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TOÀN BỘ Bản Đồ PHẬT PHÁP 2500 Năm | Đặng Thái Cường — Transcript

by Đặng Thái Cường · 15,713 words · 2,439 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:18Buddhism is one of the largest
0:19religions in Vietnam and throughout
0:21East Asia. Your home might have an
0:23altar, you may eat vegetarian on the
0:25first and fifteenth of the lunar month,
0:27visit the pagoda during Tet, pray for
0:29peace when in need, or invite monks to
0:31chant at funerals. But if someone asked
0:34you what the Buddha truly taught, most
0:36of us would hesitate. That is no one's
0:40fault. For many Vietnamese, Buddhism
0:43enters life through traditional customs
0:45, and pagodas become places for
0:47petitioning. Praying for health, for
0:50business, for children to pass exams,
0:52or to avoid misfortune. And in the
0:54minds of many, the Buddha has become a
0:57deity sitting on high. Those who are
1:00sincere are protected, but those who
1:02truly want to understand face a
1:03different difficulty. You open it up
1:06and see a whole forest. There are
1:08thousands of sutras, and schools like
1:11Zen, Pure Land, Esoteric, Tiantai,
1:13Huayan, and Yogacara. This sutra says
1:15all phenomena exist. That sutra says
1:18all phenomena are empty. Some places
1:20teach you must practice for many
1:21lifetimes to succeed. Others say right
1:24here, right now, without needing a
1:25single word. You read a few and give up
1:29, not because you lack patience, but
1:31because you lack a map. Interestingly,
1:35in the West, that same system is viewed
1:37in an entirely different way. In
1:40Western philosophy departments, the
1:42Buddha is often regarded as a
1:43philosopher. He is placed alongside
1:46Socrates, among the first to question
1:48the nature of reality and the self.
1:51They analyze the structure of his
1:53arguments, comparing them to the
1:55philosophy of mind. If the Buddha had
1:58been born in Athens instead of the
2:00foothills of the Himalayas, perhaps his
2:02name would be in philosophy textbooks
2:04today rather than in a religion. And in
2:08recent decades, meditation and
2:10mindfulness have been removed from the
2:12religious framework, brought into
2:14hospitals, stress-reduction programs,
2:16and the world's largest tech
2:17corporations. Employees meditating
2:20during work hours don't call it
2:22religion; they call it mental training.
2:26So, why exactly is there such a
2:28difference? Today, I want to recount
2:33the path of the Dharma, not as a set of
2:35doctrines, but as a journey. From the
2:38place where one suffers without knowing
2:40why, to the ultimate state that the
2:42Buddha called liberation. Hello
2:46everyone, I am Dang Thai Cuong. Since
2:49this episode will likely have many
2:51newcomers. I would like to reintroduce
2:53myself briefly; I hold a diploma in
2:55hypnotherapy from the American
2:57Institute of Hypnotherapy, am a member
2:59of the American Board of Hypnotherapy,
3:01and am a certified coach according to
3:03International Coaching Federation
3:05standards. My main work for many years
3:08has revolved around the human mind. I
3:10also practice and work with Tibetan
3:12singing bowls and have been on a
3:14pilgrimage to India, traveling through
3:16the very places that the Buddha walked
3:182,500 years ago. My path is quite the
3:22opposite of many others. I did not come
3:24to Buddhism through temples. I came
3:27from psychology. The deeper I delved
3:29into Western psychology, the more I saw
3:31points where it would reach a limit and
3:34stop. Then, when I turned to Eastern
3:36philosophy, I encountered those exact
3:38same points, but they had already been
3:40described 2,500 years ago in a system
3:43so detailed it left me stunned. From
3:45there, I began to study Buddhism
3:47seriously. What I share on this channel
3:51is knowledge synthesized from
3:53scriptures, many teachers, various
3:55research sources, and my own experience
3:57in therapy work. I do not represent any
4:01particular sect. I also do not stand in
4:04judgment of which sect is right or
4:05which is wrong. Where traditions differ
4:09, I will clearly state that they
4:10disagree and leave you to decide for
4:12yourself. One more thing I want to
4:16clarify is that the illustrative images
4:18in this video are supported by
4:19artificial intelligence tools. As for
4:22the content and knowledge, it is still
4:24directly compiled and synthesized by me
4:26from the aforementioned sources. If you
4:29are new to the channel, this episode is
4:31where you should begin. After watching,
4:33you will have a map in your mind. Then,
4:35when you re-watch the old episodes I
4:37have made, you will see where they fit
4:39and how they connect. The same goes for
4:41upcoming episodes. And if you have been
4:43following the channel for a long time,
4:45this episode will piece everything
4:47together. If this content is helpful to
4:49you, I hope you will hit follow and
4:51leave a small interaction to support me
4:53. Today, I will go through seven gates.
4:58Why call them "gates"? Because the word
5:01"mon" in the term "dharma gate"
5:03literally means a gate. Only after
5:05passing through this gate will the next
5:07one open. And the next gate always
5:09overturns a part of what the previous
5:11gate just taught you. For each gate, I
5:14will begin with a question and then
5:15describe the person standing at that
5:17gate. Listen, and you will recognize
5:19for yourself where you are. But before
5:22we go, there is one thing that must be
5:24made very clear, and I hope you keep it
5:26in mind throughout the episode. This
5:28classification is the work of later
5:29generations, not the words of the
5:31Buddha. The Buddha taught for 45 years
5:33without ever dividing his own words
5:36into level one, level two. He taught
5:38according to the person sitting in
5:39front of him; whoever he met, he said
5:41what that person needed to hear. That
5:43is called "teaching according to
5:44capacity," meaning prescribing the
5:46right medicine for the right patient.
5:48Arranging his words into levels was
5:50done by later masters so that learners
5:52would have a path to follow. That
5:54practice is called "doctrinal
5:56classification," meaning distinguishing
5:58the teachings. The seven gates today
6:00are based on existing systems of
6:02doctrinal classification from Tiantai,
6:04Huayan, and Tibetan Buddhism. And each
6:07sect, when reorganizing, often places
6:09their own sect at the very top.
6:11Everyone thinks their own house is the
6:13tallest; that is normal. Meanwhile,
6:15Southern Buddhism does not accept the
6:17concept of doctrinal classification. To
6:19them, the Buddha's words are consistent
6:21from beginning to end, with no higher
6:23or lower levels at all. So, these seven
6:25gates are not a ranking list; they are
6:27an order of learning for easier entry.
6:30Just like in school, 12th grade is not
6:32nobler than 1st grade; it just comes
6:35after 1st grade. Before entering the
6:39first gate, I need to briefly mention
6:41the background. I will keep this part
6:43brief. Because each stage already has
6:45its own episode, but it cannot be
6:47omitted entirely because there is a
6:49detail here that will return at the end
6:51of the journey, and without it, the
6:52most important part of the whole series
6:54would lose all its weight. The Buddha
6:58did not appear on a blank page. About
7:001,000 years before his time, in the
7:03Indus Valley, there was a major
7:04religion called Brahmanism. Their
7:07scriptures were the Vedas, which means
7:09"knowledge." They taught that behind
7:12the universe, there is an absolute
7:14entity called Brahman. And within each
7:16human being, there is an unchanging
7:18self called Atman. The ultimate goal is
7:21for those two to become one. The small
7:24self within you dissolves back into the
7:26great whole. Please keep this detail in
7:28mind. The notion of an immutable self,
7:30a core that never changes deep within a
7:33person, had already existed in India
7:35for a thousand years before the Buddha.
7:38Society at that time was divided into
7:40four castes: the priestly class, the
7:43royalty and warrior class, the merchant
7:45and farmer class, and the laboring
7:47class. At the very bottom, there was a
7:49group considered outside of the caste
7:51system. And there is one more thing
7:53worth mentioning; two concepts that
7:55many people think belong to Buddhism
7:57were actually already in existence.
7:59Reincarnation and karma both appeared
8:01in the philosophical texts that emerged
8:03after the Vedas. The Buddha did not
8:05invent those two concepts. He adopted
8:08and redefined them in a completely
8:09different way. As for his life, you
8:14have likely heard of it. Prince
8:17Siddhartha left the palace at the age
8:19of 29. He studied meditation with the
8:22two best teachers of the time, reaching
8:25the highest levels they could teach.
8:26Then he realized it still did not solve
8:28the root of the problem. Upon emerging
8:30from meditation, the suffering remained
8:32just the same. He turned to six years
8:35of asceticism. To the point where his
8:37body was nothing but skin and bones.
8:39Then he realized that path was also
8:40wrong and did something that caused his
8:42five companions to leave in anger. He
8:45accepted a bowl of milk and began
8:46eating again. After that, he sat down
8:49under the Bodhi tree and achieved
8:51enlightenment in one night. He was 35
8:53years old that year. For the next 45
8:57years, he traveled throughout the
8:59Ganges basin to teach all kinds of
9:01people. He passed away at the age of 80
9:04. And there is a very notable detail.
9:07Throughout those 45 years, he did not
9:09write down a single word. So how did
9:13his words reach us today? After he
9:16passed away, his disciples gathered to
9:18recite and confirm what he had taught.
9:21This was called a council and was
9:23entirely oral. Writing only appeared
9:25several hundred years later. This is
9:27also why the original sutras have many
9:29repetitive passages; they were repeated
9:31to make them easier to memorize. Then
9:34over time, the sangha split into many
9:36different sects. By the beginning of
9:39the common era, a new school of thought
9:41emerged, calling itself Mahayana,
9:43meaning the Great Vehicle. This
9:45tradition brought with it a new ideal
9:47and a new series of scriptures.
9:48Prajnaparamita, Lotus, Avatamsaka,
9:51Vimalakirti, Nirvana, Sandhinirmocana,
9:54and Lankavatara. There is a major
9:56debate regarding this that continues to
9:58this day. The Mahayana side believes
10:01these are words the Buddha taught to
10:03advanced practitioners, preserved
10:05differently and revealed later.
10:08Historical research dates these sutras
10:10to several hundred years after his
10:12passing. Meanwhile, the Southern
10:14tradition does not recognize them as
10:16the Buddha's words. I am presenting all
10:18three perspectives without taking a
10:20side. Today, Buddhism has three major
10:24traditions. The Southern tradition
10:26currently exists in Sri Lanka, Thailand
10:29, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and is also
10:31present in Vietnam. The scriptures are
10:34preserved in the Pali language. The
10:35Northern tradition passed through
10:37Central Asia into China, then spread to
10:39the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and
10:41Vietnam. This lineage gave rise to Zen,
10:44Pure Land, Tiantai, Huayan, and
10:46Yogacara, while the Tibetan tradition
10:48in Tibet and surrounding regions
10:50preserved the late Indian academic
10:52system quite intact. The three
10:55traditions differ in form, language,
10:57scriptures, robes, and rituals, but
11:00their core is the same. To perceive
11:02suffering, find the root of suffering,
11:05and walk the entire path to end
11:06suffering. And so, we have finished
11:09covering the background. Now, let us
11:11enter the first gate. The first gate I
11:16call the introduction, which is
11:17stepping through the first portal. The
11:20question of this gate is very simple.
11:22What is this thing that I am about to
11:23step into? And this is a portrait of
11:27the person standing at this gate. That
11:29person might have been going to the
11:30temple for many years. They have an
11:32altar at home, observe vegetarian days,
11:34and participate in annual rituals. They
11:37feel they have a faith and they believe
11:39. But if someone asks what the Buddha
11:41taught, they pause because they have
11:43never thought of this as something to
11:45learn. They think it is something to
11:48believe in or to pray to. So, starting
11:52from the most fundamental question, the
11:55most concise answer I have ever heard
11:57and the one I find most accurate is
11:59this. Buddhism is an education about
12:02enlightenment. Starting with the word "
12:05Buddha" itself. Buddha is a shortened
12:07phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit
12:09word "Buddha." Its meaning is very
12:12simple. The awakened one, the
12:14enlightened one. That is all; not a
12:19creator, not a ruling deity, but a
12:21human who was once deluded like all of
12:23us, awakened first, and returned to
12:26show those still sleeping how to wake
12:28up. As for the word "giao"(teaching) in
12:32"Phật giáo"(Buddhism), the ancients
12:34used it in the sense of an educational
12:36foundation. In ancient language,
12:37speaking of the "three teachings"
12:39referred to Confucianism, Taoism, and
12:41Buddhism. The ancients were not talking
12:42about three religions; they were
12:44talking about three systems for
12:45teaching the way of being human. And
12:47the proof lies right in the vocabulary
12:49that the Buddhists have used for the
12:51past 2,000 years. If you pay attention,
12:54it is all laid bare. The Buddha is
12:56called the "original teacher," meaning
12:58the root teacher; he is not called God,
13:00nor is he called the Supreme Being.
