How much ethics, concentration and wisdom is there in your life right now?

The first teachings to His five disciples, Buddha Shakyamuni has taught the Four Noble Truths. This was given during the turning of the First Wheel of Dharma after His enlightenment. The first two Truths as a pair of cause and effect show us how we as the sentient beings are being trapped in the samsara. The second two Truths illustrated the liberation from the trap of the samsara. Since all sentient beings seek happiness and avoid sufferings, liberation becomes the ultimate goal of happiness should they have identified and understood the nature of sufferings; be they pleasurable or unpleasurable or neutral. Once identified the nature of suffering being the iron cage throwing us endlessly into a cycle of rebirth, those of interests in such liberation will search for the path to lead them to the goal. With the development of the Truth of Path, one is possible to attain the Truth of Cessation. This is what the second set of two Truths said. To achieve the goal of complete cessation of the sufferings we trapped in, we thus need to have the path developed. To believe in or merely hear or research on the Four Noble Truths is insufficient to lead one to liberation. In the Four Noble Truths Sutra, Buddha emphasized the disciple should understand, abandon, realize and develop each of the Truths respectively and with each Truth there are three stepping up measurements so that each purpose of the Truths is fully achieved. Importantly the disciple should have full faith in these Four Noble Truths. Since they are called truths, the disciples who follow the path will thus realize the Path as taught by Buddha Shakyamuni. Otherwise, Buddha may not be telling us the truth then! Practicing Buddhism is the key to attaining the ultimate happiness. This is what we need to develop for the Path. To answer this, many replies are possible: Are we on the right path? which path we should follow,? Who will guide us? Buddha answered it in the Four Noble Truths Sutra: Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: it is this noble eightfold path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. The scripture stated according to the translation of this Pali sutra, the Path leading to liberation which is to be developed is described as the noble eightfold path. In the Mahayana practice, this path can however be presented through cultivating the three training: Ethics, Concentration and Wisdom. Comparatively, the noble eightfold path is included within the three training as follows: (a) Ethics: right speech, right action and right livelihood; (b) Concentration: right effort, right mindfulness and right meditative stabilization; (c) Widsom: right view and right thought. The three trainings are complete teachings of Lord Buddha. Ethical conduct with the foundation of love and compassion protect the disciples from creating sufferings for themselves and avoid harm for others. To stop their sufferings the first two Truths need to be studied and realized. Comprehending how these sufferings are caused by afflictions and karma and, as expounded by the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, they repeatedly trap us in the samsara as an iron

cage, the ethical conduct should be trained as the weapon to destroy the afflictions, the cause. When ethical conduct is emphasized in ones daily practice, ones would take less focus of ones self pleasure and indulgences and more easier to accept compromise naturally if there is a concern of harming others due to ones action. It was thus said ethical conduct goes first among all virtues. With a vigilance watch of upholding the ethical conduct, the mind is trained to focus single pointedly. Under this concentration training, the mind will be refocused to a virtuous object and this practice will lead to suppress the afflictive emotions. Emphasized on ones stability, clarity and intensity on the object of meditation which is virtuous, the prolonged clear awareness will make our mind pliant and serviceable. With this acquired skill, ones will stay focus on analysis of reality and this is the wisdom training. The importance of this training is to kill the root of sufferings by realizing the nature of reality that our mind is currently webbed by ignorance to see the reality exactly. Since the beginningless lifetimes of our rebirths, we have been accustomed to the ignorance we have acquired at each lifetime, unwinding this wrong view it requires a penetrative intellectual knowledge and through step by step progress from conceptual understanding what is emptiness to beyond intellectual intuitive realization of the exact reality. Meditative stabilization through the concentration training will be the support for realizing this penetrative wisdom. In turns this wisdom cuts through the ignorance, and the main focus here is the lack of understanding that all things and events are empty of intrinsic existence. In short, these three trainings bring to completion of the Path and lead to the goal of liberation for all disciples of Buddha. Through training on the ethical conduct, ones distracted mind become not distracted. Through training on the concentration, ones unstable mind becomes stable. Through training on the wisdom, ones afflictive mind is liberated. In achieving the three trainings, ones will be liberated from the samsara. The order of the three trainings will have the base of ethical conduct, followed by concentration training and then wisdom. In order to have wisdom, we must have concentration; in order to have concentration; we need ethics. They are deeply interlinked and when comes to practice they are practiced together with emphasis placed on the sequential trainings. The sequence is also demonstrated as quoted in the Levels of Yogic Deeds: Ethical Conduct is a very steady root; Concentration is the delight in a serene state of mind; In wisdom the views of noble beings and the views of sinners are acquired and forsaken respectively. With the cause of the trainings, the results are the two goals: high status of rebirth and liberation. Liberation here means the liberation of samsara which could refer to after the removal of obscurations of defilements or together with the removal of obscurations of knowledge. The higher rebirth into the human or desire deity realms is through practice of ten virtuous and which in turn relies on the ethical conduct by refraining from the ten non virtuous actions. Since the ethical conduct is the foundation of all good qualities, ones have to be mindful of the drawbacks of not keeping it. It is always said keeping the ethical conduct even at the risk of life since losing life expends only the life span of this rebirth as compared to the downfall of not keeping it for having given up happiness for many lifetimes. The training on concentration though it is the achievement of the four absorption levels of concentration and the result of the rebirth is the

higher rebirth of form or formless realms. It is however the training on wisdom being the main practice for and as a result of liberation through the eradication of the seeds of ignorance, the root of afflictive emotions and all sufferings. Particularly the training on wisdom helps us to examine the dualistic view which creates the alienation that causes us to engage in harmful acts and provides the right view to inform our relationship with the external world. In conclusion, the three trainings are according to the Truth of the Path with the pure motivation of the disciples determined to achieve the liberation to be free from samsara. To cultivate the determination to liberation, one way is to see the true disadvantages of being in samsara and this is particularly on the Truth of Sufferings. With this understanding, the ethical conduct of the three training is the natural practice and not a constraint on ones behaviour. The other way is to rely on wisdom to see the root of sufferings, the Truth of Origin of Sufferings. To reduce, suppress and eliminate the ignorance, understanding of emptiness and mindful of wrong view of self-grasping will be the focus of the training on wisdom. To be mindful on our ethical conduct and alertness of the rational inquiry of our wrong views will very much rely on the training on concentration. It was told that if you do not struggle with the afflictions, you will not achieve a pure ethical conduct, in which case, you will not attain the concentration and wisdom that respectively suppress and uproot the afflictions. The interlinked of the three trainings are the valid practice for ones liberation from samsara. Thus the Dharma Wheel offered to our learned teachers for continuing turning the wheel of dharma, has been designed to symbolise the three trainings: center ring at the hub representing the ethical conduct as the foundation, the eight swordlike spokes representing the wisdom cutting through ignorance and the external rim representing the concentration supporting both wisdom and ethical conduct.