1. POR LER BOR LOUR ME DUO SHING CHING

 

Por Ler:

A general translation of this phrase would be “wisdom,” but this single word doesn’t cover the phrase’s full range of meaning. According to Buddhism, there are two basic types of wisdom.

The first type of wisdom is to understand how to live human life in a better material way. For example, scientific knowledge helps us develop a better material life. The telephone makes communication easier, the automobile, trains, and airplanes make transportation easier. Medicines and vaccines make life freer of disease and illness. This type of wisdom can release suffering, but only temporarily and not deeply.

The second type of wisdom is to observe the eternal truth of life and to live with the truth. Being aware of the truth and free from the fears of life, suffering disappears.

The truth of life is that life has two parts united as one. One part is the essence, which is the awareness ability (Consciousness). The other part is the form of all that exists, which includes our body and its surroundings. It is also whatever we are aware of, and suffering comes from all of this.

The first type of wisdom is to cure the problem of the life forms. But the power that makes this life form continually changes and creates more suffering. So there is never an end of suffering. The second part of wisdom is to release all the troubles and suffering by stopping the power, which creates suffering. So the suffering can be forever released. Translated into English sounds, the Sanskrit word for this type of wisdom would be “Por Ler.”

Bor Lour Me Duo:

A literal translation would be “to reach, to be aware, or to observe.” In this poem the Buddhist philosophy meaning is “to reach a different stage of 67 awareness” or “to use the Por Ler wisdom to be aware of the truth of life.” There is also another possible reading of this phrase that means, “Using the Por Ler wisdom to observe the truth of life.”

In the Chinese translation of Por Lour Me Duo their word “Gyea” is used. It is very important in Chinese Buddhist meditation and means “aware” or “awaken.”

It means “aware” because the truth of life is very deep, powerful and mysterious .The only difference between Buddha and other people is the level of their awareness ability and what they are aware of.

Por Lour Me Duo does not mean to be aware of something, but to be aware of everything and the power behind everything.

Regular people can only be aware of things through their own individual character and individual physical sense. When one has completely developed his awareness ability, then he can be aware of the unlimited life forms. This is the stage known as “awakened” or “Nirvana.”

In this highest stage of awareness, the memory of being a human being is like a dream. It is Nirvana because it is more completely perfect than any idea one can imagine.

So Por Lour Me Duo also means to be awakened or to reach Nirvana.

The only way to be awakened or reach Nirvana is to be aware of the eternal truth of life, and the key to understanding the truth of life is to develop the observing ability. That is why we translate the title as “to observe and be aware of the eternal truth of life.”

Shing Ching:

The literal translation of “shing” would be “true heart.” In Buddhist 68 terms “shing” can also mean “consciousness.” In general usage “shing” is translated as “consciousness.”

In Buddhism, this term is used to describe a mysterious power. It can therefore also be translated as “strength.” There is a Buddhist saying, which means, “Our heart is like the earth.” This is because so many things can grow in it. It can grow enormous trees, it can grow fruits and vegetables, and it can also grow noxious weeds. It can grow wildly, or it can be cultivated and organized.

“Shing” is the fertile ground of our consciousness in which things grow. Wisdom is the farmer. The hard work is an effort to be aware of the truth of life, like the farmer cultivates his fields. Ignorance is the weeds that grow in the fields. When we take care of the fields, then the sweet fruits come forth as kindness without ego, compassion without excess emotion, joy without blindness, and freedom without greediness.

“Ching” is the traditional way to write “book.” As a verb it means “to connect” or “to pass through.” In modern usage, “Ching” usually translates as “philosophy book.” Taken together “shing ching” means “the book of consciousness philosophy“ or “the philosophy book of true heart.”

A short translation for the whole title is: “The book of consciousness (true heart) philosophy for using the wisdom to observe and be aware of the eternal truth of life.”

This is the book of consciousness (true heart) philosophy for using the wisdom to 69 Observe and be aware of the eternal truth of life. This first line of the poem repeats the meaning of the title.

The title is a transliteration of the Sanskrit words. Here the literal meaning is given.

Observing-Self-Being Bodhisattva developed deep wisdom to observe and be aware of the truth of life. After that, he became brightly aware that the five developments (illusion being, receiving, thinking, acting and awareness) are empty and he released all suffering and pain.

Observing-Self-Being:

in Buddhism, the power to observe is the “true self.” This power is also known as “consciousness” or “true heart.” The forms we observe, from our bodies to everything we experience, are called “illusion being.” They are not the true self because the true self remains always the same, but Illusion being constantly changes.

Though Consciousness (the True Self) exists, it has no form. Consciousness is generally able to observe all life forms but not itself. When this power is trained to observe itself, then it is able to be aware of the “true self.”

“Observing-Self-Being” is the name used to describe a Bodhisattva who has observed the truth of life deeply and is able to see through all the forms and be aware of life’s essence.

Completely developed observing ability is the true self-being. When consciousness (observing ability) can be aware of its own essence, it is at stage of awareness closest to Buddha consciousness. The name “Observing self -Being” is given only to the Bodhisattva who has reached highest Bodhisattva level.

Bodhisattva:

Anyone, who understands the truth of life and wants to help others to 70 understand it, can be called “Bodhisattva”. One who has trained his or her consciousness from regular human consciousness into Buddha’s consciousness can also be called a Bodhisattva.

The category of Bodhisattva generally has two different types. The first type understands the truth of life completely through logic or intellectual power. The second type completely understands the truth of life through the mind but also has an extensive meditation training (which develops a higher awareness ability) and has wider experience of the truth of life.

