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three seals

These are some notes from a religious diversity talk that some fellow co-workers and myself gave at work.


The Three Seals and Enlightenment

Nothing found in the physical world or even the psychological realm can bring lasting deep satisfaction. Why is this so? Because…

All conditioned things eventually cease, all conditioned things are in a constant state of flux. (reincarnation) Why is this so? Because…

The human personality, or “ego”, is just a conventional label applied to a temporary assembly of physical and psychological components, each component is subject to constant flux; there is no central core, or enduring “essence”. Nor is there a beginning or ending.

This same analysis also applies to impersonal phenomenon such as the weather, mountains, rivers, the sky etc.

(analysis of the chariot: “chariot” is just a label applied to a temporary assemblage of causes and conditions that will inevitably cease to exist. While the label “chariot” is a useful concept, it does not have any inherent existence from its own side).

This assemblage of causes and conditions and the labels we place on them is known as “samsara” (Skt. ‘continuous flowing’).

Our suffering (Skt. ‘dukkha”, suffering, pain, out of balance, out of joint, out of synch) arises from clinging to phenomenon as though they did have an inherent and enduring “essence”.

From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries — enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released."
The Assu Sutra

Meditation brings us closer to realizing the truth that all created objects (sentient beings, material objects, impersonal phenomenon.) are “empty”; that is to say they do not have inherent existence. They exist in a conventional sense, but do not exist in an ultimate sense (i.e. the Two Truths). By realizing emptiness we sever the roots of attachment, greed and anger.

Enlightenment (bodhichitta, Skt. ‘awakened mind’) is the realization of emptiness combined with an overwhelming sense of compassion for the suffering of sentient beings and the wish to relieve all sentient beings of suffering.

daily bodhisattva vows

Refuge
In the Buddha
 the Dharma and the Noble Sangha.
I take refuge until enlightenment is achieved.
May the merit of my generosity and other virtuous acts
Lead to Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings
(3x)

Seven Limb Prayer
With complete faith I bow

To Buddha Shakyamuni and 

All the victorious ones and their followers

Who abide in the ten directions and three times.
I offer flowers, incense, light,

Perfume, food, music, and many other things,

Both in substance and in my imagination
I ask this noble gathering to accept them
I confess all evil actions I have committed

While gripped by the three poisons,

From time without beginning until now:

The five that ripen immediately, the ten non-virtuous acts, and others.
I rejoice in all the virtues of the
 Shravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas.

I pray for the wheel of the Dharma to be turned,

In ways suitable for the various aptitudes

And motivations of sentient beings.
I ask the buddhas not to pass into nirvana,

But, to remain until samsara is completely empty,

And to look with compassion on all sentient beings

Who are drowning in this vast ocean of suffering.
May whatever goodness I have generated

Become a seed for the awakening of all beings.

Without delay, may I become a buddha
For the benefit of all beings.

(make water bowl offerings or other appropriate offerings)

Bodhisattva Vow
Just as the sugatas of former times aroused bodhicitta

And followed the path of a bodhisattva,
I too, for the benefit of beings, arouse bodhicitta

And follow in that training
(3x)

Rejoicing
This day my life is meaningful
Today I am born into the family of the awakened-one
Now I am a child of the Buddha
Now I will do only what befits this family

Today, witnessed by all the protectors

I invite all beings to the happiness

Of perfect enlightenment and the approach to it
Gods and gandarvas rejoice!

May supreme precious bodhicitta
Take birth where it has not arisen
Where it has arisen, may it never wane
May it ever grow and flourish

Dedication
By this merit, may all attain omniscience

And defeat the enemy, wrong doing

From the stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death,

From the ocean of existence, may all beings be free!

Created by a lazy Dharma student based on a work by Ken MacLeod with reference to translations by Cortland Dahl