7.   THE PROCEDURES IN THE PERIOD OF THE PARTRIARCHS ESTABLISHED THE MEDITATION SECT

According to historical writings, there are a total of 28 Patriarchs in the Meditation Sect, who are ranked in order. Besides them, there are other enlightened ones who cannot be mentioned. In the period of dynasties, the Meditation Sect was very popular in the Vietnamese dynasties of Đinh, Lê, Lý, and Trần. Nowadays, the Meditation Sect still exists in Japan, Tibet, Vietnam, and a few other countries. Although it is not in vogue as it was in the past, the sect of meditation is still preserved.

According to the morale of the Meditation Sect, practitioners must establish Reliability-Conduct-Vow and Precept-Contemplation-Result,[17] which are the core of the Meditation Sect. If one fails to establish either, one cannot succeed as a meditation practitioner.

As for the place of the meditation subject, the Patriarchs sought tranquil places. When they found a desired place, one with a moderate year-round climate, they built hermitages five or ten meters apart. Each hermitage was occupied by a practitioner to practice sitting meditation. The new practitioner to the subject was guided only to practice praying to the Buddhas for three months. Later, the Patriarch evaluated the disciple’s determination to reliability, conduct, and vow, and then the disciple was allowed to enter a hermitage to practice meditation through a ceremony.

The joined practitioner, depending on their capability in meditative sitting, long or short, fulfilled one to four sessions of sitting meditation every day. Some practitioners must sit for meditation on a regular schedule of 11:00 pm–1:00 am, 5:00–7:00 am, 11:00 am–1:00 pm, and 5:00–7:00 pm. There were other practitioners who vowed to sit in meditation until they achieved the enlightenment about meditation. Only then would they stand up and leave the hermitage.

Later, Venerable Hsu Yun changed this to correspond to the period. Instead of small hermitages, he had a meditation building constructed, which was divided it into small rooms so that each practitioner would occupy a section of a room. This was known as the meditation monastery. As far as the morale of the Meditation Sect is concerned, the meditation monastery is not much different from the Patriarchs’ method. But in view of its organized form, there is a difference because there is much preaching there. Furthermore, each central meditation monastery is entrusted to a meditation master, who is the head of the monastery and takes care of the centre. This is because at that time the faithful practitioners began being neglectful and tardy in their labor of practice, but Venerable Hsu Yun’s efforts obtained considerable results.

Up until the Period of Return and Lost Dharma in 1956, Lord Tịnh Vương paid serious attention to the subject of Meditation Sect. The Lord did not know how to transmit the successive meditation subject to faithful followers in this Lost Dharma Period. The Lord intended such a project, but the circumstances did not allow Him because He incarnated Himself as a layman who earned His living in normal business. In 1959, the Lord had finished writing the volume The Unique Dharma Subject, Tathagata Meditation, but it was not until 1961 that He planned to have it published or printed in newspapers. However, an unexpected event occurred: the Unified Buddhism initiated a struggle in the middle of Ngô Đình Diệm’s regime. Consequently, the Lord postponed His plan and modified many parts of the volume. In 1964, the Lord completed the revised volume and had six copies typed; together with four other copies, these made up a collection.

Although the volume The Unique Dharma Subject, Tathagata Meditation still wasn’t published yet, with the sentiment about the Tao’s place, the Lord had continued helping and teaching a number of disciples since 1956. In 1965, upon a decisive request, the Lord had to establish the Dharma Constitution Supreme Meditation. The next morning, the day after the decision was made and attested, a seventy-two-year-old man went with a seventeen-year-old boy to beseech the Lord to be admitted into the Tao. Then the Lord intuitively remembered from His previous life the Tao’s opening. The Lord nodded in agreement, and the old man and the young one were admitted first into the Tao through a ceremony.