13:03Those who follow the teachings are
13:04called disciples, which means students.
13:06The work one is doing is called "
13:08learning Buddhism" or "study and
13:09practice," which includes the word "
13:11study" right in it. The place of
13:13teaching is called a lecture hall. The
13:14person leading the class is called a
13:16teacher or lecturer. Books are called
13:18sutras, and the original meaning of "
13:20sutra" is a thread, used to string
13:22pearls together into a necklace, which
13:24is to say, a curriculum. This entire
13:26system of terminology from beginning to
13:29end is the language of a school,
13:30without a single word describing a
13:32relationship between a deity and a
13:34believer. So what does that school
13:38contain? It has the "three treasures,"
13:41meaning three precious things: Buddha,
13:44Dharma, and Sangha. Understanding this
13:46within a school framework is very easy.
13:49The Buddha is the founding teacher; the
13:51Dharma is the curriculum, all that he
13:53left behind. And the Sangha is the
13:56community of those who learn and guide
13:57one another, serving both as teaching
13:59assistants and classmates. The first
14:01step to officially enrolling is called
14:03"taking refuge in the Three Treasures."
14:05"Refuge" means to return to and rely
14:08upon. To put it simply, taking refuge
14:10is registering for enrollment. You
14:12confirm that from today, I will follow
14:14this educational system, not selling
14:16myself to anyone, nor signing a binding
14:18lifelong commitment. Once in school,
14:22there are rules. The most fundamental
14:24rules are the five precepts, or five
14:26commandments. No killing, no stealing,
14:28no sexual misconduct, no lying, and no
14:30using intoxicants that cause the loss
14:33of awareness. Broader than the five
14:35precepts are the ten virtuous acts,
14:37divided across three aspects: body,
14:39speech, and mind. Pay attention to this
14:41point. Those five precepts are not
14:43prohibitions imposed by anyone to
14:45punish you. They are technical
14:46conditions. A mind still troubled by
14:50lies, heavy from hurting others, or
14:52clouded by stimulants cannot settle
14:54enough to see anything. Keeping
14:58precepts is like clearing the desk
14:59before sitting down to study. The
15:03entire curriculum, simplified, is
15:05contained in three words: ethics,
15:07concentration, and wisdom. Ethics is
15:09maintaining an upright way of life.
15:11Concentration is making the mind settle
15:13and stay still. Wisdom is the insight
15:16that arises when the mind is calm.
15:18These three disciplines are not
15:20parallel but sequential. With ethics,
15:22the mind becomes less chaotic; with a
15:24calm mind, concentration arises; and
15:27with concentration, wisdom emerges. It
15:29is like wanting to see the bottom of a
15:31muddy basin of water. The first step is
15:33not straining your eyes to look, but
15:35rather stopping the stirring. Regarding
15:39how to learn, the Buddha left a set of
15:41principles called the four reliances.
15:44Rely on the teaching, not on the person
15:46. Rely on the meaning, not on the words
15:49. Rely on wisdom, not on everyday
15:51discriminating knowledge. And rely on
15:54definitive teachings, do not stop at
15:56provisional ones. These four points
15:59combined make a very powerful statement
16:01. You have the right, and even the duty
16:03, to ask questions. This spirit is not
16:07something I inferred myself; it is in
16:09the scriptures. There is a sutra in the
16:12Anguttara Nikaya often called the
16:14Kalama Sutta. According to the
16:15translation by Venerable Thich Minh
16:17Chau, the context is that people of a
16:19certain land complained to the Buddha,
16:21"Teacher after teacher passes through
16:23our village, each praising their own
16:24path and criticizing others; we don't
16:26know who to believe." The Buddha
16:29replied, "The essence is not to believe
16:31just because it has been passed down
16:33for generations. Do not believe just
16:35because it is tradition. Do not believe
16:37just because it is written in the
16:39scriptures. Do not believe just because
16:41the reasoning sounds logical. And do
16:43not believe just because it is the word
16:45of a teacher you respect. He said,"
16:48Practice and examine it for yourself.
16:51Whatever brings harm and suffering when
16:53acted upon, discard it. Whatever brings
16:56peace and benefit, keep it. Do you find
17:00this strange? The founder of a system
17:03actively telling his students not to
17:04believe him just because he said it.
17:07That is the statement of a teacher, not
17:09a religious leader. But every door has
17:13its own trap. I will mention the trap
17:16at the end of each door, as that is
17:17where it's most fragile. The trap of
17:19this door is viewing "taking refuge" as
17:22a protection deal. Meaning, from now on
17:25I have a protector, a place to ask, and
17:28if I ask, I shall receive. If it
17:30doesn't work, then perhaps my prayers
17:32weren't sincere enough or my offerings
17:34weren't enough. This is exactly where
17:35Buddhism is turned into a place for
17:37begging right from the very first step.
17:39And once the first step is off-track,
17:42the next six doors cannot be opened. So
17:46, you have enrolled. But what are you
17:49studying to solve? The second door I
17:53call "seeing suffering," which means
17:55identifying the illness. The question
17:58here is one that almost everyone has
18:00had at some point. Why does life feel
18:03so off? This is a portrait of the
18:06person standing at this door. There is
18:08nothing unusual about your life. Work
18:10is stable, family is fine, no one is
18:12severely ill, and you make enough to
18:14get by each month. Yet every night,
18:17there is a void you cannot name. You
18:20scroll through your phone until 1 or 2
18:22AM, fall asleep, wake up tired, and
18:24repeat. If someone asks you what you
18:27are suffering from, you cannot answer.
18:29Because, truly, there is nothing wrong.
18:31And that is exactly what makes you feel
18:33confused. This door corresponds to the
18:37Buddha's first sermon at Deer Park to
18:39his five former companions, which has
18:41an interesting story. The first sermon
18:45in Buddhist history did not begin with
18:47the Four Noble Truths; it began with a
18:49double negation called the Middle Way.
18:53The Buddha stated there are two
18:54extremes that a seeker of the path
18:56should avoid. One is indulging in
18:58sensory pleasures. The other is
19:00torturing the body through asceticism.
19:02This statement was directed right at
19:04the five people sitting before him.
19:06Because they were practicing asceticism
19:08and had just disdained him for
19:09abandoning it. But the Middle Way does
19:13not mean doing everything just in
19:15moderation. It is not about
19:17half-indulgence and half-asceticism.
19:19Its meaning is much deeper. Both sides
19:22are fighting on the wrong battlefield.
19:24Those who indulge struggle with
19:26pleasant sensations, while ascetics
19:28struggle with painful sensations. Both
19:31are dealing with it at the physical
19:32level, while the root of the problem
19:34lies in perception. You can eat well
19:37your whole life and still suffer. You
19:39could also starve yourself to
19:40exhaustion and still suffer. Because
19:43the source of suffering does not lie
19:44there. After the middle way, he
19:49introduced the Four Noble Truths. The
19:52easiest way to visualize it is as a
19:55medical diagnosis. Dukkha is the
19:57symptom: you are ill. Samudaya is the
20:00cause: where does this illness come
20:02from? Nirodha is the prognosis: this
20:04illness can be cured. And Magga is the
20:07prescription: how to treat it? Those
20:11four steps are exactly the sequence a
20:13doctor follows, not a religious order.
20:18But the word "suffering" here is the
20:20most misunderstood, so I must explain
20:22it carefully. The original Pali word is
20:24"dukkha." It doesn't just mean pain or
20:27misery; the closest meaning is "not
20:30fitting,""unstable," or "unsatisfactory
20:32." Some compare it to a wheel
20:35misaligned on its axle; it still rolls,
20:38but it always bumps along. The Buddha
20:41did not say life is only full of
20:43suffering. He did not deny the
20:45existence of joy. He said that even joy
20:47is not permanent. And it is precisely
20:49that lack of permanence that causes the
20:51friction. Tradition analyzes suffering
20:54in many ways. There is the Eightfold
20:56Suffering: birth, aging, illness, death
20:58, separation from loved ones, meeting
21:01those we dislike, and not getting what
21:03we want. And the suffering of the five
21:05aggregates that are essentially burning
21:06. But there is another way, divided
21:08into three levels that I find much more
21:11useful for life, called the three types
21:13of suffering. The first level is
21:16suffering from suffering—pain upon
21:18pain, like a toothache or losing a job.
21:21The death of a loved one. This type is
21:23obvious to everyone and rarely
21:25misunderstood. The second level is
21:27suffering from change—the suffering
21:29already present within joy. Because any
21:32joy will eventually fade. A good meal
21:35ends, a vacation must come to an end. A
21:37child who clings to you will eventually
21:39grow up and leave. People we love will
21:42eventually change. It's not that joy is
21:44bad, but that you are both happy and
21:46afraid of losing it. And that anxiety
21:48doesn't come later; it is embedded
21:50right within the joy. The third level
21:53is suffering from conditioned existence
21:54. This is the most subtle type and also
21:57the kind present throughout almost the
21:58entire day. It is a background
22:00restlessness, an uneasiness without a
22:02clear reason. Nothing bad is happening
22:05at all, yet you still cannot find peace
22:07. Five minutes after sitting down, your
22:09hand is already reaching for your phone
22:11. Do you remember the void I described
22:15at the beginning of this chapter? The
22:18emptiness after scrolling for three
22:20hours without remembering what you just
22:22watched isn't suffering from pain. It
22:26also isn't suffering from change,
22:28because there was no joy to lose. It is
22:30the suffering of conditioned existence.
22:33And notice that what makes people most
22:35tired isn't the inability to name it,
22:37but thinking they are the only ones who
22:39have it. 2,500 years ago, someone
22:42already named it and classified it as
22:44its own category. Then comes the second
22:48noble truth, the cause. The Buddha
22:51pointed to the root as craving, "tanha"
22:53in Pali, literally translated as thirst
22:55. The word "thirst" is very accurate;
22:58it is not just wanting, it is thirst.
23:00You drink, but you are still thirsty.
23:02Craving is divided into three types.
23:05Sensual craving is the thirst for
23:07objects pleasant to the senses.
23:09Existence craving is the thirst to
23:11exist, to be someone, and to last
23:13forever. And non-existence craving is
23:17the thirst not to exist, to disappear,
23:19to have everything end. The third one
23:22is rarely mentioned, but it is real,
23:24and those who have gone through deep
23:26exhaustion know that feeling. Deeper
23:30than craving lies a layer of the three
23:33poisons: greed, hatred, and delusion.
23:36Greed is pulling in, hatred is pushing
23:38away, delusion is not seeing clearly,
23:41and delusion is the root of the other
23:43two. Because there is a lack of clear
23:45sight, there is pulling and pushing.
23:48The cessation of suffering is the most
23:50important declaration of the entire
23:52system. This can be cured. Without this
23:54part, Buddhism would just be a
23:56pessimistic description of life. With
23:59this part, it becomes a path. Now for
24:03the core of this chapter. If suffering
24:06comes from craving, where does craving
24:08come from? The answer leads to the
24:10concepts that all of Buddhism revolves
24:12around: impermanence and non-self.
24:15Impermanence is easy to understand;
24:17everything formed by conditions is
24:19constantly changing. Everyone agrees on
24:21this. But non-self is where the Buddha
24:24completely diverged from all Indian
24:26traditions before him. Do you remember
24:29the detail I mentioned at the start of
24:30the episode? Brahmanism teaches that
24:33there is an unchanging Atman inside you
24:35, an unaltering core. The Buddha said
24:38he could not find that anywhere at all.