The Bodhisattva consciousness contains two basic kinds of awareness that come from the Bodhisattvas heart.

The first kind is the wisdom to be aware of the truth of life. (Wisdom has two meanings: complete joy without ignorance; and, complete freedom without greediness.) The second part is to develop compassion. (Compassion means: complete kindness without ego; and complete care without being emotional.) The way to develop this wisdom is to not look at things through the perspective of an individual “I.” Because Bodhisattva can do this, he can patiently observe things from many different angles. To release the feeling of an individual I, one must also hold onto nothing in his heart. To develop wisdom, one must constantly try to observe life until his observing ability is completely developed.

There are six things one must practice to gain awareness of the truth of life. These are:

1. Generosity. To be generous means to give up jealousy, greed, selfishness and miserliness and to develop a sharing character. There are two kinds of sharing. One is sharing material things, such as food or money. The second is sharing knowledge or wisdom.

2. Discipline. In Buddhism, there are two kinds of discipline. One concerns one’s outward actions, the other concerns one’s inward attitude. The first type is to have the discipline not to do negative things but to do only positive things. The second type is not to be ignorant in living, but always to stay aware of the truth of life.

3. Patience. There are two types of patience that one must develop. The first type is the patience to accept things that one doesn’t want to do but has to do. (For example, when you get sick you don’t like to waste time in the hospital, but because of your weakened body condition you have to. This is something one must learn to patiently accept.) The second type of patience is the patience to be aware of the truth of life. Because the truth of life is deep, complicated, and mysterious, there is no chance to be aware of this truth without patience.

4. Concentration. There are also two types of concentration to develop. One is to concentrate from your mind to be aware of the truth of life. The other is to concentrate deeply from your heart to be aware of the truth of life.

A useful way to explain the difference between these two kinds of concentration is to look at our general habits. In Buddhism all kind of human habits arise from the law of desire. As we feel desire we try to satisfy it by acquiring or attaining something. But once we satisfy this desire, we immediately feel a new desire that requires satisfaction. Trying to satisfy these desires is a never-ending process. In fact, the more satisfied one gets the more one wants to enjoy this sense of satisfaction. This sense of desire for satisfaction includes learning ideas and philosophy of life.

When we push ourselves to learn the truth of life intellectually, it is from the power of desire. Buddhism teaches one to be awakened from the law of desire. This means that one no longer looks for satisfaction of any kind (physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual).

To be aware of the truth of life one must truly want from his heart not to be blind. There is a famous sentence from Buddha regarding the moment he became Buddha. He said, “All the wisdom about life is already in everyone everywhere. If our heart truly wants to be aware of it, then without any teacher we all can be aware of it.” It is for this reason that the second type of concentration must be from one’s heart.

Here is a simple example of what it means be concentrated from your heart to try to be aware of the truth of life. There are two people who study history. One tries to learn it because he has to learn it to pass an exam. He tries to concentrate his mind to learn names, dates, and places. But when he studies, his heart actually longs to go swimming and have fun. Even though he makes great effort and tries hard to use his mind, he cannot learn and retain the things that he wishes to. The second person learns history because he has a very important principle from his emotion that inspires him. For example, his parents may have been killed in the Second World War and he wants to understand everything he can about the circumstances surrounding their lives and deaths. Because his emotion arises from so deeply within his heart, he learns without having to work at it.

Concentration means being serious from your heart as well as from your mind.

5. Meditation. All Bodhisattvas try to be calm to observe the truth of life. Meditation is the technique they use to calm, open and sensitize their consciousness. There are two basic types of Buddhist Meditation. The first type works to stop our thinking. There is a Buddhist saying that goes, The mind is like flowing water. Some people think faster, like a fast river rapid, and some think slower, like a smooth, wide river flows. But the same idea holds true in each case. The water continues to flow. This is also true of the mind. It constantly continues to think. To stop the mind from thinking is very difficult for most people. But when we concentrate on our own thinking we cannot observe the truth of the whole eternal life.

So there are some basic meditation techniques to achieve this state. One method is to sit quietly and count from one to ten, then from ten to one, over and over. Another method is to consciously observe one’s breathing. Doing this, one thinks of nothing except the feelings of his body and its surroundings. This type of meditation can also include yoga stretching techniques and martial arts forms such as Tai Chi.

The second type of meditation is built up from the ability gained from first type. The difference is that the second type of meditation is only possible when the first type of meditation has been deeply mastered. The reason one first must learn not to think is to experience deep calmness.

Once the deep calmness awareness has been built, one can again think anything or do any regular activities and always stay in touch with this deep calm awareness. Keeping this calm awareness as one goes about his daily activities is the second type of meditation.

In Chinese, meditation also has another definition, which is “the strength of being stationary”. To meditate does not simply mean to sit down and be still. The whole universe is the power of constant movement and change, and our awareness follows the constantly changing forms. There is no instant when one can feel completely calm without any sense of moving. The strongest power in the universe is this power of being stationary. Only when your consciousness is strong enough can one remain completely calm and not follow the changing forms.

Thus, the idea of being still refers not to one’s physical sense, but to one’s heart. But this does not mean that the heart is a concrete object, like a rock that does not move. Rather the heart (the strong, developed consciousness) is pure and open. Like the empty space. It accepts everything that moves but it does not move.

 

6. Wisdom. As a Bodhisattva the main wisdom is the wisdom to be aware of the truth of life. The truth of life has two parts united as one: the forms of all kinds of life and the essence of these forms. By observing all kinds of life forms, one can become aware of their essence.