In the period of the Dharma Constitution Supreme Meditation, it only had teachings and hadn’t yet formed organizational programs. Later, in 1971, it was officially legalized under the name “The Dharma Constitution Vietnamese Buddhism.” In reality, the number of faithful disciples and followers was great. The practice was simple and very effective, but the meditation monasteries and pagodas were not built. They needed to use true Buddhists’ houses as Tao guidance places, and these were located in many places, from the center to the provinces, in southern Vietnam.[18]

8.   THE WAYS OF GUIDANCE

The guidance embraces Visible Teachings, Meditation Teachings, and Still Teachings; utilizing the means of Buddhist Dharma [is] without leaving the secular world to be enlightened. The true Buddhists wore only Buddhist robes (yellow) in ceremonies. In everyday life, they still earned their livings in regular jobs. Every true Buddhist resided in his or her own family home because the Dharma Constitution’s pagoda has not been built. The Lord often said, “When Tao and secular life are unified, the Buddhist supremacy will last forever.” The Lord allowed the organization of faithful followers into four kinds, called the Four Followers:

❖ Tao believers

❖ Wealthy followers

❖ Dharma Protectors

❖ Attendants

Each kind had hundreds of faithful followers practicing in compliance with its deeds, virtues, and conducts, which corresponded with their own conducts and vows. For example, the Dharma Protectors specialized in preaching the Dharma; the wealthy followers cared for the Tao’s place and offered incense, lights, flowers, fruits, and so forth at the altars; the attendants served the Sangha Chief.[19] The Tao believers were the newcomers into Tao. Later, after the evaluation of their action and vows, they would join whichever kind of follower fits them best.

The purpose of guidance was to guide faithful followers on how to have a foundation of parallel practice of morality and Buddhist intelligence.

9.   THE PROCEDURE OF SITTING MEDITATION

The procedures that the Lord taught during His time were not different from those in this Tathagata Meditation sutra. A faithful practitioner first entering into the Tao receives the Dharma subject of praying to the Buddhas. Later, he or she is carefully examined. If he or she is permitted to go on to practice meditation, he or she must become vegetarian within seven days.

To practice sitting meditation, a practitioner first prays to the Buddhas, then begins in tranquil mind for five minutes. After tranquil mind, the practitioner prays the appellation “Namo the Pure King Buddha” seven times. He or she must perform the prayers in his or her thoughts, which takes about seven to ten minutes. After this is complete, he or she releases all thoughts to enter meditation.

Tathagata Meditation is a Dharma subject that includes both the Supreme Meditation and the Supreme Secret. These two supremacies correspond to and appear in the sitting meditation simultaneously according to the root capability of each practitioner. For one practitioner who is in sitting meditation and enters meditation eight-tenths of the way, then the presence of the Supreme Secret is two-tenths. For another practitioner, if the Secret is seven-tenths, then meditation is entered three-tenths of the way. It keeps proceeding like this until the practitioner achieves perfect stillness and full brightness, reaching the complete accomplishment.

10.   THE SUPREME SECRET

As stated above, the Supreme Secret or Supreme Meditation depends on each practitioner’s root capability to make its corresponding appearance—one cannot obtain the apparition by copying another practitioner or by wishing for it. As for one who already has the root capability for the Supreme Secret but is only in the early stages of cultivating meditation, when he or she practices meditation, his or her body is moved as if by a strong electrical current running through the entire body: the head and the neck are shaken, and the body is in a whirl. These motions correspond to how plenty or little of the Supreme Secret the practitioner has.

The practitioner should be calm: this is the Dharma secret, which can dissolve one’s karma and bad habits. At this time, the practitioner needs to correct his or her nature; examining himself or herself for bad habits of separation and hesitation, his or her mind should release them and not hold or be attached to them. Let’s read the sect, principle, essence, and application of Tathagata Meditation, which are without clinging or attachment. Then the Supreme Secret changes at each stage: sometimes the hands are forming the Mudrā, and at other times they’re performing the styles of martial arts. The practitioner must be careful; should not let outsiders know about it, causing criticism and one’s practice becomes difficult. Should act as follows: discreet body, discreet mouth, and discreet thoughts.

11.   THE SUPREME MEDITATION

As for sitting meditation, a practitioner must try to practice it regularly. It doesn’t matter if one night is effective and another doesn’t go as desired. An important concern is if the meditation practitioner has expectations of seeing meditation scenes. Another important concern is if the meditation practitioner has regrets: the first regret is that the meditation session was not effective; the second is that he or she regrets that half of the meditation session was successful, but the other half failed.

The practice of meditation very much needs doctrine that explains how to dissolve unconsciousness and attachment. Listening to doctrines renders the body and mind clairvoyant, clearly aware of meditation nature, and dissolves doubt and attachment. The practice also very much needs the acts of recognizing-to-salvage from outside, from one’s relatives and other close people who are seeking the Tao. At the same time, the practitioner still needs inside comfort. Generally speaking, sitting meditation intends to have Buddhist intelligence to resolve unconscious error. Meditation is a Dharma subject that assists practitioners on their way to liberation through knowing, seeing, and solving. When one knows how to practice Dharma and listen to doctrine, one still cannot skip the practice of meditation. By the same token, the practitioner of meditation may not disregard doctrine to attain True Enlightenment.

