In order to climb even the highest mountain in the world, you have to start from the lowest point. You can understand this wisdom today, but it will take you a million lifetimes to feel it from your heart.

Buddha’s First Essence Meditation

Buddha essence is in you: it wants to teach you to become Buddha

Every lifetime you go into a new body – you can be male, female, ghost, insect, animal, fish – and then you begin the blind belief that the body is you. That body is just four elements. You breathe the air, most of your body is water, you have meat and bones, and you are always warm. If that is so, then the wind is you, the water is you, the earth is you, the fire is you… but that doesn’t make sense. Your human body has to combine in a certain way to match your consciousness.

Human life is in a thinking stage of development, so you have a four-element body for you to think with. For human life, the main focus is emotion, so your body exists to help you experience emotion. Human life also has a strong sense of desire. We desire more than any other animal. We can fly, we can swim, and we can create machines to help us move around. We have all types of clothes to change our appearance; we can even change our hair colour. In this century almost everything can be changed because our desire for change is so big.

Life goes much further than desire. Sometimes your consciousness gets so lost that it becomes less aware. The more aware you are, the higher you will go; the less aware you are, the lower you go.

Either you are addicted to all your blind bad habits – greed, hate stupidity, worry, fear, possessiveness, and ego – or you try to be awakened. To be awakened, you must clean out all these bad habits. To clean them out you have to understand life. Through understanding how life works, I found that the meditation lifestyle of the Four Buddha-Essence Meditations appeared.

In the ocean, there are a hundred million waves, but each wave is still just water.

With a chopstick, one part is thicker, one part is thinner. It looks like two different parts, but it is just one piece.

Why is life like that? Because even though the form is different, the essence is the same.

You are consciousness, I am consciousness. You can be aware of everything, I can be aware of everything. We are all looking for joy; that is certain. You can see that the essence is the same. We all have awareness ability that is searching for happiness and trying to avoid suffering. The essence remains the same: Buddha’s awareness that every life is equal. Because Buddha is aware that every life has the same essence, he knows that no life is more important than any other life. His heart starts to open and he cares for every life without ego.

To learn Buddhism is to learn to have wisdom to clean out your ego.

Why do we have ego? The bottom line is that we are all the same, but if we all have the same essence, then why are we aggressive towards each other? Life does not exist so that we can fight each other; it exists so we can help each other, in harmony, to develop the right way of living.

The right way only appears when you can see through all the illusion that is the appearing form and understand that the essence is the truth. Because the essence is the same, we should see eternity. Everything that changes has no eternity. When something doesn’t change, that is eternity. Because the essence remains despite any change in its form, so everything that changes is not the essence.

Waves are constantly changing, but we know that waves are made of water which truly doesn’t change. You can’t find eternity from form, only from essence.

A baby is always growing and changing, so the essence is not the form, it is the awareness that is connected to the body.

If I say “Raise your right hand”, what happens? Your hand doesn’t raise itself. Your ear consciousness hears me speak, your brain consciousness thinks about it, your heart consciousness decides “Ok, I will raise my hand.” So this movement is not because of your four-element body, it’s because of your consciousness. The power behind your four-element body is what you use to be aware. All consciousness is the same.

As it is the essence that has the power – not the form – and the essence never changes, thus you already have eternity power. You are simply not aware of it. You are lost in your identification with your four-element body. You take this fake I as the real you, and use this fake, Illusion I to connect to others. You create Ego and concentrate your attention to possess more materials and more outward illusions. You dream of illusions with an illusion (Ego) – dreams of dreams – no wonder you are lost! Deeper and deeper, you are lost.

Truly, you already have eternal Spirits. It isn’t with you, it’s in your essence – it’s in every life essence – but if you don’t clean out all your bad habits, then it won’t appear. A mirror is shiny and reflects everything in front of it, but when it’s covered with dust, it doesn’t work any more. The essence of the mirror does not need cleaning – it stays reflective – you have to clean off the dust to see the reflection. Likewise, your consciousness stays eternal and pure, but is covered by ego and blindness.