This truth is conveyed in the well-known saying, “Back to the essence–Nirvana.” The forms of life constantly change. They appear, disappear, come into existence, and cease to exist. But the power that make things constantly change, appear and disappear remains. A wave can rise or fall in a river, but the power behind the wave remains. This power is the essence of the wave–water. The essence of all constantly changing life forms also remains the same. Buddhism calls this essence “emptiness.”

We can be aware of Emptiness only when our consciousness is completely open and calm, like empty space is completely open and calm. The essence of our lives is the ability to be aware of all life forms. This ability is constantly aware of the changing life forms, but it is not aware of itself.

When the Bodhisattva sees that all life forms constantly change and are an illusion, then the blind desire that tries to hold onto this illusion ends. This is the first stage of Bodhisattva wisdom–awareness of the true essence of all life forms and the end of all desire–emotional, mental, and physical. The wisdom described here is the ability in the Bodhisattva, not any acquired knowledge.

Wisdom ability is not knowledge of wisdom. Wisdom ability is the process, while knowledge of wisdom is the products of that process. Someone who has wisdom ability can observe the truth of life and discover all kinds of knowledge. But when others try to learn the knowledge that he discovered, it doesn’t mean they have the same ability.

When people study a wise person’s teachings they do not acquire his ability, but only his knowledge. Knowledge can be taught, but wisdom ability cannot be. One must develop it. Wisdom ability comes only from training one’s observing ability to be aware of the truth of life.

We can say, for example, that knowledge is like a bridge. Wisdom ability is the architect of the bridge. People who acquire the knowledge are those who pass over on the bridge. But simply because one can cross over on the bridge does not mean he could design and build a new bridge. But if one wants to do this, he could learn how to build a bridge by analyzing and studying the existing bridge in addition to simply using it to cross the river to the opposite shore.

The second stage of Bodhisattvas’ wisdom builds on the first stage. It is when his complete calmness observing ability keeps him from being lost in the illusions of life forms and at the same time he becomes aware that other peoples’ consciousness is still lost. They do not see the essence of the changing illusions and feel all kinds of fear, insecurity and suffering. His compassion rises up and he has the will to help people develop their consciousness so that they too can be aware of the truth of life and release all suffering. He then learns the second type of wisdom, the wisdom of how to help others develop their conscious awareness to understand the truth of life.

The first stage of Bodhisattva wisdom can be compared to the architect who designs and builds a bridge. The second stage can be compared to the architect who can not only build bridges but also teach others how to build bridges.

Buddha is one who has completely developed these two types of wisdom.

Brightly Aware:

A simple way to explain the term “brightly aware” is to say that one is more aware of things when they are brightly lit rather than in the dark. But there is a deeper meaning here as well. It describes the Bodhisattvas’ unlimited awareness experience. Their consciousness is aware of each thing’s essence, and this essence is completely pure, like a light that travels eternally through the universe. The things it touches become bright.

“Brightly aware” describes the Bodhisattvas consciousness, which is aware of things in complete detail, like when we see things in bright day light. Also as the light is without boundary and shines to all things the bodhisattva is aware of all things without limitation. Five developments (illusion being, receiving, thinking, acting, and awareness) are empty: The concept of the five developments is one of the Buddha’s most famous teachings.

It describes the idea that life has two parts united as one.

The first part, Illusion being, describes the idea of all-existing forms, including empty space, light and darkness.

The second part is the other four developments: receiving, thinking, acting and awareness–describe the idea of consciousness. Consciousness is the ability to be aware of all existing form. The understanding comes in a clear, sequential way. It begins with receiving information of illusion being. Thinking takes place when one organizes and analyzes that information. Afterwards, one’s consciousness acts on or reacts to that information. When consciousness forms have a clear impression from receiving, thinking, and acting, it then has developed what is known as awareness.

Why are these two parts–illusion being and consciousness (together as five developments)–empty?

To understand this question we must first understand what Illusion being and Consciousness are and what the relationship between these two things is.

In Buddhism, Illusion being and Consciousness are the two basic parts of life united together as one. This is the truth of life. These two parts cannot be separated because they come from the same essence. They exist together as one piece of paper has two sides.

Illusion Being is governed by the “changeable” kind of truth. This kind of truth is one that does not remain constant as circumstances or points of view change. This change may occur between various perspectives, or it may occur over time. We see this kind of truth is shown when we look at how an ant and an elephant would see an apple. While the apple would remain the same, for the ant and the elephant its “truth” would be entirely different. For the ant the apple would be a huge mountain, but for the elephant it would only be a little bite. We can also easily illustrate how what we call “the truth” changes over time. This time the example is from a human point of view. A few hundred years ago it would have been true to say that the trip from Paris to Rome would have been a long and difficult one. But today this would not be true. Now, rather than taking an arduous trip on foot, one would simply take a short trip on an airplane. What was true in the 1800s is no longer true today. The field of medicine provides dozens of similar examples. Many deadly or crippling diseases, such as polio and syphilis, were incurable as recently as one hundred years ago. Now this is no longer true.

In contrast to Illusion Being (the changeable kind of truth), there is consciousness (the eternal truth). According to Buddhism, consciousness is awareness ability, which has six functions. These include the eye consciousness, the ear consciousness, the nose consciousness, the tongue consciousness, the body consciousness, and the mind consciousness.

