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The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching - Thich Nhat Hanh > Chapter 18 - The Three Dharma Seals > Flashcards

Chapter 18 - The Three Dharma Seals Flashcards

1
Q

enumerate:

Three Dharma Seals

A
  1. Impermanence
  2. Non-self
  3. Nirvana
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2
Q

Impermanence

1st Dharma Seal

11

A
  • always changing
  • more than an idea, but a practice to touch reality
  • things change because causes and conditions change
  • makes transformation a possibility
  • impermanence : time just as non-self : space
  • makes life possible, doesn’t necessarily cause suffering
  • in good health with awareness of it we can take good care of ourselves
  • we respect and value every moment and the precious things around us
  • mindfulness of impermanence makes us fresher and more loving
  • helps us appreciate fully what is there without attachment or forgetfulness
  • enables us to love even more while they/it still alive/there
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3
Q

Non-self

2nd Dharma Seal

7

A
  • we are made of non-us elements
  • existence of every single thing is possible because of the existence of everything else
  • nothing has a separate existence or a separate self, everything has to inter-be with everything else
  • takes training to live with non-discriminative wisdom i.e. flower/mountain/garbage/parent is us
  • seeing everything belongs to same stream of life, our suffering vanishes
  • not a doctrine or philosophy but an insight we need to live deeply, suffer less and enjoy life more
  • mothers are happy because we are and vice versa
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4
Q

Nirvana

3rd Dharma Seal

12

A
  • ground of being, substance of all that is
  • not absence of life
  • ground of all that is - whereas impermanence and non-self belong to phenomena
  • complete silencing of concepts, extinction of notions
  • extinction, above all of ideas like birth/death, existence/non-existence, coming/going, self/other, one/many - Nirvana reached once all 8 concepts destroyed
  • we need relative realities and notions of birth, death, being, non-being etc in our daily lives but if we touch life more deeply, reality reveals itself differently
  • “a fan that helps us extinguish the fire of all our ideas, including ideas of permanence and self”- that fan is our practice of looking deeply every day
  • pacifying, silencing, extinguishing
  • not something to look for in the future
  • present in every teaching
  • “we are already what we want to become”
  • nirvana and aimlessness are one
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5
Q

enumerate:

Two Relevances

A
  1. Relevance to the Essence
  2. Relevance to the Circumstance
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6
Q

Relevance to the Essence

2

A
  • essence = 3 Dharma Seals
  • a teacher of the Dharma must speak according to the Buddha’s teachings on impermanence, non-self and nirvana
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7
Q

Relevance to the Circumstance

3

A
  • a teacher sharing Dharma must say what fits the situation and mentality of those addressed
  • if not fitting, it’s not true Dharma, even if it sounds like it
  • don’t act like a tape player
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8
Q

enumerate:

Four Standards of Truth

A
  1. the Worldly
  2. the Person
  3. Healing
  4. the Absolute
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9
Q

the Worldly

1st Standard of Truth

2

A
  • teachings offered in language of the world so as to be understood
  • considers contemporary terminologies ex: Wednesday, ex: the Buddha says “I was born in Lumbini”
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10
Q

the Person

2nd Standard of Truth

A
  • discourses’ words vary in accordance to needs and aspirations of listeners
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11
Q

Healing

3rd Standard of Truth

3

A
  • the Buddha spoke to cure the particular illness of those he was addressing
  • everyone has some illness
  • when we speak to express healing, what we say will always be helpful
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12
Q

the Absolute

4th Standard of Truth

2

A
  • expressed directly and unequivocally by the Buddha
  • “speak what you know” is true even when some disagree or don’t believe it
    ex: 15th century explorers saying world is round
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13
Q

enumerate:

Four Reliances

A
  1. on teaching not on person
  2. on discourses only in which the Buddha taught in terns of absolute truth
  3. on meaning and not on words
  4. on insight of looking deeply rather than on differentiation and discrimination
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14
Q

comment:

on teaching and not on person

1st Reliance

A
  • we can learn even from a teacher who doesn’t practise everything he teaches so we don’t miss the chance to benefit from the Dharma

this is not a teaching of TNH

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15
Q

comment:

on discourses where the Buddha taught in terms of absolute truth (and not on those whose means are relative truth)

2nd Reliance

2

A
  • could confuse Plum Village practitioners
    ex: wrong view that 5MT are not worthwhile so we should read sutras instead
  • better to go from down-to-earth sutras to lesser so ones, more esoteric - it’s a process

this is not a teaching of TNH

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16
Q

comment:

on meaning and not on words

3rd Reliance

2

A
  • understanding the Buddha’s teaching style and context and circumstances of particular teachings
  • we won’t extrapolate inappropriately or use the Buddha’s words out of context
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17
Q

comment:

on insight of looking deeply rather than on differentiation and discrimination

4th Reliance

A
  • but we must rely on discriminative as well as on non-discriminative wisdom knowing which of 4 Standards of Truth the Buddha is teaching
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18
Q

enumerate:

10 Ideas Nirvana Extinguishes

A
  1. birth
  2. death
  3. existence
  4. non-existence
  5. coming
  6. going
  7. self
  8. other
  9. one
  10. many
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19
Q

enumerate:

8 Concepts and 8 No’s

A
  1. birth (no birth)
  2. death (no death)
  3. permanence (no permanence)
  4. dissolution (no dissolution)
  5. coming (no coming)
  6. going (no going)
  7. one (no one)
  8. many (no many)
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20
Q

How does experience always go beyond ideas?