For that reason, during His time of guidance, the Lord originated the appellation Tịnh Vương Nhất Tôn and laid the foundation for the correspondence between doctrine and sitting meditation, the uniqueness of virtue and intelligence. This guidance conforms to the principles and purposes of the Dharma Constitution: virtue, doctrine, and sitting meditation. These three objects are the authentic practices and actions that lead to liberation in the present through knowing, seeing, and solving.

In mid-April of 1976, the Communist Party seized the Vietnamese government. Most of the Four Followers had to participate in laborious “missions.”[20] Only faithful followers who were old and weak remained close to the Lord. In His free time, the Lord brought out the volume The Unique Dharma Subject, Tathagata Meditation and examined it carefully. At the same time, the Lord entered the true contemplation continuously for more than half a month. In the true contemplation, the Lord rewrote the volume The Unique Dharma Subject, Tathagata Meditation, which led to the creation of the new Tathagata Meditation sutra from the original, unpublished version, which was considered entirely void and no longer had value. The Lord said,

The previous volume, The Unique Dharma Subject, Tathagata Meditation was divergent because there were some religions that took advantages of their appellations, brought the volume out, and transmitted it to the public with modifications. Therefore, I must re-write the volume clearly, so the doctrine is brightly affirmed for the current age and future generations, and so as not to lose the original mind and the precious Dharma.

When the Lord finished saying this, we (the Four Followers) all bowed respectfully and beseeched Him to explain it in the Tathagata Meditation sutra, which aims to clarify the guidance period of the Dharma Constitution and invalidates the earlier volume, The Unique Dharma Subject, Tathagata Meditation. The Lord agreed, and thus the above paragraph was written.

12.   WHY DOES NATURE CHANGE? WHEN ONE DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO UTILIZE, ONE IS OPPOSED.

The majority of practitioners who know how to seek the true nature of practice often examine and correct their nature, and resolve ignorance. As a result, they notice changes in their own nature. For the practitioners of sitting meditation, their Buddhist intelligence always corrects and eliminates bad habits, illnesses of hot temper, and sauciness and opposition, so that the body and mind become tranquil, which provides comfort in sitting meditation. For that reason, their nature changes.

One who does sitting meditation knows how to correct his or her own nature and examine others’ nature. He or she cures his or her own sickness and helps others cure theirs. Such a practice is innumerable preciousness. The most difficult thing is knowing how to criticize others’ defects without awareness of our own bad habits. So the Bodhisattva makes his or her own body the main target. When he or she sees others, he or she does not hurry to criticize, but hurries to look within himself or herself for correction. That is the innumerable preciousness.

Practitioners! Once you adopt the Dharma subject of Tathagata Meditation, you are engaging in the way of practice and action of the Bodhisattva conduct. Therefore, you should imitate the Bodhisattva to lighten yourself for correction, train for absorption and assimilation, and help all those around you. You and others are then agreeable, avoiding hesitation, conflict, and avoiding the discrimimated division into different stages of the Dharma Precepts. This is also called the deep penetration in Dharma precepts. Owing to such a practice and assimilation, the body and mind are not reluctant to engage in sitting meditation. When meditation scenes occur, the mind is free from entanglement and differentiation. Having a mind without entanglement and differentiation, you can fulfill Tathagata sitting meditation correctly on its sect-principle-essence-application, reaching for liberation through knowing, seeing, and solving.

As far as change of nature is concerned, it is an immeasurably useful and good way for those who know how to utilize and lighten Self-Nature, Awareness of Nature.[21] If one doesn’t know how to utilize, one is struck with fear and considers it to be karma, and therefore one exhaustively destroys it. He or she steps where the bud is dry and the seed is flat of the Two Levels (Dviyana) of Attested Acquisition.[22]

Most practitioners were disgusted with life because it is competitive and tormented, uninterruptedly black-and-white. Practitioners therefore seek a way of practice imbued with more serene and liberated reasons for living. Thus, they practice the Dharma subject, sitting meditation. Naturally, when their characters are ascending while their minds and thoughts still have the sacred and the secular, after inclining to sanctity, disconnecting from the secular, and practicing for a while, one notices that secular karma seeds are depraved into desire and greediness in every way, and thus one comes to despise and distinguishes between unconsciousness and enlightenment. However, if this distinction is excessive, one becomes opposing. One doesn’t expect one’s own nature to change often naturally, and human nature is changing every nanosecond.