This kind of truth for the ants, elephants, fish, birds, and human beings are all the same. Each has it the awareness ability to feel life, though what they are aware of may vary. All living things need awareness ability to sense the different life forms. Life’s deep mystery arises from the fact that the changeable kind of truth (Illusion Being) and eternal truth (consciousness) are two different parts of life, but they are united as one.

To understand their relationship better we have to understand the concept of Illusion being in more detail. Some commentators translate the Buddhist concept of Illusion Beings as “matter,” but this definition can confuse Westerners. This is because Western minds tend to think of “matter” as limited only solid objects. To Buddhists this concept also includes what exists between the “matters”–empty space. Further, this term emphasizes the fact that all this “matter” is an illusion. It is illusion because all forms are constantly changing.

For example, the caterpillar turns into a cocoon and later becomes a butterfly. From the caterpillar’s point of view the cocoon and butterfly are illusions. When it changes to a cocoon, the caterpillar and butterfly become the illusions. Once it starts to fly as a butterfly, the caterpillar and cocoon are the illusions.

As things constantly change, each moment that now seems real to us will soon become illusions. When a human being is a baby, death is far away like an illusion. When the baby grows up, gets old, and approaches his death, the memory of being an infant is like an illusion. As every baby carries its future death, all dead men carry a new future reborn life. Each life is like a rainstorm, which falls and becomes a river. This river flows to the ocean, where heat turns some of its surface into steam, which forms clouds, which produce raindrops. These raindrops fall down and turn again into a river.

Life, too, is a circle like this. Everything constantly changes. While present circumstances may seem real at any given moment, one must remember that this feeling is only an illusion. This feeling exists only for a short time in the present moment. As quickly as a bubble disappears in the air or a thunderstorm’s lightning bolt vanishes or a shooting star dissolves into darkness, that is how quickly this illusion changes.

Human existence is just a lifetime dream. When we dream, everything seems to exist realistically. Once we wake up, however, we know that these are just illusions that actually don’t exist. Illusion being (the appearance of life forms) is like this. The things we experience now are the elements of our dream. They seem real to us until we are awakened. Illusion being means that things constantly change into other things. Yet, as they change they exist only in the present moment.

To understand this we need only to look at the stars in the sky. The light of the stars seems real and present. But the truth is that the light we see began traveling millions of years ago. By the time this light reaches us, the star from which it came may have already vanished. Thus we have the sense of past, present, and future. Before the light touches our eyes, we think of it as existing in the future. The light we currently see was given off in the past. But for the light there is only the present. When the star releases it, while it travels, and when it touches our eye it is always in the present.

From this perspective there is no past or future.

As this is true for starlight, so is it true for human consciousness. We exist at all times only in the present. When we miss something from our past or when we think about our future, these activities occur to us only in the present.

This idea of “present time” can be discussed in scientific as well as philosophic terms. In daily life the philosophical term for the things that we are aware of is “Illusion being”. This, as we have seen, means that everything we see is changing continuously and that we are aware of the form rather than the essence of what we experience. In modern scientific terminology, we would use the words “Time” and “Space” to describe this experience.

Everyone understands that the things we experience happen “in” Time and Space. Now, as scientists understand more about the way our universe functions, they know that things actually consist of space and time and do not simply exist “in” them. This is not easy to understand because it does not seem to be supported by our daily experience. We walk outside in the morning. All we see and feel seems to be solid and real: the door we push open, the ground we stand on, the rose we cut to place on the table.

To understand why these things are not as we conventionally understand them we must change the way we look at them. First we need to understand the meaning of the terms “Time” and “Space.” But comprehending even this is difficult because each term affects our understanding of the other in a fundamental way.

First let us look at Time. What we call Time is actually just the way we measure how space changes. Therefore, in truth, what we commonly refer to as Time does not exist. Space, which is constantly changing, however, does exist. And it is from our sense of space moving that we get our sense of time passing. Let us look at why this is so.

As we go through our lives, the sense of time passing is strong and seems real. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years–we seem to feel all these intervals passing as our body ages and our surrounding change.

Here is a concrete example that shows why this feeling exists–and why time itself does not exist. A person drives to a railroad crossing where a train is passing. He can count the train cars and feel the passage of time. But this way of counting is only a way of measuring the movement and speed of space changing; it does not measure any actual passage of time.

Without some way of measuring the movement of space, such as the train’s passing, time would disappear. Even when one sits quietly, he has a sense of his body moving–the heart beating, the lungs expanding and contracting, the mind thinking. If there were no movement at all in the universe, there would be no sense of time passing (space moving) and time, therefore, would not exist.

Space moving is actually just another way to describe “illusion being.” Both mean that the appearance of all life forms is a nonstop changing speed. Of course, just because all things are “illusion being” does not mean that they are insubstantial “ghost-like” illusions as many Western minds imagine illusions to be. In Buddhism, all illusion being can appear in six different ways. They are related through our six senses and connected to our six consciousnesses’’.

The following chart shows how each consciousness functions to sense our surroundings.

 

CONSCIOUSNESS BODY SURROUNDINGS

Eye consciousness uses the eyes to sense brightness or darkness

Ear consciousness uses the ears to sense sound or silence

Nose consciousness uses the nose to sense openness or blockades

Tongue consciousness uses the tongue to sense taste or lack of taste

Body consciousness uses the body to sense contact or separation

Mind consciousness uses the mind to sense awareness or lack of awareness

 

This chart shows that the Buddhist thinking about consciousness encompasses a wider understanding of their function than they are usually given credit for by Western thinkers. For instance, when describing the eyes one would usually say that they see forms and colors. But Buddhism describes what they see as brightness or darkness. This is because all forms and colors can only be seen through light, which is brightness. Describing things only in terms of forms and color does not take this into account and it also overlooks the sensation of darkness. In Buddhism, darkness also can be seen. So it is with each sense. Rather than merely sensing a distinct object, each consciousness encompasses the fullest spectrum of sensation.