A
  • teachings are only rich if we put them into practice in daily life
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21
Q

discriminative perception

A
  • imagining barriers between self and others
22
Q

Ground of Being

A

Nirvana

23
Q

How is a sheet of paper’s story like my own?

4

A
  • we think it/we belong(s) to realm of being
  • nothing comes from nothing
  • former lives: branch, sunshine, cloud
  • we were already in our ancestors
24
Q

Until what point should we practise?

2

A
  • until we can see that each person is us, that we are not separate from others
  • until we can see we are what we perceive
25
Q

moment of dying = ?

A

moment of continuation

26
Q

What is Lavoisier’s famous quote which explains the Buddhist view of birth and death and also exemplifies the Heart Sutra?

A
  • “Rien ne se crée, rien ne se perd”
    Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed
27
Q

What is the insight of the Raft?

2

A
  • the raft is not to be held onto as an object of worship
  • it is an instrument for crossing over to the shore of non-being

Buddha: “The Dharma I offer you is only a raft to help you to cross over to the other shore”

28
Q

What are two ways to understand the term Volitional Action?

A
  1. to live in order to experience pleasure for oneself alone or to oppress others
  2. to be present in order to help - boddhisattvas act here
29
Q

Why can we not truly run away from home? Even if we tell no one where we are going?

2

A
  • Because our store consciousness carries each seed of home in us
  • Because we carry our families in us, nothing we can leave behind
30
Q

enumerate:

Three Marks of Authentic Buddhist Teaching

A
  1. Three Dharma Seals
  2. Four Holy Truths (4NT)
  3. Noble Eightfold Path
31
Q

What is the significance of the koan: What was your face before your parents were born?

2

A
  • invitation to look deeply to identify ourselves in time and space
  • insight: we were already here in many forms before birth

“Happy Continuation”

32
Q

What distinguishes Nirvana from Impermanence and Non-self?

2

A
  • Nirvana belongs to the ground of all that is
  • Impermanence and Non-self belong to the world of phenomena
33
Q

Did the Buddha teach that suffering is always present?

2

A
  • No
  • When it is, we have to identify it and take necessary steps to transform it
34
Q

What should we do when we get into an argument with someone we love?

2

A
  • we should close our eyes and visualise ourselves 100 years from now
  • opening our eyes we’ll only want to hug them and acknowledge how precious each one of us is
35
Q

What does Non-self tell us about happiness?

A
  • happiness is not an individual matter
    ex: the daughter should practise in a way that she can understand her mother better and her mother can understand her better
36
Q

Why is much of our thinking unnecessary?

A
  • many thoughts are limited and carry little understanding in them
37
Q

What happens to the Dharma if we get caught in it?

A
  • it becomes no longer the Dharma
38
Q

Which of the Three Concentrations does the water and the wave analogy point to?

4

A
  • all three, however it is useful to understand Nirvana
  • a wave does not have to die in order to become water (water is wave; wave is water)
  • we are also like that
  • if you know how to touch the waves, you touch the water at the same time
39
Q

Which of the Three Concentrations does the cookies-baking-in-the-oven analogy demonstrate?

3

A
  • Non-self
  • while baking in the oven, they spread out in heat wanting space for themselves yet made of same ingredients from same source
  • when humans behave like this it causes a lot of suffering
40
Q

How do we touch the jewels of the Buddha’s teachings fully?

2

A
  • base practice on own experiences and life
  • dig deep!
41
Q

Can we say suffering is a basic element of existence?

3

A
  • no, a common wrong view
  • suffering is a feeling
  • when we insist on something being permanent and having a self, we suffer
42
Q

What does the story of the dog hit by a clod of stone, barking at it instead of looking around to see who threw it, illustrate?

4

A
  • wrong view that many take of how impermanence makes us suffer
  • idea that we want things to be permanent when they simply are not makes us suffer
  • could also point to how an ordinary person caught in dualistic conceptions thinks the Five Aggregates are the cause of his suffering
  • in fact the root of their suffering is his lack of understanding about impermanent , non-self and interdependent nature of the Five Aggregates
43
Q

Which of the Three Concentrations does Tolstoy’s story of enemies A and B point to?

A
  • Non-self
44
Q

What do we touch when we touch Impermanence deeply?

2

A
  • world beyond permanence and impermanence
  • ground of being, seeing that which we call being and non-being are just notions

Nothing is ever lost; nothing is ever gained

45
Q

How did the insight of no birth and no death
help the Buddha?

2

A
  • he could become serene, peaceful and fearless
  • so can we be liberated from fears and sorrow!
46
Q

What is there in addition to no birth and no death?

A
  • no non-being
47
Q

According to Thiên Hôi, where can we touch the world of no birth and no death?

2

A
  • right here in the world of birth and death
  • especially if we touch them deeply
48
Q

What can we understand from Thay’s exclamation: “Vive l’impermanence!”?

A
  • thanks to impermanence we can change suffering into joy
49
Q

When are birth or death OK?

A
  • when we know they are only concepts in the mind
50
Q

“My practice is non-action, non-practice and non-realisation” - how can we interpret this statement of the Buddha?

A
  • what we seek does not lie outside of ourselves

The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching - Thich Nhat Hanh (30 decks)

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