24:42This is the biggest break in the
24:44history of Indian thought, and it is
24:46also the place where this entire
24:47journey will return near the final gate
24:49. But if there is no immutable self,
24:54then what is the thing sitting here,
24:56listening, having a name, and feeling
24:58sadness or joy? The Buddha answered
25:01with the Five Aggregates—five groups
25:03combined: form is the physical part,
25:05meaning the body and the senses.
25:08Sensation is the crudest feeling, with
25:11only three types: pleasant, unpleasant,
25:13and neutral. Perception is recognizing
25:16and labeling. This person is kind, that
25:19person is mean. Mental formations are
25:22drives, will, habits, and reactions.
25:25This is the largest group and also
25:27where karma is created. Consciousness
25:30is the knowing, the aware part that is
25:32present. These five groups run
25:36simultaneously, overlapping and
25:38changing every moment; none of them are
25:40you, and no one stands behind those
25:42five groups. It is like the word "river
25:45." Is there a river? Yes, but pointing
25:48to a fixed thing called a river—that
25:51doesn't exist. There is only water
25:53flowing continuously. And the name is
25:56just what we assign to that process.
25:59One thing must be clarified here
26:01because many people misunderstand it.
26:04Anatta (non-self) does not mean you do
26:07not exist. It talks about the*way*of
26:10existing. You exist as a process, not
26:13as a solid block. And the good news
26:15lies right there. A solid block cannot
26:18be fixed, but a process can be repaired
26:20. To describe more precisely how the
26:24world enters the mind, there are six
26:27senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body,
26:30and the mind. Notice the sixth one;
26:33Buddhists categorize the mind as a
26:35sense organ equal to the other five.
26:38This means thoughts are viewed as
26:40objects to be known, not as the master
26:42doing the knowing. This detail sounds
26:46small, but it will expand into an
26:48entire system in the fifth gate. Keep
26:50it in mind for now. The deepest
26:54teaching of this gate is the twelve
26:56links of dependent origination. If the
26:59Four Noble Truths are the diagnosis
27:01sheet, this is the attached detailed
27:03report. It describes step by step how
27:06suffering is produced. The 12 links in
27:10forward order are like this. Ignorance
27:12gives rise to formations, formations
27:14give rise to consciousness,
27:15consciousness gives rise to name and
27:17form, name and form give rise to the
27:19six sense bases. The six sense bases
27:20give rise to contact, contact gives
27:22rise to feeling, feeling gives rise to
27:24craving, craving gives rise to clinging
27:26, clinging gives rise to becoming,
27:27becoming gives rise to birth, and birth
27:29gives rise to aging and death. In short
27:32, it is like this: because we do not
27:35see clearly, habits are formed. From
27:37these habits, there arises a
27:38consciousness that carries those habits
27:40. Then there is the body and mind, the
27:43six senses, contact, and feelings. From
27:45feelings arise cravings, from cravings
27:48arise clinging, from clinging comes the
27:50creation of karma, and from karma comes
27:52the next life, with its aging and death
27:54. Tradition offers many ways to read
27:57this sequence, but the most important
27:59aspect is not the forward direction,
28:01but the reverse. When ignorance ceases,
28:03formations cease; when craving ceases,
28:05clinging ceases; when clinging ceases,
28:07becoming ceases, all the way to the
28:08cessation of aging and death. This
28:10means there is a way to break this
28:12cycle. And the most feasible point of
28:15release for an ordinary person is not
28:17at ignorance. Ignorance is too deep for
28:19us to reach. The point of release lies
28:22between feeling and craving. An
28:25unpleasant feeling arises, that is
28:27feeling, and you cannot stop it. But
28:29from that discomfort turning into
28:31hatred, into the desire to push it away
28:33, or into a reaction, there is a very
28:36narrow gap. The entire practice,
28:38distilled to its essence, is to widen
28:41that gap. Try to imagine a very
28:44familiar scenario. Your boss sends a
28:47blunt text message; the stinging
28:49feeling in your chest is the feeling.
28:51Then the story starts running through
28:53your head, "he looks down on me," that
28:55is craving and clinging. Then you draft
28:58a reply, delete it, and rewrite it;
29:00that is becoming. Then your whole
29:03evening is ruined; that is the birth
29:04and death of that state of mind. The
29:07entire sequence runs in three seconds,
29:10and it runs exactly the same way every
29:12time. I have a separate episode that
29:14goes very deeply into these 12 links,
29:16called "The Twelve Links of Dependent
29:18Origination." If you find this part
29:19important to you, please watch that
29:21episode. Now I must talk about karma
29:25because this is the most misunderstood
29:27concept in Vietnamese life. The word "
29:30karma" in Sanskrit has a very simple
29:33original meaning: action, that is all.
29:36Karma is divided into three doors.
29:38Bodily karma is actions, verbal karma
29:40is speech, and mental karma is thoughts
29:43. And the Buddha emphasized that
29:44intentional karma is the heaviest, as
29:46the other two originate from it. The
29:48key point is that karma is not a system
29:50of rewards and punishments. There is no
29:52one in the sky keeping a ledger, adding
29:54up points at the end of the year to
29:55hand out rewards. Fire burns you not
29:58because it is punishing you, but
30:00because the nature of fire is hot.
30:03Karma operates in exactly that way. If
30:06you get angry repeatedly, the path of
30:08anger within you widens, and it becomes
30:10easier to get angry next time. That is
30:12not a punishment; it is the natural
30:14consequence of repetition. Some karma
30:17has ripened and is hard to change, but
30:19other karma can still be shifted, so
30:21karma is not destiny. If karma were
30:24destiny, spiritual practice would be
30:26meaningless and the entire system would
30:28collapse. And speaking of shifting
30:31karma, one must speak of repentance.
30:33There is a very easy-to-understand
30:35image for this. A negative seed has two
30:38ways to disappear. The first way is to
30:40wait for it to grow into a tree and
30:42bear fruit. You receive the karmic
30:44result, and the seed naturally exhausts
30:46itself. This is the way of paying off a
30:48debt. The second way is to dig it up
30:51before it can sprout, expose it to the
30:53sun, and crush it; that is repentance.
30:58This mechanism has a symmetry that I
31:00find to be one of the most practical
31:02things in all of Buddhism. Regretting
31:06an action weakens it, while rejoicing
31:08in an action strengthens it. This means
31:13if you do a good deed but regret it
31:15later, thinking you were a fool, and
31:17don't do it again, that virtuous seed
31:19weakens, and with repeated thought, it
31:22disappears entirely. Conversely,
31:25rejoicing in your own or others 'good
31:27deeds strengthens the virtuous seed; in
31:30Buddhism, this is called "sympathetic
31:32joy." Therefore, the rule of practice
31:35is very simple. For good deeds,
31:36practice much sympathetic joy; for
31:38unwholesome deeds, practice much regret
31:40and reflection. Now for the most
31:43difficult question of this topic: if
31:45there is no self, who is reincarnated?
31:48The image traditionally used is a
31:50candle passing on its flame; one candle
31:52lights another, the fire is passed on,
31:55but it is not the same mass of fire
31:57moving locations. The old flame and the
32:00new flame are neither the same nor
32:01different. That position rejects both
32:05extremes, rejecting the belief in an
32:07unchanging soul moving from one life to
32:09the next, while also rejecting the
32:11belief that death is the end. It
32:13follows a third path characterized by
32:16continuity. But that continuity is not
32:18an entity, but rather a changing stream
32:20of cause and effect. Regarding rebirth,
32:24tradition describes six realms: heaven,
32:28human, asura, animal, hungry ghost, and
32:31hell. Here, I am sticking to the
32:34channel's principle, presenting these
32:36as the terms used in the scriptures.
32:38Whether one understands these six
32:40realms as literal existing dimensions
32:42or as states of mind that people enter
32:44and exit daily is a matter of
32:46individual perspective and tradition. I
32:49do not judge. But there is a
32:53perspective that I find very useful for
32:55life, so I want to share with you how
32:57to read these six realms as six states
32:59of mind. And if you try to look back at
33:02your day, you will see that you go
33:04through almost all six, sometimes in
33:06just one afternoon. The first state is
33:10the heavenly realm, when everything is
33:12smooth, work is going well, loved ones
33:15are fine, you feel comfortable, and you
33:17sit there feeling like nothing is
33:19missing. It sounds like a state
33:22everyone wants, but its difficulty lies
33:24elsewhere. When in it, people do not
33:27feel the need to reflect on anything.
33:30No one who is happy stops to ask about
33:32impermanence. So this comfort comes at
33:35a price: it makes us lower our guard.
33:38And when it passes—and it always
33:40passes—the fall is usually very hard.
33:45The second state is Asura. This is a
33:48state of comparison. You have, or even
33:51have a lot, but you are always
33:52measuring yourself against others. A
33:55classmate just got promoted, a neighbor
33:58just changed cars; you lack nothing,
34:00yet there is an unsettling ripple in
34:02your chest. The characteristic of this
34:05state is having fortune but no peace,
34:07having many good conditions but a heart
34:10always ready to compete. The third
34:13state is the animal realm. This word
34:17sounds heavy, but it means living by
34:19instinct, not asking questions, as days
34:22drift from morning to night without a
34:24single moment to stop. Hungry, you eat;
34:28tired, you lie down; free, you scroll.
34:31At the end of the day, if someone asks
34:33how it went, you cannot recount a thing
34:35. Neither suffering nor happy, just
34:38drifting. The fourth state is the
34:41hungry ghost. The imagery in the
34:43scriptures is very clear: a huge belly
34:45but a throat as thin as a needle, no
34:47matter how much you eat, nothing goes
34:50down. Do you recognize this state? It
34:53is when you have enough but still crave
34:56more; people who have plenty to eat and
34:58wear but still must buy more. It is the
35:00person who has been praised but still
35:02needs to seek more praise. It is three
35:04hours of scrolling on your phone, and
35:05when you stand up, you still feel
35:07hungry for something you cannot name.
35:09This is the state I think modern people
35:11enter and exit the most, and it matches
35:13almost perfectly with what I called "
35:15suffering of conditioning" at the start
35:17. The fifth state is hell, which is
35:22when you are burning. The anger cannot
35:25be stopped. The resentment makes your
35:27heart race whenever you think about it.
35:29Even if it happened 10 years ago, the
35:31self-torment keeps revolving around a
35:33word you accidentally said. The
35:35characteristic of this state is not
35:37just the pain, but the confinement. You
35:39know you should stop, but you cannot.
35:42You are standing in your own kitchen,
35:44but your mind has no way out. The sixth
35:48state is the human realm. And this is
35:51the most notable place. The human realm
35:55is not the most pleasant state. It is a
35:58state where you feel something is not
36:00quite right, yet you are lucid enough
36:02to look at that problem, suffering
36:03enough not to fall asleep, and bright
36:05enough to do something about it. So,
36:09among the six states, this is the only
36:12one where you can practice. And that is
36:14the reason the scriptures say the human
36:16realm is the easiest for practice, not
36:18the heavenly realm. Because the
36:19heavenly realm is too blissful,
36:21blissful to the point that no one feels
36:22the need to practice. As for the lower
36:24realms, they are too miserable,
36:26miserable to the point that there is no
36:27mind left to practice. So where does
36:31the value of this perspective lie? It
36:34lies in the fact that it gives you
36:35something to name. When you are feeling
36:39a ripple of envy because others are
36:41better than you, but you realize "ah,
36:43this is asura," that realization itself
36:46creates a distance. You are no longer
36:48completely inside it anymore. A part of
36:51you has stepped back and is observing.
36:53And do you remember the gap between
36:55sensation and craving that I mentioned
36:57earlier? This distance is exactly that.
37:01Returning to the medicine, which is the
37:03Noble Eightfold Path. The eight parts
37:05of the path. Right View is seeing
37:07correctly. Right Intention is thinking
37:09in the right direction. Right speech is
37:11about words. Right action is about
37:12behavior. Right livelihood is earning a
37:15living without causing harm. Right
37:17effort is exertion in the right place.
