya Bodhisattva is the Bodhisattva rejoice, no longer clinging, all of our Buddhist children turn to him one-sidedly, pay homage to him and remember his example, vow to do that mirror, make the mind equal, compassionate, go from the first step of pure conduct until the last step is to get rid of all that is hard to give up to be liberated. happy forever. END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.11/3/2020.