There is another Buddhism describes the relationship between consciousness and illusion being: Our world consists of four eternal qualities, which exist in the empty space with consciousness.

The four eternal qualities are wind and fire (which are energy) and water and earth (which are materials).

These four qualities are “illusion being” (which is space moving).

The earth, solar system and galaxies are made up of the same four qualities.

A human body is also united by these four qualities. Wind is the air that we breathe.

Fire is our body temperature. Water is our circulating blood. (Ninety percent of our body is water.) Earth is our muscles, bones, ligaments, etc.. The four eternal qualities are united like the planets, solar system, and galaxies, which are all twisting in the pure empty space. Actually the four basic qualities and empty space are the same essence. Their essence is the pure illusion power.

All things in the desire world exist as this pure illusion power. When this pure illusion power moves at a certain speed in an organized form (which will become the four qualities) these qualities unite to create all the life forms in existence.

When this pure illusion power moves in the fast free speed without organization it looks like pure empty space.

In Buddhism, this type of pure empty space is different from the type of empty space, which does not move and is not made up of pure illusion power. Pure illusion power means moving speed power. The moving empty space and four qualities all come from this pure illusion power. But this pure illusion power moves in the non-moving pure existence. This type of non-moving pure existence is known as consciousness.

According to Buddhism consciousness has no form. Since it has no form, it cannot move. It can only feel the movement of pure illusion power (illusion being). Consciousness first feels the sense of “I” existing with a body. After that it continually feels the movement of its surroundings. This idea is difficult to grasp, because people generally think consciousness exists because we have a physical I (illusion being), since our physical I is continually changing so consciousness is constantly changing as well. This error occurs because we confuse our consciousness with our sense of awareness, a common mistake. Buddhism teaches that consciousness and awareness are two distinctly different things.

Let us look at the example of Eye Consciousness. Eye consciousness has the ability to see. But the result of what we see is “awareness” and not “consciousness.” Seeing awareness comes from a combination of the ability to see the tools of the eyes themselves, and the surroundings–light, darkness, and all kinds of forms.

When these three conditions are united, one experiences “seeing awareness.” Because “seeing awareness” comes from these three parts, it is not any one of them but exists only when this combination is present. This awareness can be compared to fire, which arises from heat, oxygen, and wood. When these three things mix, the fire appears but fire clearly is not any one of these things by itself. This is an important distinction to make because many students of Buddhism do not understand the difference between the sight awareness and the ability to see. Let us continue investigating this issue by explaining why consciousness has no form.

Looking at the example of Eye Consciousness we see that eye consciousness can be aware of any color or any form, which includes seeing through empty space. But can eye consciousness see itself? No. The reason why it cannot see itself is because the ability to see itself has no form. It is also important for us to make it clear why we can be aware of empty space.

In Buddhism even empty space has an existing form. If something has no form, it cannot be perceived. Thus all that can be perceived — even something we commonly consider “empty” or “formless” — must actually have a form. The mysterious trick of life is that the essence of our consciousness–which is our awareness ability and constitutes our True Self—has – No movement.

Because it has no speed to move it is not “illusion being” (the appearance of all life forms).

– No awareness. So there is no feeling, thinking, or acting.

– No brightness or darkness. So are no forms to see.

– No sound or silence. Therefore there is no way to hear.

– No smell or breathing. So there is no scent or breath movement.

– No taste. Therefore there is no sense of flavor.

– No touch or sense of separation. Since it doesn’t move it has no form.

– No thinking or thoughts. Like a white piece of paper without any writing on it, the ability to think remains though there are no thoughts. Consciousness is awareness ability. It is not the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and brain) nor their sense boundaries (brightness/darkness, sound/silence, openness/blockades, taste/lack of taste, contact/separation, and awareness/lack of awareness) or the result of our awareness.

One analogy for consciousness is that of a chalkboard. Any words or colors can be written on a chalkboard. That is because a chalkboard has the ability to be written on. The words or colors written on the chalkboard come from a combination of the chalkboard, the chalk and the person who does the writing. But these three are not the chalkboard. (Many people make the mistake of thinking that consciousness is not only the awareness ability but also the sense and what is sensed. This leads to the belief in the Individual I, which they see as being constituted of these awareness’ and thoughts.) The chalkboard can become so filled with writing that we can make no sense of anything written on it. But the chalkboard also has the ability to be cleaned off and to receive new writing.

Our awareness ability (consciousness) works similarly. It can become cluttered so that no sense can be made what it holds, but it too has to stay empty to receive new awareness.

Another example which can help us understands more precisely, why consciousness (the awareness ability) is not the awareness (the result of what we are aware of).

The ability of water to make waves is not the actual wave itself. The wave appears and disappears, but the ability of water to make waves remains. The wave is the result of the ability of the water to make waves.

The same is true of our awareness. All of our awareness comes from our ability to feel and the things that exist (which are constantly changing as illusion being) to be felt.

Here is a simple diagram to illustrate the relationship between consciousness, illusion being, and emptiness.

 

He released all suffering and pain.

By observing and being aware of the truth of life, Observing-Self-Being Bodhisattva released all pain and suffering. But how did he do it? There are three parts to we must examine to answer this question. Suffering is one part, observing and being aware of the truth of life is one part, and employing the technique to release suffering and pain through observing and being aware of the truth of life is the third part.