Your blindness ego thinks, “I’m a man, I’m this, I’m that, I’m happy, I’m sad. What do I want to do? I will possess this object. I will possess that person…” In the end, you will never be happy because you’re getting more and more lost.

If you can’t find happiness from your own life, then you can’t find it from someone else. When you find happiness from your life and someone finds happiness from their life, then you can share positive with positive: double happiness. Negative and negative is double negative, then both of you will be unhappy. So never blame your unhappiness on other people.

If other people are unhappy and you allow their negative influence to affect you, then that is your problem, too. When you blame other people, your Ego remains blind and the suffering stays with you.

Once you stop blaming this world – anything or anyone in it – and start to take your own life in your own hands, then you purify yourself. You take your mirror and clean off all the dust; it becomes bright and you become happy. You can share that happiness to help others. That happiness gives you more strength to be aware of life, to be aware of more wisdom to enjoy life.

Buddha understood that all life essence is the same. He lived with a pure heart, totally open with care for everyone, never blaming others, always kind to others.

For that reason, his lifestyle is a meditation, although it’s not one moment of sitting still.

It’s the way he speaks.

It’s his facial expression.

It’s the way his heart cares for everyone.

It’s the way he doesn’t follow an ego.

It is meditation. And that’s Buddha’s First Essence Meditation.

Buddha’s Second Essence Meditation

If you are willing to control your ego, and to care for every life, then you are already living in this meditation. Here at the dojo we learn Buddhism together. If you follow your Ego too much, you know I will kick your arse. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll kick you out. The dojo is a place to develop spirits.

You want to clean out your blind Ego: stupidity, greed, fear, and worry are not allowed. You have to change them to become wise, become independent, develop your life to become sharper. You have to change them so you have a good heart, feel open-heart care for every life. Once you begin this journey, you don’t have to find your Spirits: you are developing your Spirits. Spirits is not something you can find or hold, you have to develop it. If you don’t, then it never appears.

Spirits are the seeds of your pure consciousness. To help it develop, you have to clean out all the dirt. To make a seed grow, you have to pull out weeds, fertilise the soil, give water, plant in the right season, and only then will it grow.

So to compare the seed to your life means that at every moment, every second, you must try to understand what you are afraid of, what you are worried about.

However, it’s not what you are worried about that is important. If you analyse yourself, you will realise you are addicted to that habit of worrying, but there is truly nothing to worry about. Yet you worry so much that you can’t get away from it. It’s as if you have to worry to be alive. Wise people see through that and realise there is nothing to worry about.

What are you afraid of? You fear your blindness. If you have the power to see everything clearly, then there is nothing to fear. I’m so sure in my behaviour because I truly know what is going on. Only wisdom can help you clean out stupid blindness.

You have to clean out these pollutions to live in a spiritual meditation. That is connected to Buddha’s Second Essence Meditation. That is the Four Eternal Hearts.

• Make yourself bright and happy.
• Develop your wisdom.
• Be sharp.
• Have an open heart.
• Be kind.
• Care for every life.

When you connect to every different life and see that every life is different, then you have to analyse all this wisdom again so you can help each one in a different way. Buddha did this millions of times before he became Buddha. Every lifetime he was reborn as a baby. He grew up, developed spirits incredibly quickly, found happiness, and immediately used spirits to help every life. For every life he helps, he has to develop new wisdom to adapt to that person’s situation.

When I do acupuncture, I don’t think that I know what is going on. I have to observe the patient because everybody has a different size, character, habits, movement, and posture. For each person I have to alter my understanding to match their reality.

Once Buddha became awakened, he realised that the essence of all life is the same. He cared for every life and developed an open heart, being kind without ego, caring without negative personal emotion, joyful without stupidity, and free from greed.

Use these Four Eternal Hearts to help every life. With every life you help, you develop new wisdom. After a million lifetimes, all this wisdom joins together and you become Buddha.

That is the second essence meditation: be pure, and then use that pureness to use the Four Eternal Hearts to help every life.

When you start to care for others, your wisdom grows more and more. When you worry about yourself, you get more worry. It is the same with fear. Don’t get stuck in that habit. It damages you and other people, and it’s egotistical to do that for others.