37:19Right mindfulness is noticing what is
37:21happening. And right concentration is a
37:23settled mind. Those eight are not eight
37:26sequential steps. They run in parallel,
37:28supporting each other, and the best way
37:30to group them is into morality,
37:32concentration, and wisdom. You might
37:35notice the list starts with right view,
37:37meaning wisdom is first, but the order
37:39of practice begins with morality. This
37:42is not a contradiction; you need a
37:44little initial right view to know the
37:46way. Then keeping moral precepts calms
37:48the mind. When the mind is calm, true
37:51wisdom arises. That true wisdom then
37:53deepens your right view. It spirals
37:55upward. Beyond the Eightfold Path, the
37:59tradition also has 37 aids to the path.
38:02I will only delve into one group: the
38:05Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which
38:07are contemplating the body, feelings,
38:09mind, and mental objects. This is the
38:12root of what the world today calls
38:14mindfulness, now used in hospitals and
38:16corporations. The only thing is that
38:19the original version aims much further,
38:21not to reduce stress, but to realize
38:23impermanence and non-self. And if you
38:26meditate, there is another set worth
38:29knowing called the five hindrances:
38:31sensual desire, ill will, drowsiness,
38:34restlessness/regret, and doubt. Anyone
38:36who has sat down with an unsettled mind
38:39has met all five; knowing their names
38:41helps you stay calm next time. Finally,
38:44this path has a very clear progress
38:46tracking system called the four stages
38:48of enlightenment. The first stage is
38:50stream-entry, meaning one has entered
38:52the stream. This person has broken the
38:56first three fetters: the belief in a
38:58self, doubt about the path, and
39:00attachment to rituals as sufficient for
39:03liberation. The scriptures say this
39:06person will definitely reach the
39:08destination, it is just a matter of
39:09time. Then once-returner, returning to
39:12this realm only once more; and
39:13non-returner, not returning to the
39:15sensual realm again. And the Arahant,
39:17who has eradicated all defilements and
39:19is no longer reborn. What I want you to
39:22notice here is that this system is very
39:24technical. It does not say that
39:26practicing well brings blessings. It
39:28explicitly states at each specific
39:30level what has been shed. And the
39:32destination of this path is Nirvana.
39:34This word literally means to blow out,
39:37to extinguish the fires of greed,
39:39hatred, and delusion. Nirvana is not a
39:42place to go to, nor is it a heaven. It
39:45is a state right here when the fires
39:47have been extinguished. So, what is the
39:51trap of this gate? It is turning those
39:54four truths into four points of
39:55knowledge to memorize and then stopping
39:57there. Interestingly, the Buddha
40:01foresaw this from his very first sermon
40:03. He said each truth must go through
40:06three rounds. Round one, you understand
40:08conceptually that this is suffering;
40:10this is understanding at the
40:12intellectual level. Round two, you
40:14truly contemplate suffering—not just
40:16saying you know it, but seeing clearly
40:19how it operates within your own body
40:21and mind in every moment. Round three,
40:24you confirm that suffering has been
40:26seen through—not suppressed, not
40:29avoided, but seen so clearly that it
40:31can no longer control you. Those three
40:35rounds show one thing: from the very
40:37first day, he did not give a
40:39philosophical system to be memorized.
40:41He provided a practical manual with a
40:44built-in mechanism for
40:45self-verification. Between knowing and
40:47being able to do, there is a bottomless
40:50abyss. You could read 100 books on
40:52swimming theory and score a ten, but if
40:54you have never entered the water, you
40:56still cannot swim. By now, you have the
41:00full framework of the second gate.
41:02Identify the illness, know the cause,
41:04know it is curable, have the
41:05prescription, the scale, and the
41:07destination. Honestly, for someone
41:09wanting to reduce suffering in this
41:11life, that is enough to last a lifetime
41:14. But a few hundred years after the
41:18Buddha passed away, a question was
41:20raised that cracked the whole system.
41:23This path from beginning to end is for
41:25me to escape suffering. I identify my
41:28illness, I cut my attachments, I attain
41:30my enlightenment. So, what about the "I
41:34" standing in the middle of all those
41:36things? If the ultimate goal is to
41:38break ego-clinging, yet the entire
41:40motivation for being on the path
41:42revolves around liberating one's own
41:43ego, there is something wrong right at
41:45the starting point. The third gate we
41:50call setting the intention, or changing
41:52the motivation. The question of this
41:54gate has only one line. What are you
41:57practicing for? And the portrait of the
42:00person standing here is perhaps the one
42:02that few people want to claim. You have
42:04been practicing for a while. You are
42:07calmer, get angry less often, sleep
42:09better; from the outside, there is
42:12clear progress. But there is something
42:15you have started to realize but haven't
42:17dared to say. You are drifting away
42:20from everyone. Other people's business
42:22bothers you. You see them as noisy and
42:24attached, while you have already
42:25understood. Going out for a meal with
42:27old friends feels bland. When family
42:29members tell stories, you listen but
42:31your mind is elsewhere. You practice to
42:34find peace. And that peace, year after
42:37year, keeps narrowing. This gateway is
42:41the biggest turning point in the
42:42history of Buddhism. At the previous
42:44gate, practitioners aim for Arhatship,
42:47cutting off all afflictions to escape
42:49the cycle of rebirth. And the Mahayana
42:51asks a new question: Once you are out,
42:53then what? What about those who are
42:56left behind? From that emerges a
42:58different ideal. The Bodhisattva.
43:01Bodhisattva is the short form of
43:02Bodhisattva-mahasattva. It means a
43:04sentient being striving for
43:05enlightenment. Above, seeking the
43:07Buddha's path; below, saving sentient
43:09beings. It means you do not leave alone
43:12; you stay until everyone can get out.
43:16What makes a Bodhisattva is not
43:18supernatural powers, nor attainment. It
43:21is something called Bodhicitta, meaning
43:24the heart set on enlightenment, not for
43:26oneself alone but for all. It is
43:28divided into two parts. The part of
43:31making vows means you want to, and the
43:33part of practice means you do it.
43:36Having only the first part is like
43:38someone saying, "I want to go there,"
43:40but not lifting a foot; wanting alone
43:42does not make a path. That vow is
43:45wrapped into four lines. Sentient
43:47beings are numberless, I vow to save
43:49them; afflictions are endless, I vow to
43:51end them; doors of dharma are infinite,
43:53I vow to learn them; the Buddha's path
43:55is supreme, I vow to attain it. When
43:57you hear those four lines, you see that
43:59all four are impossible, and that is
44:01exactly the intention. These four vows
44:03are not goals to be completed; they are
44:05directions to follow. You never reach
44:08the destination, but every step is
44:10moving in the right direction.
44:13Regarding practice, this gate has its
44:15own framework called the six
44:16perfections, the six methods to cross
44:18to the other shore. Generosity,
44:20discipline, patience, diligence,
44:23meditation, and wisdom. Among those six
44:26, I want to pause at two, because these
44:29two are the most misunderstood. First
44:32is generosity. Generosity is not just
44:34giving money. Tradition divides it into
44:37three types. Giving wealth, giving
44:39knowledge, and giving fearlessness—
44:41meaning to make others feel secure.
44:44Among these three, the scriptures say
44:46giving knowledge is the greatest.
44:48Because money only solves today's
44:50problems, while knowledge can change a
44:52person's entire life. Second is
44:56patience. And this word is almost
44:58completely misunderstood. Patience is
45:00not about gritting your teeth and
45:02enduring. Its original meaning is
45:03closer to capacity, or the ability to
45:05remain still in a difficult situation
45:07without being swept away. Those who
45:10grit their teeth to endure are still
45:12boiling inside; over time, this leads
45:14to illness or an eventual outburst.
45:17Those who truly have patience do not
45:19boil inside; the difference lies there,
45:21not in appearances. Regarding the
45:24relationship between the six, tradition
45:26has a very beautiful way of putting it.
45:28The first five perfections are like a
45:30blind person, while wisdom is like the
45:32eyes. A blind person can easily get
45:34lost no matter how much they walk; they
45:36need eyes to guide them to the
45:37destination. But the most important
45:41part of this topic for our channel's
45:43viewers is not the six perfections, but
45:45the four states known as the
45:46immeasurable minds. Loving-kindness,
45:49compassion, sympathetic joy, and
45:51equanimity. Loving-kindness is wishing
45:53for others to have peace and joy.
45:54Compassion is wishing for others to be
45:56free from suffering. Sympathetic joy is
45:58rejoicing in the happiness of others,
46:00and equanimity is balance, without bias
46:02or attachment. These four sound gentle,
46:06and everyone agrees with them. But if
46:08you look at your real life, you will
46:10find that one of them is very difficult
46:12: sympathetic joy. To be happy when
46:15seeing others succeed. That is one of
46:17the hardest things a human being has to
46:19do. And it is much harder than feeling
46:22for those who are suffering. Because
46:24when feeling for those suffering, you
46:25are still in a superior position. You
46:27are standing on higher ground looking
46:29down, and in that looking down, there
46:31is something very comforting for the
46:33ego. But rejoicing with those who are
46:35better than you leaves the ego with
46:37nowhere to cling to. There is no higher
46:39ground, and nothing to make yourself
46:41feel superior. Try to notice the last
46:44time an acquaintance shared good news:
46:46a promotion, buying a house, or their
46:48child getting into a good school. What
46:51is the first reaction in your chest
46:52before you manage to say your
46:54congratulations? If it is not entirely
46:57joy, you are not a bad person; you are
46:59simply standing at this gate.
47:03Equanimity is the last one and also
47:05what keeps the other three from
47:06becoming imbalanced. Loving-kindness
47:08without equanimity becomes
47:09possessiveness. Love becomes the need
47:11for others to follow your will to be at
47:13peace. Compassion without equanimity
47:15becomes exhaustion. You carry others'
47:17suffering as if it were your own. Then
47:19one day you collapse, and from then on
47:21you cannot help anyone else. Joy
47:24without equanimity becomes dependency.
47:26Your mood rises and falls according to
47:28the good or bad news of others.
47:30Therefore, equanimity is not
47:32indifference. Equanimity is the
47:33foundation for the other three to stand
47:35firmly for the long term. And this is
47:38also where I must be fair about one
47:40thing. Theravada Buddhism does not view
47:43this gate as a higher level. To them,
47:46an Arhat is the fruit of complete
47:48liberation, lacking nothing. Calling
47:50their path the "Small Vehicle" is how
47:53others label it, not how they define
47:55themselves. And they also point out
47:57that the Bodhisattva ideal with its
47:59accompanying hierarchy appeared later
48:01in history. Meanwhile, the Mahayana
48:04side argues that this is more complete
48:06because it doesn't stop at just exiting
48:08oneself. I present both positions and
48:12leave it for you to consider; what I
48:14want you to take away is not who is
48:15right or wrong. It is the question that
48:19this gate poses. What are you
48:20practicing for? And that is a question
48:22everyone, regardless of tradition, must
48:24answer for themselves. Before moving to
48:27the next gate, I want to share an image
48:29from the Vimalakirti Sutra. The main
48:31character is named Vimalakirti. He was
48:34a wealthy layman with a wife and
48:36children, not a monk. But when he
48:39feigned illness, the Buddha's great
48:41disciples were reluctant to visit,
48:42because everyone had been cornered by
48:44him into a position they couldn't
48:46answer. The most famous scene is when
48:48someone asks what the dharma gate of
48:50non-duality is. The Bodhisattvas gave
48:53many excellent answers one by one, and
48:55finally, it was Vimalakirti's turn. He
48:58did not say a single word. That silence
49:02resonated louder than all the answers.
49:05Because any word spoken had already
49:07fallen into dualistic discrimination.
49:10And this sutra leaves behind a very
49:12clear message. Spiritual practice is
49:14not just a matter for people in temples
49:15. People in the midst of the market,
49:18family, and work can still go very far.
49:22The trap of this gate lies in its most
49:24beautiful aspect: making grand vows
49:26while one's life remains unchanged. You
49:30claim to vow to save all sentient
49:31beings but cannot stand a single
49:33displeasing word from a family member.
