Different Situations, Different Methods

Many practitioners have voiced the concern over what they should do because it was hard to maintain their aspiration for enlightenment and they often retrogressed. These practitioners stated the truth. It is indeed very easy to retrogress. It is up to oneself to think of a way to prevent oneself from retrogressing. Because people have different capacities and karmas, there is no one fixed method. If there were a specific method suitable for everyone despite their different capacities, then Sakyamuni Buddha would not have needed to teach eighty-four Dharma doors, or countless Dharma doors. He would only have needed to teach one Dharma door!

We each have to use different methods in different situations. For example, when we encounter a roadblock, we go around it. We should adapt ourselves to the circumstances. We will encounter many obstacles. When we do, we should use wisdom and expediency to overcome the obstacles in order to succeed in our practice. An expediency is the most suitable method. Master Chin Kung says that the method he uses to prevent himself from retrogressing is to give lectures. This is the method he has been using in this lifetime.

Some people say that Master Chin Kung likes giving lectures. He explains that giving lectures can help him from retrogressing. When he first started learning to give lectures, he spent forty hours preparing for one hour of lecture. He devoted all his energy and efforts to the preparation. Therefore, he had no time or energy for wandering thoughts. It is a very good method for him. One has to use a method that is effective in driving oneself if one wants to succeed in one’s practice. One should not relax one’s efforts.

~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra

Comments

[anybody]

If Sakyamuni taught 84 Dharma doors then he must have had a great understanding not only of our capacity to learn Dharma but of the loving kindness requied to embrace the diversity of so many ways and so many ways needed to learn Dharma.

Each one being just as wonderful as the next.

anybody

[ching]

For me I think practice meditation with inspiration for pureland is quite practical and doable. The more you do it the more you are inspired and the more strength you get. Don't know why the regression? I felt that those who tend to regress is because they set your desire first on the result than preparing for the cause itself.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the practice itself is the result. Just think the peace and contentment it brings with the practice, isn't itself a pureland?