If you complain, show bad attitude or intention, don’t care, or have a lazy character towards others – that poison infects them. If everyone did that then the world be a terrible place. So we should practise cleaning out all that and living in these two meditations.

First is pureness, emptiness. From there is to feel. Get rid of ego, the personal; be pure, see the essence of it, see that the essence of life is the same so there is no Ego. Keep the wisdom that every life has the same importance. Don’t get stuck in crazy worry, fear, greed, hate, stupidity. Then you are the first meditation. Then you connect to the Four Eternal Hearts, and you become the second meditation.

Kindness, care towards yourself is the foundation; you can’t show kindness and care to others and without first showing it to yourself!

You have changed your life a lot since coming to philosophy class. Smile to yourself, be kind and caring to yourself, think about the blind habits and bad intentions that you have cleaned out already.

Examples from the class

• I was always worrying about my son’s future – will we be together? – and it made me sick. I’ve learnt that his consciousness will live on forever as will mine, so now my stomach pains are gone.
• Greed: if food makes me feel good, then 10 times will make me feel better! Not really though, greed for food is bad, greed for wisdom is ok!
• Greed for partying and drinking was strong in me. It’s taken a while to wake up to that blindness and the results of that behaviour.
• I stopped looking for excitement through stupidity, that blind joy and looking for wise joy – no more partying, drugs, and marijuana.
• Being more accepting of people: they are the same as me. Being less judgemental and critical all the time.
• Not being frightened to try new things.
• Knowing that I’m the main cause of everything that happens to me, stop blaming others, and create my own joy.
• I have stopped caring with negative personal emotion – my friends’ problem was MY problem – now it is not! If I can’t help someone, then I don’t accept the negative by putting up an invisible barrier – take life easy, take life light.
• I used to look for security in outside things, now I develop myself through martial arts and wisdom.
• I have stopped trying to change others, stopped blaming others, and started to develop myself.
• I was worried about social things – how to act, worried about how to act – now with philosophy, I am more calm, I don’t react to everything and find the Middle Way.
• Good intention still doesn’t work with the wrong calculation.
• I didn’t value myself so I didn’t know how to take care of myself.
• I tried to block out the world, grab fast pleasure, and make the world go by without even realising. Life is more valuable than that, you have to use the time you have.
• I don’t look for happiness in materials any more. I look to Spirits and body awareness.
• I used to think negative thoughts all the time; now I think positive thoughts all the time.
• Stop all the worry.
• If friends and family are negative I don’t get sucked in. I put the invisible barrier to stop the negative energy. I help as much as I can without getting drawn in.
• I used to take what other people say as important. Now I listen to it and observe it for what it’s worth. I have no desire to follow everyone’s opinion because everyone is stuck in their own blindness.
• I lost my faith and trust in people. But through learning spiritual development I have learnt to trust people again.
• I used to not appreciate the details and art in life. I wasn’t aware and wasn’t looking for it. If I’m not aware and not looking to be aware of something I’ll never find it. Art is the key to enjoying life, to having discipline, to everything. If you have art power to give water to your plants then it becomes joyful. You wake up and talk to the plants: “Are you happy here?” You get lost in the care and the art. Relax yourself with good posture, doing martial art. There is martial art in these plants – these two and empty space for people to walk in. Flowers twist like that, go 3-D, and once you get into the centre, inside waterman protect, outside these flower triangle twisting to attack you.
• If you’re not truthful to yourself and the world, you won’t find Spirits. You need open heart so you aren’t lonely. Have compassion. Not caring for other life is bad for every life and yourself.
• I used to ask many questions, now, once they are in my mind, I observe them from many angles, many philosophies, I use my own understanding first, with logic and feel around.
• I asked for protection to learn about Spirits and dragons. Observing Life Sound connected to dragon. Through learning dharma, understanding the system of life, you understand the essence. What/when am I pure?
• I found value and respect for my body: drugs, alcohol, partying to show off was not respect. Often I see a sport or something that damages the body and is really just for vain Ego: running a marathon is Ego, running on the road damages your legs, running in bush on a surface that is always at different angles is healthy, running on soft sand is not great. My body is my temple to help me develop Spirits.

From a talk on 6 June 2011.