(Lecture delivered by Master Sheng-yen on the Surangama Sutra, July 13, 1986.) Today's passage from the Sutra speaks about the five skandhas. Also known as the five aggregates, together they constitute what is commonly considered to be the self or ego. The five skandhas are form (Skt: rupa), sensation (vedana), perception or conception (sanjna), impulse, volition, or activation (samskara), and consciousness (vijnana). There are many lines in this passage and the Buddhas uses a number of analogies, but there is essentially one point.more
April 8, 1989
Individual and Collective Karma
(Lecture given by Master Sheng-yen on the Surangama Sutra, June 15, 1986.) In the selection of the sutra that we have read today, there are two basic issues, individual and collective karma, and the wrong views or delusions that generate and are generated by these two kinds of karma. Some part of what you view the world to be is composed of those things unique to you as an individual. This affects your individual, specific karma.more
February 8, 1989
Nature, or Spontaneity, and Causes and Conditions
(Lecture given by Master Sheng-yen on the Surangama Sutra, June 9, 1986.) Reasoning by his worldly sense, Ananda is puzzled about the nature of the self. Where, he wonders, is the self revealed? Can it be found in the nature of the senses themselves? Is the self manifested in the nature of seeing, for example? The Buddha explains to Ananda that this quest for the self is in vain. Ananda is still confused by the "outer path" views of "natural existence" and "true self."more
November 8, 1988
False and True Self
Lecture given by Master Sheng-yen on the Surangama on June 1, 1986.) Ananda asks the Buddha about the nature of the self. Is there an all-encompassing ego, a true self, that unites everyone in the world, or is there a self at all? I'm going to talk about this question, and discuss how it is dealt with by "outer path" systems of thought and religion, and how it is dealt with by Buddhism.more
October 9, 1988
Fundamentals of Meditation
(By Chan Master Sheng Yen.) Excerpt from Zuo Chan (Tso-Ch'an) -- an article originally published in the October, 1988 issue of Journal of the Chung Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies. The Chinese term zuo chan ( zazen ) was in use among Buddhist practitioners even before the appearance of the Chan (Zen) School. Embedded in the term is the word chan, a derivative of the Indian dhyana, which is the yogic practice of attaining samadhi in meditation. more