49:35Sitting before the altar, your heart is
49:37as vast as the sea; stepping out of the
49:39room, you snap at your children over
49:41something very small. At that point,
49:43the Bodhicitta is no longer a driving
49:45force. It becomes a kind of spiritual
49:47ornament that makes you feel beautiful
49:49without adding any weight at all. So,
49:53you have changed your motive, no longer
49:55setting out alone. But here, another
49:58question arises. That world you want to
50:02save, that world full of suffering
50:04people, is it real? The fourth gate I
50:09call breaking attachments. Meaning, to
50:12break them completely. And this is the
50:14gate that leaves many people most
50:15overwhelmed. The portrait of someone
50:17standing at this gate is very specific.
50:20You have understood non-self; you can
50:22explain it to others coherently and
50:24without stumbling. If asked, you can
50:27say that the self is just five shifting
50:29groups, with no core whatsoever. But
50:33yesterday, someone said something about
50:36you at work, just one sentence, and you
50:38lay awake thinking until 2 AM. You know
50:42clearly that the self is fake, yet that
50:44fake self still hurts just like it’s
50:46real. There is some point you haven't
50:48fully grasped. The point you haven't
50:52grasped lies here. At the second gate,
50:54you managed to break the self. But
50:57notice that at the time, you still held
50:59onto something. You still believed that
51:02the five aggregates are real, that form
51:05is real, that feeling is real. The self
51:08is fake, but the components that create
51:10it are real. And hundreds of years
51:13after the Buddha passed away, an entire
51:15system was built upon that belief.
51:18People dissected experience into the
51:20smallest units, categorized and defined
51:22each one meticulously, then gradually
51:25believed those smallest units were real
51:27. This gate exists to break exactly
51:30that point. The key word of the entire
51:34gate is the word "empty." In Sanskrit,
51:37it is sunyata, translated as emptiness,
51:40and this is the most misunderstood word
51:42in all of Buddhism. Emptiness does not
51:47mean nothingness, it is not nihilism,
51:49nor is it that everything is an
51:51illusion; it means having no
51:53self-nature, meaning nothing exists
51:55independently by itself, without
51:57needing any other conditions. Let me
52:02take an example. You are used to
52:06thinking of a flower as an object, but
52:08try breaking it down: it needs a seed,
52:11soil, water, sunlight, time, and even a
52:13person standing there to label it a
52:16flower. Remove any of those conditions,
52:20and it is no longer what it is. So, the
52:23flower is not an object; it is an event
52:26, an intersection of many streams of
52:28conditions meeting right at this moment
52:30. You think it is a noun, but it is
52:33actually a verb. From this arises the
52:36most important sentence of this topic.
52:38Dependent origination is emptiness.
52:40Precisely because everything arises
52:42from conditions, everything has no
52:44self-nature. And precisely because
52:46there is no self-nature, everything can
52:48arise from conditions. These two sides
52:51do not contradict; they are one. Just
52:53think about it: if something had a
52:55fixed self-nature, it could never
52:57change again. If a seed had a fixed
52:59self-nature, it would forever be a seed
53:01and never become a tree. It is
53:03precisely because it has no self-nature
53:05that it can become a tree. In other
53:08words, emptiness is not a denial of
53:10life. It is the very condition that
53:13allows life to unfold. And if I had to
53:16shorten this whole topic into one
53:18sentence, I would choose this:
53:20emptiness is a synonym for freedom.
53:23Because if everything were set, fixed,
53:26and possessed an unchanging nature,
53:28that would be true despair. Then a
53:30short-tempered person would be forever
53:32short-tempered, and a broken
53:34relationship would be forever broken.
53:36Who you are today would be who you are
53:3830 years from now. It is precisely
53:40because nothing has a self-nature that
53:42everything still has a path forward.
53:46However, there is a point here that is
53:48easily confusing, so tradition provides
53:50a tool called the two truths.
53:53Conventional truth is the relative
53:54truth, meaning the truth at the level
53:56of daily life. At this level, there is
53:59you, there is me, there is money, there
54:01is debt, and there is an 8:00 AM
54:02appointment. Ultimate truth is the
54:04absolute truth. At this level, nothing
54:07has a self-nature. It is important that
54:10these two levels are not mutually
54:12exclusive and you must not use the
54:14upper level to escape the lower one.
54:16Understanding emptiness does not mean
54:18you don't have to pay your debts, nor
54:20does it mean you are allowed to be late
54:22. The most famous sutra from this
54:25school is the Diamond Sutra. The most
54:28quoted line in it is "ung vo so tru nhi
54:31sinh ky tam". This means one should
54:33give rise to a mind that does not abide
54:35in anything. Many people interpret this
54:37as having no mind, not attaching to
54:39anything, and living coldly for
54:41convenience. That is not the case. The
54:43latter part says to give rise to the
54:45mind, meaning still having a heart,
54:47still loving, doing, and engaging. It
54:50is just not establishing that mind upon
54:52a fixed standpoint. Imagine it like
54:55this to make it easier. You still love
54:57your child. But if you base that love
55:00on the idea that they must go to this
55:03school, work that job, or live how you
55:05think is right, that idea is the place
55:07of abiding. And the day they deviate
55:11from that place, your love immediately
55:13turns into disappointment and reproach.
55:15Let go of that abiding place; the love
55:17doesn't disappear, it just stops being
55:19distorted. The Diamond Sutra also
55:24mentions four marks to be broken: the
55:26concept of self, of others, of a group,
55:29and of a continuous life flow. Four
55:32layers of the same attachment. And this
55:35sutra has a formula repeated throughout
55:37that I find very interesting. What the
55:41Tathagata calls "A" is not actually "A"
55:44, therefore it is called "A". It sounds
55:47confusing, but the meaning is very
55:49clear. Step one: state a concept. Step
55:52two: point out that the concept is not
55:54a fixed entity. Step three: still use
55:57that name to communicate with each
55:59other. This is how to use language
56:01without being deceived by it. Still
56:03name things but do not mistake the name
56:05for the object. As for why it is called
56:08Diamond? There is a layer of meaning
56:10few mention that I find very
56:12interesting. Everyone knows the first
56:14layer: diamonds are very hard and
56:16durable, representing the power of
56:18wisdom. But there is a second layer:
56:21diamonds are very transparent. Imagine
56:25a huge block of pure diamond standing
56:27right in front of you, so large you
56:29cannot see the edges; you might walk
56:31straight into it like walking into a
56:33freshly cleaned glass pane. Both our
56:37body and mind and this entire world are
56:39in a state of emptiness, yet we have
56:41never realized it. It is like living in
56:45the air every minute without being able
56:47to leave it, yet if we do not
56:48intentionally observe, we almost never
56:51realize its presence. Then there is the
56:54Heart Sutra, with only 260 characters,
56:57but it is the most condensed version of
56:59the entire Prajna system. The opening
57:01sentence contains the entire essence:
57:03perceiving the five skandhas as empty,
57:05thereby overcoming all suffering. Next
57:07is the most familiar line: form is not
57:09different from emptiness, emptiness is
57:11not different from form. Form is
57:13emptiness, emptiness is form. This
57:16means that form is no different from
57:18the void, and the void is no different
57:19from form. Pay attention to the latter
57:22part. If there were only the first part
57:24—form is emptiness—it could easily
57:26be interpreted as a negation of the
57:28world. But the sutra adds the reverse:
57:30emptiness is form. This means that
57:33emptiness does not lie elsewhere; it
57:35exists right in what is appearing
57:37before your eyes. One does not need to
57:39abandon this world to seek the truth
57:41elsewhere. The truth is precisely this,
57:44when viewed correctly. And the Heart
57:47Sutra goes much further than many
57:49people imagine. It even negates the
57:51most fundamental teachings. It says
57:53there is no ignorance and also no end
57:55to ignorance. Right down to there being
57:57no aging and death, nor the end of
57:59aging and death. Meaning that the
58:00twelve causal links are also empty. It
58:02says there is no suffering, no origin,
58:05no cessation, and no path, meaning the
58:07Four Noble Truths are also empty. It
58:09says there is no wisdom and no
58:10attainment. Meaning that even
58:12enlightened wisdom and the fruits of
58:14attainment are also empty. Why dare to
58:17say such things? Because at this level,
58:19what needs to be broken is no longer
58:21attachment to the self, but attachment
58:23to the Buddha Dharma itself. If you
58:26still harbor the notion that "I have
58:28wisdom" or "I have attained a fruit,"
58:31then that self and that fruit create a
58:33new duality. That is the final remnant
58:36of attachment, and it is more subtle
58:38than all the previous ones. A boat is
58:40used to cross the river; once you reach
58:42the shore, no one carries the boat on
58:44their back to continue. The person who
58:48pushed the concept of emptiness to its
58:50logical extreme was Nagarjuna. Living
58:52around the second century, he is
58:54considered one of the most important
58:55thinkers since the Buddha. His method
58:58is very unique. He did not establish
59:01any doctrine of his own. He simply took
59:03the opponent's argument and pushed it
59:04to the point of its own collapse. Use
59:07logic to break logic, use concepts to
59:10dismantle concepts. He left behind a
59:12famous series of negative propositions.
59:15No birth, no death, no permanence, no
59:17annihilation, no oneness, no difference
59:20, no coming, no going. I will have a
59:22separate episode about him, so I will
59:24only mention him here. But breaking
59:27things down to this point raises a very
59:29natural question. Once everything is
59:31destroyed, what remains? Tradition
59:33answers with four words: true emptiness
59:36, wonderful existence. True emptiness
59:39means not truly real, with not a shred
59:42of substance left to grasp. Wonderful
59:45existence means it is not a dead, empty
59:48void. Within that emptiness, there is
59:50still vitality, and everything still
59:52manifests. The word "wonderful" is
59:54placed there to distinguish it from the
59:56word "real." It is not the "existence"
59:58you usually think of, which is
1:00:00existence without a core. Now for the
1:00:05trap, and I must say frankly that this
1:00:07is the gate that ruins the most people
1:00:09among the seven. The trap has a
1:00:12specific name: the "evil grasping of
1:00:14emptiness," meaning grasping at
1:00:16emptiness in the wrong way. Those who
1:00:19fall into this interpret emptiness as
1:00:21nihilism. Then they infer that
1:00:23everything is meaningless, good and
1:00:25evil are no different, spiritual
1:00:27practice is useless, and there is no
1:00:29need to maintain relationships. The
1:00:32ancients said something very profound
1:00:34about this. Better to be attached to
1:00:36existence like Mount Sumeru than to be
1:00:38attached to emptiness like a mustard
1:00:40seed. Because those who are attached to
1:00:43existence still fear karma, keep
1:00:45precepts, and do good. They move slowly
1:00:47, but they are heading in the right
1:00:49direction. But those who grasp at
1:00:50emptiness the wrong way have nothing
1:00:52left to hold them back. And the danger
1:00:54is that they think they have reached a
1:00:55very high level. The way to check is
1:00:59simple. When you have a toothache,
1:01:02saying "everything is empty" won't take
1:01:04the pain away. Suffering is a real
1:01:08experience. Emptiness does not deny
1:01:10experience. It only says that the
1:01:12experience has no fixed core for you to
1:01:14carry for a lifetime. If you study
1:01:18emptiness and become increasingly cold,
1:01:20feeling that nothing matters, then you
1:01:22haven't reached a higher gate; you have
1:01:24taken a wrong turn. At this point, this
1:01:29gate has finished its work. It clears
1:01:31everything away: no more self, no more
1:01:34objects, not even a place left to cling
1:01:36to the Dharma. But it leaves behind a
1:01:39question that it does not answer. If
1:01:43all phenomena lack inherent nature, why
1:01:45do you wake up every morning to find
1:01:47the same world appearing coherent,
1:01:50stable, and consistent? This person is
1:01:53still this person. Yesterday's sorrow
1:01:55is still in the same place. What is
1:01:57building it up? The fifth gate I call "
1:02:01contemplating consciousness," which is
1:02:03opening the machine's lid to look
1:02:05inside. This is Consciousness-Only, the
1:02:08most detailed and technical system in
1:02:10all of Buddhist studies. The portrait
1:02:13of someone at this gate is perhaps the
1:02:15most honest portrait of many long-time
1:02:17Buddhist practitioners. You understand
1:02:19everything. Impermanence, no-self,
1:02:21emptiness—you can speak about them
1:02:23for hours without stumbling. You find
1:02:25the sutras easy to read and the
1:02:26lectures familiar. Yet there is a
1:02:28reaction in you that hasn't changed in
1:02:3120 years; whenever you encounter that
1:02:33specific situation, it arises. Exactly
1:02:35the same, without missing a beat. It
1:02:38could be when being slighted, when
1:02:40someone leaves, or when things are out
1:02:42of control. You know it’s irrational,
1:02:45you know it, but you still can't stop
1:02:47it. And you begin to doubt whether this
1:02:49understanding is useful at all. The
1:02:54answer from this gate begins with a
1:02:55comparison. Prajna is the diagnostic
1:02:58report, while Consciousness-Only is the
1:03:00operating manual. Prajna tells you that
1:03:04the world you see has no inherent
1:03:06nature. Consciousness-Only takes your
1:03:10hand and points out every part,
1:03:11clarifying how the world is built and
1:03:13where you can intervene. But before
1:03:18proceeding, I must clarify one thing
1:03:20because this point is easily
1:03:21misunderstood. Consciousness-Only does
1:03:24not say the external world doesn't
1:03:26exist, that everything is just your
1:03:27imagination; that is a misunderstanding
1:03:30. It says the world you experience, the
1:03:33only one you can access, is already a
1:03:35construct of consciousness. You never
1:03:39touch the raw world; you only touch the
1:03:41construct of consciousness. At the
1:03:44second gate, I mentioned six
1:03:46consciousnesses; Consciousness-Only
1:03:48expands them to eight. The first five
1:03:50are eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body
1:03:52consciousnesses. These five senses
1:03:55simply receive without judging. The
1:03:57sixth consciousness is the mental
1:03:59consciousness. This is the general
1:04:01manager. It thinks, analyzes, compares,
1:04:04labels, plans, and reminisces. Most of
1:04:08what you call "me thinking" happens
1:04:10right here. The seventh consciousness
1:04:13is the manas-vijnana. And this is the
1:04:15most important discovery of Vijnanavada
1:04:17. Manas is the consciousness of
1:04:18self-attachment. Its only job is to
1:04:20stick the label "I" onto everything. It
1:04:24runs continuously, even while you sleep
1:04:26. It lies below the conscious level, so
1:04:29you cannot observe it directly. You
1:04:31only see its consequences. And do you
1:04:35remember that unchanged 20-year
1:04:37reaction we mentioned at the start of
1:04:39this? Why is it that when someone
1:04:41criticizes your work, a feeling of
1:04:43annoyance arises before you can even
1:04:45think? Your conscious mind might be
1:04:48very fair. It might see that they have
1:04:50a point, or even feel that you should
1:04:52be thankful. But the sting in your
1:04:54chest has already arrived first. What
1:04:56arrives first is the manas; it doesn't
1:04:58need your permission. This is also why
1:05:02understanding alone is not enough.