When we practice sitting meditation, we know how to correct our own nature, examine our own nature, and realize the movement of characters and behaviors—that is rhythmical in the Six Taos, we therefore become fully aware of thousands and thousands of natures. Those who don’t engage in Dharma practice continue living with conservative ideal natures, and thus live in desire and greed. The practitioner and non-practitioner differ on that point.

The more a practitioner knows how to practice in the way of the Bodhisattva conduct and the Dharma subject of the One-Essence, the less they distinguish between unconsciousness and enlightenment, or between sanctity and secular. In general, one seeks for the essential nature of non-practitioners; If one notices any nature of a good character, one immediately absorbs it for oneself.

As for oneself,  if the practitioner see that some place or situation, or something in their mind is entangled, they joyfully releases them immediately to be smooth. At the same time, they approach and help non-practitioners to be safe, happy and beneficial. Such behavior is called “One who approaches the secular does not lose sanctity.”

If practitioners fail to carry out the previous teaching and nourish the dream of the Sacred Monk, then when they meet hindrance or opposition, they become separate. Such a state draws the mind and will of a practitioner into a dream, and they do not find the pulse of life in truth. The practitioner is introduced into a still isolation place. The first point they engage with is the Fairy Tao; the second is that they follow the incomplete Two-Levels (Dviyana).

The practicing rank of the Bodhisattva conduct very much needs effortful deeds of correction of nature and virtuous deeds that correspond with living beings. That is why the Bodhisattva has completed the essential nature as well as the accepting-for-salvation, and attained the No-Birth Dharma of Endurance. The Bodhisattva conduct is fully aware of how ignorance is formed: the opposition to personalities not in conformity leads to ignorance. If in conformity, one is naturally aware of natures, and one’s mind is naturally bright; one has no hesitation or separation at all. When a practitioner sits in meditation, his or her body-mind accepts to save changing natures along with his or her own natures, so everything becomes unified. At that point, one enters the true contemplation; if it is not unified, one cannot enter. Those are the sincere words of this Tathagata Meditation sutra.

In the Middle Period, also known as the Gentle Life Period, practitioners of sitting meditation took up the goal of dissolving hindrances and oppositions as the basis of progress. They therefore engaged in the practice of the Dharma subject of the Sangha’s Six Harmonies as a gauge of one’s level. In that time, the Patriarchs often said, “Unconscious error is derived from thousands of Dharmas. One should step into thousands of Dharmas to practice, aiming to be fully aware of thousands of Dharmas, without Dharma error, directly enlightened.” For example, when one steps on a thorn, one should use another thorn to pull the stuck thorn out.

As for the Meditation Sect, from the point of view of morale, a practitioner must fulfill one’s own benefit as well as others’ benefit, which also becomes one’s benefit in the Dharma practice. This is why one must generate the Bodhi mind-vow, which is not outside of Reliability-Conduct-Vow along with Precept-Contemplation-Result. Why is Reliability-Conduct-Vow practiced in parallel with Precept-Contemplation-Result? This is because the reliable mind leads the practicing to the ultimate enlightenment; because the practice of conduct (morality) allows one to help living beings; and because the generation of vow allows complete enlightenment. These are the three legitimate targets; all practitioners must fulfill them to engage in the true practice and true acquisition. 

Reliability-Conduct-Vow is a useful Dharma subject; its achievement lies in the present. Why? This is because the more reliable the practitioner’s mind, the greater the awareness and knowledge he or she earns. The nobler and more upright the morality the practitioner establishes, the more trust and esteem other Tao practitioners or monks and nuns hold toward him or her. As a matter of fact, Reliability-Conduct is the original vow of the Bodhisattva, serving the unique vow.

Once practitioners engage in the practice of Reliability-Conduct-Vow, they are already practicing Precept-Contemplation-Result. But this does not mean they are practicing Precept-Contemplation-Result in order to have Precept-Contemplation-Result. Why? Because when practitioners preserve and respect the reliable mind, the place of the reliable mind includes the determined orientation of the focused mind, which naturally is the contemplative mind of true enlightenment. When the practitioner keeps morality nobly and solemnly, it is of course in precepts. There are three sets of precepts in the field of attested practice.