As we noted above, life has two parts–Illusion being and consciousness–united as one. And we explained that the five developments (illusion being, receiving, thinking, acting, awareness) are empty. These all explain about observing and being aware of the truth of life. Still, we didn’t explain clearly what suffering is. After we do this, we can try to understand the relationship between the two parts, which is the technique to release suffering.

What is the Buddhist idea of suffering?

Suffering basically comes from going against the truth of life.

Life contains three basic truths, which are called Three Eternal Dharma Truths.

The first Truth is: All the existing form of Dharma (the mysterious power of life) is constantly changing.

The second Truth is: All the existing forms of Dharma come from combinations of the other forms. So all the individual forms just appear to have individual forms. Truly they have no individuality.

The third Truth is: The essence of Dharma has no form. Therefore it always remains calm and unlimited. This is Nirvana–no beginning, no end.

How do people go against these three eternal truths and create suffering?

First, we suffer because we try to hold onto something that cannot be held. The first eternal Truth says that everything is constantly changing. Therefore, one can hold on to nothing. But when our consciousness is greedy we try to possess the things we are aware of.

In addition to outside material things we have acquired in life, we try to hold onto our physical bodies. This, of course, is not possible. Because we insist on trying to achieve the impossible, we feel lost and insecure. To be aware we cannot hold onto even our physical being makes us afraid.

This fear is one kind of suffering.

A second way that we suffer is through our belief in having an “Individual I.” In reality all individual forms come from a combination of constantly changing and moving speed and remain a combination of constantly changing and moving speed. But the feeling of our having an individual I contradicts the second Truth.

Once we look at life from the perspective of an individual I, then we feel the distance from everything and we try to protect this sense of individual I. When our individual I feel attacked we respond by becoming angry and hateful. These, too, are kinds of suffering.

A third way we suffer is through our ignorance of the Truth of Life.

The essence of life has no form. This means that our awareness is unlimited. Because we are not aware of this truth, this limitation is called Ignorance or Blindness. All suffering comes from this ignorance. When we can truly be aware that our essence is unlimited, then we will no longer be locked into our limited awareness.

Blindness awareness creates all kinds of limitations, which cause the deep insecurities and create all other kinds of suffering.

The suffering that we experience as human beings comes through four basic paths, through our physical sense, our desire, our emotion, and our intellectual sense.

1. The suffering of the physical sense: Buddhism teaches that physical suffering comes from the imbalance of the four eternal elements (wind, fire, water and earth).

The cause of the imbalance comes from these three basic consciousness–Greed, Anger, and Ignorance.