1:05:04Because understanding happens in the
1:05:06sixth consciousness, while the
1:05:08troublemaker lies in the seventh, one
1:05:10layer deeper. The eighth consciousness
1:05:14is the alaya-vijnana, translated as
1:05:16storehouse consciousness. This is the
1:05:19deepest layer. It contains all the
1:05:21traces of everything you have ever done
1:05:23, said, or thought. Those traces are
1:05:26called bija, meaning seeds. And the
1:05:30operational mechanism of the entire
1:05:32system lies in two dimensions. The
1:05:34first dimension is the seeds in the
1:05:36storehouse. When conditions are met,
1:05:38they sprout into behaviors, emotions,
1:05:40and the world you are seeing. The
1:05:44second dimension is that the behavior
1:05:45just sprouted is planted back into the
1:05:48storehouse as a new seed. The word
1:05:50traditionally used for the second
1:05:52dimension is "perfuming," like incense
1:05:54soaking into a robe. You don't see
1:05:57anything, but the scent soaks into
1:05:59every fiber; these two dimensions run
1:06:02continuously, creating a
1:06:03self-reinforcing loop. If you listen
1:06:08closely to this, you will see it
1:06:10explains many things in life. Why does
1:06:13someone know they shouldn't say that,
1:06:14yet they say it anyway? Because the
1:06:17seeds are too numerous and they sprout
1:06:19faster than the consciousness can
1:06:21intervene. Why do two people stand
1:06:23before the same event but see two
1:06:25different worlds? Because their
1:06:27storehouses of seeds are different, so
1:06:29their interpretations differ. The same
1:06:31statement: one person hears it as
1:06:33feedback, the other hears it as an
1:06:35insult. And why is changing a habit so
1:06:38difficult? Because you are not just
1:06:41changing a behavior, you are trying to
1:06:43change the entire storehouse. Then
1:06:46Consciousness-Only offers another
1:06:48framework. And this is the part I find
1:06:50most interesting, called the three
1:06:52natures, or the three layers of reality
1:06:54. The first layer is called dependent
1:06:56origination, meaning it arises by
1:06:58relying on something else. This is the
1:07:00flow of dependent co-arising, the raw
1:07:02data as it flows. This layer is neutral
1:07:05, neither good nor bad. The second
1:07:07layer is called imagined nature,
1:07:09meaning what is grasped due to
1:07:11scattered calculations and comparisons.
1:07:13This is the layer of narrative that you
1:07:15superimpose onto that stream of data.
1:07:17And this is exactly where suffering is
1:07:20born. The third layer is called
1:07:23perfected nature, meaning the complete
1:07:25and full truth. But is perfected nature
1:07:28a third layer located somewhere else?
1:07:32Perfected nature is just the dependent
1:07:34nature once the imagined layer has
1:07:36fallen away. Meaning you do not have to
1:07:39go looking for another reality. Reality
1:07:41is still right there, perfectly intact.
1:07:43What must be discarded is only the
1:07:45layer of stories you pasted onto it.
1:07:48Let me take a very mundane example.
1:07:50Someone replies to your message after
1:07:53two days; that is raw data, that is
1:07:55dependent origination. As for the story
1:07:58that they look down on you, that the
1:08:00relationship is failing, or that you
1:08:02must have said something wrong the
1:08:03other day. Or that you are not worth
1:08:05their time, that is the second layer.
1:08:08Discard the second layer and the first
1:08:10layer remains exactly as it is. The
1:08:12other person still replies after two
1:08:14days, the event hasn't changed, you
1:08:16just no longer suffer because of it. So
1:08:20what is the goal of this entire school
1:08:21of thought? It is wrapped up in the two
1:08:24words "turning the basis.""Turning"
1:08:26means to transform, "basis" is the
1:08:28place of support. Transforming the
1:08:30place that you are currently relying
1:08:32upon. Imagine a house; people live
1:08:34there a long time and find it old, so
1:08:36they repaint the walls, change the
1:08:38curtains, buy new furniture, and it
1:08:40looks completely different. But the
1:08:42foundation is still the old foundation,
1:08:44and if that foundation is tilted, no
1:08:46amount of repainting will save it.
1:08:48Turning the basis means changing the
1:08:50foundation. More specifically, ordinary
1:08:53people use a storehouse full of defiled
1:08:55seeds as their life's foundation, while
1:08:57the enlightened use the true perception
1:08:59as theirs. The entire long path of
1:09:02practice is just to switch from one
1:09:04foundation to the other. And when the
1:09:07transformation is complete, something
1:09:09beautiful happens. The eight
1:09:10consciousnesses turn into four wisdoms.
1:09:13Pay attention to this point, as it
1:09:14speaks volumes about the spirit of the
1:09:16Dharma. The eight consciousnesses are
1:09:18not destroyed; nothing is discarded.
1:09:21They are transformed. Once the
1:09:24contaminated seeds are washed away, the
1:09:27Alaya storehouse becomes a wisdom like
1:09:29a vast, perfect mirror. A mirror
1:09:31reflects whatever is in front of it,
1:09:33without adding, subtracting, or
1:09:34distorting. And most importantly, the
1:09:36mirror holds onto nothing. When the
1:09:38person leaves, the reflection leaves
1:09:40too. As for Manas, the one constantly
1:09:44labeling "me," it becomes the wisdom of
1:09:47equality, no longer building walls
1:09:49between myself and others. Seeing that
1:09:52at the deepest level, I and others are
1:09:54equal. And from that vision, compassion
1:09:58arises naturally, without any effort.
1:10:02Do you remember the third gateway?
1:10:04Where we said "joy" is very difficult,
1:10:06and rejoicing for those better than us
1:10:08is the hardest thing. This is the very
1:10:10solution to that. Compassion in the
1:10:13Dharma is not about forcing yourself to
1:10:15love. It is the natural consequence of
1:10:18the wall collapsing. As long as the
1:10:20wall remains, you still have to try,
1:10:22and trying is tiring, and trying is not
1:10:25free of sickness. The remaining two
1:10:28consciousnesses are the same. The sixth
1:10:30consciousness manager, once freed from
1:10:33the habit of labeling, still analyzes
1:10:35and deduces, but sees things as they
1:10:37are without adding stories. And the
1:10:40five senses are no longer gateways for
1:10:42greed and aversion to enter, but tools
1:10:44to perform beneficial work. And there
1:10:48is one notable thing in this entire
1:10:50process: no one from above grants us
1:10:52anything. The wisdom of the enlightened
1:10:56does not fall from anywhere. It is the
1:10:58potential already present in the mind
1:11:00you are using right now, once it has
1:11:02been purified. Affliction and
1:11:04enlightenment are, after all, the same
1:11:06essence. As for the path to cleanse
1:11:10that storehouse, Yogacara divides it
1:11:12very clearly into five stages. Stage
1:11:14one is gathering provisions: learning,
1:11:16keeping precepts, doing merit, and
1:11:19planting good seeds. Stage two is
1:11:21intensive practice. When practice
1:11:23becomes focused, stage three is seeing
1:11:26the truth for the first time. This is
1:11:28the greatest turning point. From here
1:11:30on, the vision has changed; there is no
1:11:32turning back. The fourth stage is to
1:11:34continue practicing to unravel the
1:11:36remaining subtle habits. The fifth
1:11:38stage is the final stage when the
1:11:40foundation has been completely
1:11:42transformed. I want you to pay
1:11:44attention to the fourth stage. It is
1:11:46the longest of all five stages. This
1:11:49means even those who have already seen
1:11:51the truth still have a long way to go.
1:11:54This is very worth remembering for
1:11:55people today. We often think that
1:11:57understanding is the end. Listening to
1:11:59a good lecture and feeling enlightened
1:12:01makes us think we have arrived. This
1:12:04system says that understanding is just
1:12:06the beginning of the longest stage. And
1:12:10Consciousness-Only has a point that I
1:12:12find unexpectedly practical. It clearly
1:12:14points out which layer each familiar
1:12:16practice affects. Observing precepts,
1:12:19like not lying or stealing, impacts the
1:12:21sixth and seventh consciousnesses. It
1:12:24blocks behavior right at the exit door.
1:12:27And by blocking the exit, no new seeds
1:12:29are sown into the storehouse.
1:12:32Meditation calms the sixth
1:12:33consciousness so the lower layers have
1:12:35a chance to emerge. Reflection, or
1:12:38wisdom, is what goes straight to the
1:12:40seventh layer to peel the "I" label off
1:12:43everything. Therefore, precepts,
1:12:46meditation, and wisdom are not three
1:12:48separate things. They are three prongs
1:12:50acting on three different layers of the
1:12:52same machine. Missing one prong means
1:12:54the machine still runs the same way.
1:12:57The trap of this gateway lies right in
1:12:59its strength. Consciousness-Only has so
1:13:02many terms and classifications that it
1:13:04is easy to turn it into a subject of
1:13:06rote memorization. You memorize all
1:13:10eight consciousnesses, all three
1:13:12natures, explain seeds and
1:13:13manifestations, and feel confident
1:13:16talking to anyone. Yet the Manas
1:13:18consciousness remains intact,
1:13:20completely unshaken, even stronger
1:13:22because now it has one more thing to be
1:13:25proud of. There is another trap,
1:13:29lighter but more common, which is
1:13:31understanding Consciousness-Only as
1:13:33everything being imagined and
1:13:35concluding that just thinking
1:13:36differently will change the world.
1:13:39Consciousness-Only does not say that.
