#platform/youtube #channel/Master-YongHua #playlist/dharma-glimpses  To practice chan is to cultivate number one blessings, number two wisdom. This is very fundamental. Practicing chan is to cultivate blessings and cultivate virtue. This is what helps your child practice and bring it to maturity. This is why if you if you think that meditation is simply breathing or or or mechanically reciting a mantra or something, it's not going to bring you success. The biggest success comes when you also are acrewing blessings and virtue. Blessings again is to beat into your heads. Blessing is to help others. Meaning the more you can benefit others, the more you have blessings. There's no excuses. No, but but but you know if you benefit more others, you have more blessings. Therefore, your ch skills will mature faster. Number two, you cultivate virtues as well. And what is virtue? This talk is inspired by I made a visit to in in Taiwan. I went to a temple and this great monk here he put it on his the three huge doors, bronze door to his to his temple. Each door has each door talks about virtues. So in order to cultivate virtues, okay you cultivate three things. Why are those three things? And this is textbook Buddhist knowledge, fundamental knowledge. To cultivate virtues, you there what are the nature virtues? There there are three types of virtues. The virtues of the dharma body, the virtues of liberation and the virtues of prashna or wisdom or transcendental wisdom. Virtues have three aspects again virtues of dharma body, virtues of prashna or wisdom and virtues of liberation. If you do those three things then you are acrewing virtues and if you have virtues then you know what your child practice grows by leaps and bounds as well. Similarly if you acrew a lot of blessings udos and udo blessings all of a sudden your samati power increases so fast as well. The first thing that's most probably easiest for you to understand Maybe is prata virtue is praia wisdom. Prashia wisdom is wisdom of being liberated. Transcendental liberation meaning that you put an end to your suffering. Biggest problem we have in life if we suffer and we don't know how to put an end to it. So what the Buddhists seem to overlook, most Buddhists seem to overlook is why having Prashia is a virtuous thing. Why having Prashia wisdom is virtue? Because you are a great problem solver. Pria is very practical knowledge. It's very useful because enables you to solve problems so much better than the average individual. Okay? We go to school, we learn, get our degrees in order to solve problems, learn how to problem solve. Especially if you go into the new fields like AI is a brand new field and therefore they're looking for people with great problem solving skills because it's just it's not a clearly defined field yet. The requirements requirement are still unclear to them. So what what is required of us making giant strides in new discovering new growth is that we able to solve problems. And by the way this is what this is what good companies are looking for in all of you. Problem solving skills. Okay. Prashna is extremely useful at solving problems. What are those people? The people with higher level of samadis. Each samati level. Okay. If you go to the next level, you are much wiser, wiser, wiser and wiser. What happened is that your mind is freed from its boundaries. When we hear the the analogy is it's like you at samadei level three whatever it is it's like you at floor number 30. You can only see so far when you go next level. Okay let's say level four. Let's say the equivalent of floor number 40. You can see much further. At 30, you have obstruction from trees, from whatever other buildings and so forth. You go up there, okay? You have fewer obstructions, if you will. So, physically, that's what actually happens to you, the wiring in here. So, you're able to see a lot further. And therefore at 30 at floor number 30 you are physically bound by by this there there's some physical boundaries. There's only so much you can see so much you can conceive of. When you get to next level it's much higher. Therefore you have the ability to see a lot more when necessary when challenged. That's why you have to be there and then you see, oh, I can see more than before. I understand more than before. I comprehend much faster than before. I've absorb so much more than before effortlessly. That's why you're here. Because more and more as you develop your samati levels, the more your wisdom increases. So the mind is able to process a lot more information a lot faster. So therefore your problem solving skills are much higher than before. It goes a lot further than that. When you have transcendental wisdom, the ultimate goal we're trying to get up there is that you're able to solve problems in a different dimension because your limitation not just physical but also your mind is a limitation for you. When you free yourself from that ultimate limitation of your mind, this is what limits the scientists. It's what limits the ordinary people if you will. Doesn't matter how smart they are, how knowledgeable they are. If they still depend on the thinking mind, okay, that's their limitation. I assure you I'm not I wasn't there but my my belief is that when Einstein developed his theory a relativity okay it's not based on the thinking mind because no data that can back him up that could verify that it's a moment where he's able to tap into his transcendental mind and say ah that's the most plausible explanation for the world transcending world leaping discoveries in mankind. So the virtue of of Prussia is the ability to solve problems the world's problems better than before. Next type of virtue is the virtue of liberation. What is liberation? When you hear liberation, liberation from bondage, liberation from slavery, this is what most people don't think about because you you are submerged in it day in day out. That's why you don't see it as a need to liberate yourself anymore. Liberation from your afflictions. Yes. Liberation number one from birth and death because that's really binds you right now. We've been revolving the wheel of reincarnation since beginningless time. We keep on going to keep on doing it over and over again, time and time again. That's the nature of our existence. we've been doing for so long that we don't even think of trying to get out of birth and death. We so afflicted and we don't know how to put an end to it. Putting an end to it is to liberate ourselves from afflictions. So why is is liberation a virtue? When you're afflicted, you're drained. You keep on draining people. We keep on draining others around you. You notice that we're like a black hole of afflictions. A black affliction like a like being afflicted is like being a black hole become sucking and draining people's energy. And that's why afflicted people are unpleasant to be with. That's why some of us choose to be single. Okay, we can't handle our own afflictions. Why would you, you know, burden yourself with someone else's afflictions? And some people still looking for a way to burden themselves with more afflictions. So to be liberated from your afflictions is actually a virtuous thing because you are not constantly draining others 24 hours a day. Isn't that interesting Buddhist perspective how afflict how damaging it is to be afflicted? So that's a virtue. The virtue is that if we are free from afflictions, we're not draining anyone. In other words, people are draining each other constantly. All right. Number three, the virtue of the dharma body. Why is it a virtue the dharma body? You see, I've been teaching for 20 years now, almost two decades, and never really bothered to go into these fundamental concepts in Buddhism. But as you are, your skills are up there, samati is up there, wisdom up there. Now we're in a position where we should go back to the fundamentals to of Buddhist teaching so that you understand why why you've been developed this way and in particular that you are able to absorb it a lot more readily than before a lot faster than before much easier than before. Okay. and and so this is helps you understand the eventually understand why we we we we give you different instructions of process or the chan teachings, chanting training techniques are that way because it helps you build up those aspects of chan by helping you build blessings and help you build virtues. Okay. Anyway, so the third aspect of virtue is dharma body which a little bit difficult more difficult for most of us. Okay. Dharma body refers to the what you attain when your level enlightenment is high enough. Okay. so typically is ma sakpas who begin to develop their own dharma body and when you become a Buddha then you have is full-fledged. Okay. And so it's it's if you will to to still keep it mysterious for you. The nap body is totality being total and that is a virtue. Doesn't have to make sense to you. But but having a diamond body is a virtuous thing and that's a natural things that you will attain when your level of enlightenment gets higher and higher. All right. All right. And that's the nature of wisdom that is even there are certain things that you don't understand we still need to talk to you about it. Okay. To prepare you for to one day when when you meditate and you say, "Ah, that's why." All right. It's sort of like personal pleasure of discovery and understanding that is kind of fascinating. A to a