For example, when we eat too much or drink too much we get an upset stomach. When we get angry we become insensitive to our sense of balance and harmony. This can cause suffering through physical tension, stress, or as the result of a fight. Physical suffering can also be divided into four parts: birth, aging, illness, and death. Birth causes suffering because when a baby is born its first experience is a painful one– the change from the comfort of the mother’s womb to the bright, loud, rough outside world. A mother also suffers during pregnancy and childbirth. For nine months she has to carry the heavy weight of the growing baby, and the actual childbirth is often very painful. Both these experiences are suffering. Birth is actually the root of all suffering. If we were never born we would not experience the suffering that accompanies living. Aging causes suffering because as one ages he must constantly give his attention to learning how to adapt to new situations, whether he wants to or not. This constant need to grow, learn, and adjust causes one to lose his sense of freedom. As we age we also face more physical limitations. We must give up doing things we once found enjoyable. This, too, is a kind of suffering. Illness causes suffering because it limits our body and our consciousness. Illness is a direct constant painful experience, whether it is a physical or a mental illness. When we are ill we are not free to do the things we wish to do. Death causes suffering because it takes us into the unknown and destroys our feeling of being an Individual I. One does not have to die to understand the suffering of death. When we have an accident–if one falls from a great height or is hit by an automobile but still survives, for example–we can become conscious of a deep fear of dying. When we are well we generally try not to think about death or we quickly try to cover our fear. But this is not a wise way to learn the truth of life. To ignore of cover the fear does not remove it. By understanding why we have this fear and where it comes from we have a chance to truly release it. 2. Desire itself is suffering. The two most basic kinds of desire are those for sex and for food. Sex brings us into the world and creates the sense of Individual I. Eating keeps this sense of Individual I alive. 90 Buddha called the world we live in the Desire World because we cannot escape these two desires. In addition to the Desire World there are two other kinds of worlds– the Energy World and the Consciousness World. In the Energy World one still feels a sense of Individual I but lives in an energy body form rather than a material body form. The body is created by all kinds of energy–lights, heat, etc.–without any material forms. The Consciousness World has two levels. The first is called the Pure Consciousness World. In it one has no bodily form but still feels a sense of Individual I. This world is similar to the Buddhist conception of pure moving empty space, which is the form of pure consciousness. (Most people do not believe that empty space is alive, but Buddhists do. They call it “Incredible Consciousness of Empty Space.” Taoists also describe empty space as being alive. The name they give to it is “Not Clear Existence Consciousness.”) The other consciousness world is the Bodhisattva and Buddha Consciousness. In this consciousness world there is no sense of Individual I. One exists without any form and with uncountable forms at the same time. Another name for this consciousness is “Incredible Buddha/Bodhisattva World.” In the Incredible Buddha/Bodhisattva World the suffering that exists in the Desire World, the Energy World and the Pure Consciousness World disappears. The Desire World arises from a combination of our physical sense, energy (Illusion Being), and consciousness. The Law of Desire governs it, (which is the law of constant change). The Law of Desire is the power of looking for something–sex, food, fame, money, and power. In our universe these are the strongest powers. In the energy world, looking for sex, food, fame and money lose their importance. Only the desire for power (to control others) remains. Desire makes us work to attain the objects of our desire. This makes us slaves to these desires. We suffer if we cannot attain these things (this is the suffering of unfulfilled desire or longing) and we suffer if we get what we desire (this is the suffering caused by 91 our fear of losing these acquired things). In Buddhism meditation, if we are unable to change our consciousness and release the power of desire (looking for something, even if the object of our desire is Nirvana), there is no chance we can transfer our consciousness to experience higher consciousness. 3. The suffering of being emotional. When we open our emotions with love we seem happy, but when we try to maintain this feeling we grow fearful of losing the sense of happiness. We fear losing the people we love, we can easily become jealous, and we suffer when we are separated from them. We also suffer when we have to be in contact with people whom we do not like but have to be in contact with because of our circumstances because this causes hateful emotions to grow. 4. The suffering from mentality. Thinking can help us figure things out and can help us to understand the Truth of Life from a logical point of view. But if we don’t have control of our thinking, it can dominate our lives because it becomes a nonstop habit. This makes us feel tired, and we worry about all kinds of unimportant matters. Taken to the extreme, one can become mentally unbalanced and need professional care. To release suffering one must first understand what suffering is. As we know, suffering has four different parts–physical, desire, emotion, and mental–but we have yet to find out where these four parts of suffering come from. To cure the experiences of suffering that arise from each of the four parts is a never-ending story. But it is possible to release suffering forever by curing the power that causes the four parts of suffering. Buddha taught that all suffering comes from receiving the information of Illusion being but not being able to understand the truth behind Illusion Being. This is the state known as Blind or Ignorant Consciousness. In this consciousness, Angry and Greediness Consciousness are created. When we can understand what Illusion being truly is, then our consciousness will be changed from Greedy, Angry, and Blind Consciousness to 9 93 individual “I”. When we can release this limiting sense of Individual I we can discover the incredible unlimited joy hiding in our consciousness? We can do this when our consciousness is focused on being aware of the essence of all the existing forms rather than on the sense of Individual I. Then you have discovered the unlimited true self, which is unbelievable, incredible happiness. There is a famous analogy that illustrates how one can release suffering. It says that consciousness is like a pool of water that has a lot of dirt mixed in with it. How can we purify this water? If we try to shake the dirt from it, we just make it even dirtier. The first stage of purifying it is to just leave it alone and not agitate it. The water will calm itself and all the dirt will sink to the bottom. This is called “calmness ability.” We develop it by not fighting against anything in our living experience, including our desire, our emotion, and our intellect. But this doesn’t mean we are to do nothing, like a lazy pig. It means we should work to keep everything balanced and harmonized. How do we find harmony when we feel desire? There is a wise saying that helps show how to achieve this: “When it is gone into the past, don’t miss it. When it has not yet appeared, don’t look for it. When it appears, enjoy it without trying to hold onto it. Then let it go.” If our consciousness can reach this stage, then our greedy desire will become Pure Open Desire always living in the present. To find harmony in emotion means to be honest with your heart. This is easy to say but difficult to do. Deeply, our heart wants to be united with all things. But our greediness makes us build up a wall around our child heart. (When there is a wall around our heart it means that we cannot be open and honest with our heart.) This wall is intended to protect it from getting hurt and to hide the acquired things behind. But this wall keeps us from being honest with ourselves. Our heart carries many secrets of all kinds of relationships. It cannot be open and honest until it becomes too heavy for us to bear. Then it loses balance and feels anger or hatred toward our life and our selves. When this 94 happens our emotions are clearly not in harmony. When our heart can sincerely care for everybody and everything it experiences, then the Greedy and Angry Consciousness can change to pure open satisfied emotion. This is when our emotions are in harmony. To find harmony in our mental life means that