1:13:41It says the storehouse determines the
1:13:43projection, and the storehouse is built
1:13:45through real actions. In real time, not
1:13:47by a few self-affirmations. At this
1:13:52point, this gateway has described the
1:13:54machine in great detail, very
1:13:56accurately, and in an applicable way.
1:13:58But it still leaves one question. If
1:14:01everything is just a storehouse of
1:14:03seeds in motion—seeds blossoming into
1:14:06actions, actions sowing new seeds in an
1:14:08endless loop—then what is it that
1:14:10knows it is all moving? And if that
1:14:13storehouse can be cleansed, where does
1:14:15that purity come from? Is it something
1:14:18we add, or has it been there all along?
1:14:22The sixth gate I call "seeing the
1:14:24nature," which means realizing what is
1:14:26inherently present. And this is the
1:14:29greatest reversal in our entire journey
1:14:31today. The portrait of someone standing
1:14:35at this gate is something I think many
1:14:36will find familiar. You have traveled
1:14:39for a long time, reading, meditating,
1:14:42and refining yourself bit by bit, year
1:14:44after year. And you are tired—not
1:14:47tired because of suffering. You have
1:14:49already learned to handle coarse
1:14:51suffering. You are tired because you
1:14:52feel you are never getting anywhere.
1:14:54The more you practice, the further away
1:14:56it seems. Every time you understand one
1:14:58level deeper, you see ten more levels
1:15:00ahead. There are nights when you sit
1:15:03alone and wonder if that place is even
1:15:05real. Or if you are just chasing
1:15:07something invented by others. From the
1:15:11beginning until now, the entire journey
1:15:13has been a process of stripping away.
1:15:15Removing the ego, removing objects,
1:15:17removing attachment to the Dharma, and
1:15:19cleansing the storehouse of seeds. This
1:15:21gate says something entirely different.
1:15:25What you are searching for has been
1:15:26there all along. The central concept
1:15:30here is called the Tathagatagarbha,
1:15:32meaning the storehouse containing the
1:15:34Tathagata. Or, phrased in a way more
1:15:36familiar to Vietnamese people, the
1:15:38Buddha-nature. The most famous
1:15:41declaration is found in the Nirvana
1:15:43Sutra, the record of the Buddha's final
1:15:45teachings. All sentient beings possess
1:15:47the Buddha-nature. The weight of this
1:15:50statement is immense. It is like a
1:15:53system administrator, before shutting
1:15:55down, telling all users that each of
1:15:57you actually has administrative rights.
1:16:01It is just that no one has told you
1:16:03where the password is. The sutra that
1:16:06elaborates on this most thoroughly is
1:16:08the Surangama Sutra. The sutra opens
1:16:10with a very famous passage. The Buddha
1:16:13asks Ananda, "Where is the mind that is
1:16:14currently giving rise to these thoughts
1:16:16located?" Ananda offers seven answers.
1:16:21Inside the body, outside the body,
1:16:22hidden in the eyes, in the darkness or
1:16:25light, in the harmony of elements, in
1:16:27the middle, or in a place that is
1:16:29attached to nothing at all. All seven
1:16:31times, he is refuted by the Buddha. The
1:16:34purpose of this step is very clear. The
1:16:37mind you rely on, the one driving
1:16:39everything you do daily, has no
1:16:41substance and cannot be grasped. Only
1:16:43then does the second step begin. From
1:16:46many different angles, the Buddha helps
1:16:48Ananda realize the true mind, which is
1:16:50neither born nor destroyed. The
1:16:53Shurangama Sutra has another noteworthy
1:16:56section: the list of fifty demonic
1:16:57states of the five aggregates. The name
1:17:00sounds mystical, but it is actually a
1:17:02list of illusions and dead ends a
1:17:04practitioner might encounter on the
1:17:06path. Seeing auras, hearing voices,
1:17:09feeling the body dissolve, or believing
1:17:11you have attained enlightenment. Two
1:17:16thousand years ago, there was already a
1:17:18detailed list of fifty obstacles, and
1:17:20it remains relevant even for those who
1:17:22have only meditated for a few months.
1:17:26The general principle of that entire
1:17:28section is very concise. Whatever you
1:17:30see, do not cling to it. No matter how
1:17:32beautiful the vision is. If you think
1:17:33you are great, that is exactly where
1:17:35the trap lies. What about the
1:17:38relationship between the
1:17:39Tathagatagarbha and the Alaya
1:17:40consciousness at the previous gate?
1:17:42Which one is the root? This is the
1:17:44central question of the Lankavatara
1:17:46Sutra, debated within Buddhist circles
1:17:49for over 1,000 years without a
1:17:50consensus. I mention it so you know the
1:17:54debate exists, not to resolve it. The
1:17:58clearest presentation I find is in the
1:18:00Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana,
1:18:02with the concept of one mind and two
1:18:04gates. It is the same mind. Looking
1:18:06through the first gate, one sees it as
1:18:08inherently pure, neither born nor
1:18:09destroyed. Looking through the second
1:18:11gate, one sees it as fluctuating,
1:18:13arising thoughts, and creating karma.
1:18:15Not two minds, but one mind, viewed in
1:18:18two ways. Regarding this gate, another
1:18:22sutra must be mentioned: the Lotus
1:18:24Sutra. And within it is a story I want
1:18:26to tell you because it directly
1:18:28addresses the weariness at the start of
1:18:29this gate. A group of people sets out
1:18:32to find a treasure, but the 500-mile
1:18:34journey is treacherous and seems
1:18:36endless. After traveling 300 miles,
1:18:38everyone is exhausted and wants to turn
1:18:40back. The guide sees this and uses
1:18:43skillful means to conjure a city right
1:18:45there. There are houses, water, and
1:18:47places to rest. Everyone enters, rests,
1:18:49regains strength, and feels at peace.
1:18:52Then, when they had regained their
1:18:54strength, the guide made the city
1:18:56vanish and said, "I conjured this city
1:18:58only for you to rest; the treasure
1:19:00still lies ahead. Now, let us continue.
1:19:04The Buddha said that what He taught
1:19:06previously was the same, all cities
1:19:08conjured for people to rest according
1:19:10to each person's capacity. And today He
1:19:13reveals the complete version: three
1:19:15paths that seemed different. Sravaka,
1:19:17Pratyekabuddha, and Bodhisattva
1:19:19actually lead to the same gate; there
1:19:22is only one path. Do you see the beauty
1:19:25of this story? It doesn't say you went
1:19:27the wrong way; it says you went the
1:19:29right way, and the places you stopped
1:19:31to rest were all necessary. Just don't
1:19:34stay there and think you have arrived.
1:19:38Now, we come to the traps, and this
1:19:40gate has two of them. Both lie right
1:19:42within the phrase:" You are already a
1:19:44Buddha. "The first one I temporarily
1:19:47call" spiritual lying flat. "People
1:19:50hear that and their eyes light up,
1:19:51thinking they have attained
1:19:53enlightenment on the spot. If I am
1:19:54already a Buddha, why bother practicing
1:19:57anymore? The phrase intended to lighten
1:19:59your burden as you travel becomes the
1:20:00perfect excuse not to move at all. The
1:20:04second one is more toxic and hidden; I
1:20:07call it" spiritual narcissism. "People
1:20:10say," I have Buddha-nature, my essence
1:20:12is luminous, I and the Buddha are not
1:20:15two. "But notice the subject is" I. "
1:20:21You have just turned the
1:20:22Tathagatagarbha into a bright golden
1:20:24hat to place upon the ego. That ego not
1:20:26only doesn't become thinner or more
1:20:28transparent, but it is plated with an
1:20:30even thicker and more solid layer of
1:20:32gold than before. And I must be honest,
1:20:35there is no attachment harder to break
1:20:37than the attachment of" I am a Buddha.
1:20:39"Because all other attachments can
1:20:41still be broken using the Dharma. But
1:20:44this attachment has borrowed the Dharma
1:20:46itself as its armor. So, how should it
1:20:50be understood correctly? The
1:20:52Tathagatagarbha does not say that you
1:20:54possess something called Buddha-nature.
1:20:56It says that when your mind is stripped
1:20:58of all obscurations, its natural state
1:21:01is awakening. Return to the image of
1:21:04the mirror at the previous gate. The
1:21:06capacity to reflect is not a component
1:21:08installed inside the mirror. If you
1:21:10dismantle the mirror, you will not find
1:21:13any part called" reflection. "
1:21:15Reflecting is simply the way a mirror
1:21:17exists as a mirror. Similarly, you
1:21:21cannot say I possess Buddha-nature
1:21:23because, fundamentally, there is no
1:21:25independent self standing there to own
1:21:27anything. Or, take the image of water
1:21:30to make it easier to visualize. Water
1:21:32is clear by nature; mud and sand are
1:21:35things mixed in later. You don't need
1:21:37to add purifying agents to the water;
1:21:39you just need to let the mud settle.
1:21:42And if applied to the three levels of
1:21:44the previous gate, it fits perfectly.
1:21:47Paratantra is the neutral stream of
1:21:49dependent arising data. Parikalpita is
1:21:51the layer of stories superimposed on
1:21:53top. This is what obscures it. And
1:21:55Parinispanna is simply Paratantra when
1:21:58it is no longer obscured.
1:22:00Tathagatagarbha is not a fourth thing
1:22:02lying outside. It is the original face
1:22:05of what is already available. But this
1:22:08gate has a paradox, and I want to point
1:22:10it out for you to see. You must hear
1:22:12the statement that you are inherently a
1:22:14Buddha to have enough confidence to
1:22:16proceed. Without that statement, the
1:22:17exhaustion at the beginning of this
1:22:19gate will cause you to stop. But if you
1:22:22cling to that very notion, it
1:22:23immediately becomes the greatest
1:22:25obstacle. Tathagatagarbha is a very
1:22:28good raft to use, but you must know
1:22:31when to put it down, and the right time
1:22:33is when you no longer need the idea" I
1:22:35am a Buddha "to encourage yourself. At
1:22:40this point, a natural question arises.
1:22:43If even the statement that you are
1:22:45inherently a Buddha must be set aside,
1:22:47then what about everything we have just
1:22:49learned over these past few hours? Let
1:22:51us continue. The seventh gate, the
1:22:55final gate, I call letting go of the
1:22:57Dharma, which means dropping the map
1:22:59entirely. The portrait of the person
1:23:02standing at this gate is a bit hard to
1:23:04hear, but I will still say it: you know
1:23:06a great deal. You can read, you can
1:23:08teach, and you can distinguish one sect
1:23:10from another. No matter what anyone
1:23:12asks, you have an answer. And you feel
1:23:15heavier than when you knew nothing at
1:23:16all. There is a discomfort, hard to
1:23:19name, whenever you hear someone use a
1:23:21term incorrectly. There is a frown when
1:23:24you see people worshiping in ways that
1:23:26you consider superstitious. What you
1:23:29thought was equipment turns out to be
1:23:30baggage. At this gate, there are two
1:23:34sects standing side by side that look
1:23:36very different at first glance. One
1:23:38side is so concise that it requires not
1:23:40a single word. The other side is so
1:23:42massive that it is the largest
1:23:44collection of scriptures in all of
1:23:45Buddhism. The concise side is Zen. The
1:23:50theory of Zen Buddhism is encapsulated
1:23:52in the phrase: your mind is the Buddha,
1:23:54and your self-nature is inherently
1:23:56complete. Zen defines itself through 16
1:23:58characters: no reliance on words, a
1:24:00special transmission outside the
1:24:01scriptures, pointing directly to the
1:24:03human mind, and seeing one's nature to
1:24:05become a Buddha. This means not
1:24:06establishing written scriptures,
1:24:08transmitting outside of formal
1:24:09teachings, pointing directly at the
1:24:10human mind, and becoming a Buddha upon
1:24:12seeing one's own nature. And
1:24:14interestingly, Zen does not have any
1:24:16scriptures of its own. From Bodhidharma
1:24:18to the Fourth Patriarch, the
1:24:19Lankavatara Sutra was used for
1:24:21mind-verification. From the Fifth and
1:24:23Sixth Patriarchs onwards, the Diamond
1:24:25Sutra was used. But neither of them are
1:24:27scriptures belonging to Zen. We must
1:24:30clarify the" no reliance on words "part
1:24:32, as it is the most misused concept."
1:24:35No reliance on words "does not mean no
1:24:37need to study; it is quite the opposite
1:24:39. Zen is a path that discards all
1:24:41theories and rituals, yet one must
1:24:43still personally realize the nature of
1:24:45emptiness right here. No one can carry
1:24:47this burden for you. It is not an easy
1:24:49path, but it is a direct one. Those two
1:24:51things are completely different. The
1:24:55most important figure is the Sixth
1:24:57Patriarch, Huineng. An illiterate man
1:24:59from the Lingnan region who worked as a
1:25:01firewood seller. You have likely heard
1:25:04his famous stanza. The bodhi is not a
1:25:06tree, the clear mirror is not a stand;
1:25:09originally there is not one thing,
1:25:11where could dust collect? This means
1:25:13that enlightenment is not a tree, and a
1:25:16bright mirror is not a stand. Since
1:25:18there has never been a single thing,
1:25:19where can dust gather? The power of
1:25:22this stanza lies in the fact that it is
1:25:24not a philosophical argument, but a
1:25:26description of a direct realization.
1:25:28From this arose the most fascinating
1:25:30debate within Buddhist scholarship:
1:25:32Sudden versus Gradual enlightenment.
1:25:33Gradual is practicing step-by-step,
1:25:35like the five stages of Vijnaptimatra.
1:25:38Sudden is realizing in a single moment
1:25:39without passing through stages. Do the
1:25:42two sides contradict each other? Some
1:25:44say they conflict, while others say
1:25:46they do not. Because that moment of
1:25:48sudden enlightenment still requires a
1:25:50long process to reach. It is like
1:25:51boiling water; the entire process is
1:25:54gradual, but the moment it boils is
1:25:56sudden. Without the process, that
1:25:58moment would not exist. The methods of
1:26:02Zen are the koan and the huatou. Does a
1:26:05dog have Buddha-nature? Before your
1:26:08parents were born, what is your
1:26:09original face? These are not trick
1:26:12questions. They are logical blocks
1:26:15designed to push rational thought to
1:26:17its limits. The practitioner holds that
1:26:20question until a great mass of doubt
1:26:22rises within, waiting for the moment it
1:26:24shatters. And there is one thing I want
1:26:28you to remember. Even if you eventually
1:26:31think of an answer that perfectly
1:26:33matches the scriptures, it is still
1:26:35only understanding a principle.
1:26:39Enlightenment does not come from
1:26:40thinking. This is also how you can
1:26:44identify those Zen master stories
1:26:45spreading online. Their common
1:26:48characteristic is that you figure out
1:26:50the answer and think," Ah, so that's it
1:26:52. "That is wordplay, not Zen. On the
1:26:57massive side is the legendary Flower
1:26:59Adornment Sutra. This is the sutra the
1:27:01Buddha spoke during the first 21 days
1:27:03after his enlightenment while he had
1:27:05not yet left the Bodhi tree. Its
1:27:07content is the true nature of the world
1:27:09that he directly realized that night.
1:27:12And because it was too profound for
1:27:14anyone to comprehend, he later left for
1:27:16Deer Park to start again from the Four
1:27:19Noble Truths. Meaning this sutra is at
1:27:22the beginning, but must be studied last
1:27:24. The most famous image of the Flower
1:27:28Adornment is Indra's net. Imagine a net
1:27:31spread across the entire universe. At
1:27:33each intersection of the net, there is
1:27:35a jewel. Each jewel reflects all the
1:27:37other jewels. And within each
1:27:40reflection, there are reflections of
1:27:42all the other jewels as well. It goes
1:27:44on like that, endlessly. From this
1:27:47comes the phrase" one is all, all is
1:27:50one. "And the phrase" in a single speck
1:27:52of dust, there are infinite worlds. "It
1:27:55sounds like science fiction, but try
1:27:57thinking about something very ordinary.
1:28:00The breath you are taking right now
1:28:02contains oxygen created by trees. Those
1:28:05trees grow on soil nourished by rivers.
1:28:07The rivers are fed by rain, and rain
1:28:09comes from the ocean. In a single
1:28:12breath, there is the sun, the sea, the
1:28:14forest, and even creatures that died
1:28:16millions of years ago. No need for
1:28:18metaphysics; just look closely at one
1:28:20single breath. I have already made a
1:28:23separate episode diving into the Flower
1:28:25Adornment, so I will stop here. Those
1:28:27who want to dig deeper can watch the
1:28:29old episode. Now we come to the final
1:28:33part of the whole journey, and also the
1:28:35part I want you to remember most. There
1:28:38is a line in the Diamond Sutra." Even
1:28:40the Dharma should be let go of, let
1:28:42alone what is not the Dharma. "This
1:28:43means even the true teachings must be
1:28:45abandoned, let alone things that are
1:28:47not the true teachings. The Buddha
1:28:50compared his teachings to a raft; a
1:28:52raft is meant for crossing the river,
1:28:54but if you reach the shore and still
1:28:56carry the raft on your back, it becomes
1:28:59your burden. The entire seven-gate
1:29:02framework I have just constructed today
1:29:04is the same. All these classifications,
1:29:06numbers, Sino-Vietnamese terms, and
1:29:08this entire map are just scaffolding.
1:29:11Scaffolding is for building a house;
1:29:13once the building is done, you take it
1:29:15down. No one keeps the scaffolding to
1:29:17live inside it. However, I must clarify
1:29:21one thing so that no one misunderstands
1:29:23this point. Only those who have crossed
1:29:26the river may abandon the raft. Those
1:29:29who are still on this side but throw
1:29:31the raft away are not letting go; they
1:29:33have simply never set out on the
1:29:35journey. If you hear that everything is
1:29:37just a means and use that as an excuse
1:29:39to learn nothing and practice nothing,
1:29:41that is not liberation. That is just
1:29:43staying in the same place. But it adds
1:29:45a nice saying to comfort yourself with.
1:29:49Before closing, I need to address one
1:29:51thing, because if I don't, today's
1:29:53episode could easily be misunderstood
1:29:55in another way. The seven gates
1:29:57mentioned earlier form a vertical axis,
1:29:59representing the order of study.
1:30:02Meanwhile, the traditions and schools
1:30:04lie on a horizontal axis. They exist in
1:30:06parallel with one another, not ranked
1:30:08as higher or lower. This means a
1:30:10practitioner of Theravada does not
1:30:12stand at a lower gate than a Zen
1:30:13practitioner. A person practicing Pure
1:30:15Land recitation is not beneath someone
1:30:17studying Consciousness-Only. The
1:30:19easiest way to visualize this is as
1:30:21departments in the same hospital:
1:30:23internal medicine, surgery, cardiology,
1:30:25gastroenterology. Different illnesses
1:30:28require different departments, but the
1:30:30common goal is to cure the sickness.
1:30:33Then why not teach a single method for
1:30:35simplicity? Because students are
1:30:37different. Those who enjoy thinking,
1:30:40debating, and meticulous reasoning are
1:30:42suited for Tiantai, Consciousness-Only,
1:30:44or Madhyamaka. Those who dislike
1:30:46cumbersome terminology and want
1:30:48something direct and decisive are
1:30:49suited for Zen. And for those who
1:30:51cannot reason rigorously yet have not
1:30:53directly realized their own mind, there
1:30:55is Pure Land. But speaking of Pure Land
1:30:57, I must clarify one thing because it
1:30:59is the most popular practice in Vietnam
1:31:01, and you are likely wondering which
1:31:03gate it falls under. The answer is that
1:31:06it does not lie on this ladder. All
1:31:08seven gates we just went through are
1:31:10paths of self-reliance, where you break
1:31:12your own ego-clinging and witness
1:31:14emptiness yourself. Pure Land, however,
1:31:16is a path that relies on other-power.
1:31:19It is a different axis, not a lower
1:31:21level on the same axis. And it deserves
1:31:23its own episode; it cannot be
1:31:25summarized in just a few sentences. I
1:31:27will make that episode later. As for
1:31:30Vajrayana, I will just clarify two
1:31:32things. First, saying that Tibetan
1:31:34Buddhism is Vajrayana and Chinese
1:31:36Buddhism is Sutrayana is an incorrect
1:31:38way to speak. Both traditions contain
1:31:40elements of both exoteric and esoteric
1:31:42teachings. Second, within the Tibetan
1:31:44tradition itself, the study of tantra
1:31:46is strictly regulated. Some schools
1:31:48require about 12 years of studying
1:31:50Sutrayana and passing exams before one
1:31:53is qualified to move on. The foundation
1:31:56most emphasized is the realization of
1:31:58emptiness. So if you meet someone in
1:32:00the name of Vajrayana who skips the
1:32:02entire foundation or demands things
1:32:04that cross normal boundaries, that is a
1:32:06sign for you to leave. So to summarize
1:32:11everything today, you do not need to
1:32:13read all 2,500 years of history. You
1:32:16just need to know which door you are
1:32:17sitting at and go through that door
1:32:19completely. If you have visited temples
1:32:22for years but never thought of this as
1:32:24something to study, your door is the
1:32:26entry level. If every night there is a
1:32:29void you cannot name, your door is
1:32:31recognizing suffering. If you practice
1:32:35to be at peace, but that peace keeps
1:32:37narrowing, your door is awakening the
1:32:39heart. If you understand non-self but
1:32:41still lie awake until 2 AM because of a
1:32:43single sentence, your door is breaking
1:32:45attachments. If you have an emotional
1:32:47reaction that hasn't changed in 20
1:32:49years, and you know it's irrational but
1:32:51still cannot stop it, your door is
1:32:52observing consciousness. If you are
1:32:54tired because you feel you are never
1:32:56getting anywhere, your door is seeing
1:32:58one's nature. And there is a sentence
1:32:59for you there. What you are looking for
1:33:02has never left. And if you know a lot
1:33:05and feel heavier than before you knew
1:33:07anything, your door is letting go of
1:33:09the teachings. If all 2,500 years were
1:33:13to be condensed into one sentence, I
1:33:15think it would be this one. Everything
1:33:18is created by the mind. All things are
1:33:20mind-created. Now I have a few final
1:33:25words. If this episode is helpful to
1:33:28you, I hope you share it with someone
1:33:30you know who wants to learn about
1:33:31Buddhism but doesn't know where to
1:33:33start. A map is only valuable when it
1:33:37reaches the hands of someone who is
1:33:39lost. And if you have the means, I hope
1:33:42you will share what you have understood
1:33:44with those around you. There is a
1:33:47notion that one must be enlightened
1:33:48before speaking about Buddhism. I
1:33:51don’t think that is the case. If
1:33:53everyone waited until they were perfect
1:33:55to speak up, nothing would have been
1:33:57passed down to us over the last 2,500
1:33:59years. Those who are a step ahead can
1:34:02still turn back to reach out to those
1:34:03following behind. To me, Buddhism is a
1:34:07life philosophy, a therapeutic method
1:34:09for inner suffering, and a path of
1:34:12healing that each person walks within
1:34:14their own body and mind. In the
1:34:18comments, I want to hear from you:
1:34:20which gate are you at, and which one
1:34:22would you like me to delve into first?
1:34:25Because for each of the seven gates
1:34:26today, I have already created a
1:34:28separate episode. If you are new to the
1:34:30channel, you can start from this
1:34:32episode and then go back to watch the
1:34:34older ones in the order of the seven
1:34:35gates. And if you have been following
1:34:37for a while, the upcoming episodes will
1:34:39gradually fill in the remaining gaps on
1:34:41this map. I am also preparing some new
1:34:45content. A segment on life psychology,
1:34:49applying Buddhist teachings to very
1:34:51specific issues for employees, parents,
1:34:53and those navigating relationships.
1:34:56Along with that, there will be more
1:34:58in-depth content for channel members,
1:35:00including guided meditations and
1:35:02courses on psychology and personal
1:35:04development with a curriculum based on
1:35:06the expertise I have studied and
1:35:08practiced for many years. Thank you for
1:35:11sitting with me through such a long
1:35:12episode today. I am Dang Thai Cuong,
1:35:16see you all in the next episode.

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