we must think while deeply and observe the truth of everything, and not just use our intellectual powers to play logic games. Once we can understand things clearly, our mind is satisfied and can stop thinking. All the worry and fear that comes from thinking with blind/ignorant consciousness changes into self-confidence and we become satisfied with things the way they are. If we can continually observe the truth behind everything, then we can continually stay mentally calm. All the greedy, angry, and ignorant consciousness disappears. When we are mentally calm like this, it is analogous to when the dirt sinks to the bottom of the water and the water becomes clean and pure. But even though the water now appears to be pure, it can become dirty again if it is shaken and the dirt spread from the bottom. If we want to purify the water we can heat it until it rises as steam away from the sediment at the container’s bottom. This is the second stage of releasing suffering. To attain this second stage one must develop four states of unlimited pure consciousness: 1) Complete kindness without ego 2) Complete compassion without excess emotion 3) Complete joy without blindness 4) Complete freedom without greediness The way to train these four-unlimited pure consciousness is to develop the six characteristics of Generosity, Discipline, Patience, Concentration, Mediation, and Wisdom. The third stage is the final stage. It is analogous to the water as steam, already purified. After this the only thing we have to do is guide the steam through a tube to a clean 95 container. Then we will see the water clearly, without the impediment of the dirt particles. In our daily life this means that we can see the essence of life clearly. After we have trained the first two stages, we can develop a very strong awareness ability, which allows us to understand the essence of all life forms. To do this we have to learn how to use our six senses in a different way. Normally when we use our senses our consciousness is only aware of the many life forms (Illusion Being). Now we can use our awareness ability to observe the essence of awareness ability itself rather than the forms it previously concentrated on. The fastest way for human being to develop this observing ability, with which they can be aware of the essence of life, is to develop the sense of listening as Buddhism describes it. It is the technique used by Observing-Self Bodhisattva. One can use this observing selftechnique with any of the sense, but the simplest awareness to develop is the Ear Consciousness through listening to life’s sounds. What we hear can be divided into two basic categories–silence and sounds. The difference between Observing Self Bodhisattva and “regular people“ is that he has opened his listening ability very sensitively to all sounds and silence and his consciousness is no longer locked into hearing only one particular sound. He no longer follows any individual sounds or silence, but is aware of all the different kinds of individual manifestations and he knows that they exist as a pure illusion power. They connect to each other and influence each other. The sound of sadness is connected to the sound of joy and changes into the sound of anger and then again into the sound of joy. All kinds of sounds and their accompanying feelings constantly change to meet various different purposes. But each listening person falls into the same trick–the law of desire, which is always looking for something to satisfy its hunger, governs each. Each time one desire is satisfied a new one arises in its place. All the sounds and silence of life together 96 make our consciousness fall into non-stop blind desire. People desire more and more sound/silence and feeling. But no one who is ruled by this desire can know what he is really looking for. Each person has a chance to get what he wants. Life is eternal, constantly changing, and offers a billion lifetimes of rebirth possibilities. But the true self (which is the listening ability) has been lost. It is lost in the constantly changing movements, in being insecure, in the appearances of all the individual forms. The sound of a hero laughing of his victory is connected to the death moan and the death moan is connected to the innocent baby’s screaming. All of these sounds (and the silence between) are the music of life. They are the illusion being power existing. This power itself doesn’t laugh, doesn’t cry, or make any sound. It doesn’t even make the sound of silence. In all this ceaselessly changing power, there is one thing that doesn’t change–the power of listening and the one who observes the sounds of life. This observer is not the sound or the sound of silence. It is the mysterious awareness ability, and it has no form. Once the listening ability is no longer concentrated on anything at all, it becomes free and aware that everything is illusion. That is what Observing-Self Bodhisattva does. He listens patiently–without any sense of an individual I–to all the sounds and silence. Because he doesn’t judge anything from the perspective of an Individual I, all sounds and silence become like a movie or a dream are revealed as illusion being. Because Observing-Self Bodhisattva understands that sound and silence–and therefore all life–is illusion, he no longer holds onto anything except the awareness that the true self being exists with the listening ability. The essence of the listening ability has no form but exists eternally and purely with an open heart. It is aware all different kinds of life 97 sounds reach back to life’s essence, which has no beginning and no end. It is aware all life illusion being exists in the unlimited form and sounds–which is Nirvana. Life (all the existing power together) is incredible as illusion being. Once our consciousness goes back to the essence itself (which has no form) then it can be completely free to be aware that eternal time and unlimited space exist and aware of itself, the pure empty consciousness without any form. There is no limit to form or possibility. There is no limit to awareness. Bodhisattva released all suffering and pain. This means that he changed his consciousness from that of the three poison consciousness–Greedy, Angry, Ignorant– into the four unlimited pure consciousness’–Complete kindness without ego, Complete compassion without excess emotion, Complete joy without blindness, and Complete freedom without greediness–and developed the six spiritual characters–Generosity, Discipline, Patience, Concentration, Mediation, and Wisdom. He has reached the highest stage of meditation, where he is able to use the developed consciousness awareness ability to be aware of the essence of all life’s forms, which is incredible unlimited happiness. Discovering this incredible unlimited happiness releases all pain and suffering. Buddha said to his student: Sir Li Tsö, Illusion Being (the body and its surrounding) is not different from Emptiness, and Emptiness is not different from Illusion Being. Illusion Being is Emptiness, Emptiness is Illusion Being. Receiving, thinking, acting, and awareness are also Emptiness. He continued: Sir Li Tsö, the essence of Dharma has no form, never appears nor disappears, is not dirty nor clean, and is never added to nor subtracted from. Because this is so, Emptiness (the true essence of Dharma) has: No Illusion Being 98 No Receiving, thinking, acting, and awareness No eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind No form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or Dharma No limit to the awareness of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking No blind awareness No aging and death No suffering, acquiring, destroying, or learning No wisdom and nothing to get Because he becomes aware that the truth of life is Illusion Being, he understands that there is nothing to get from life. Then, as Bodhisattva, he helps people become aware of the truth of life. From deep awareness of the truth of life, his heart becomes free. Because his heart is free he has no fear and is awakened from dream illusions. Thus, he reaches Nirvana. Because all Buddha’s develop completely the Por Ler wisdom to observe and be aware of the truth of life, they reach the development of limitless complete awareness. This is why Por Ler Bor Lour Me Duo Shing Ching is: The philosophy to reach Buddha Consciousness; The philosophy of unlimited bright awareness; The highest philosophy of the truth of life; The philosophy that explains how incredible the truth of life is; The philosophy that can release the suffering from any form of life; The philosophy of complete truth without blind awareness. 99 So the meaning of Pour Ler Bor Me Duo Shing Ching is to help people become aware of the truth of life. Truly, it is to help people become aware of the truth of life. Pour Ler Bor Me Duo Shing Ching is the philosophy to help people most quickly develop complete unlimited awareness. ABOUT THE AUTHOR