Amitabha Buddha Soul Deliverance Prayer Held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26th August 2017

On 26^th August 2017, a group of thirty plus of us flew from Singapore to the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, to attend an Amitabha Buddha Soul Deliverance Prayer jointly presided over by Konde Rinpoche, Acho Rinpoche and Khenpo Shedrup (the current abbot of Dzongchen Monastery in India). The prayer started around 10am, with Konde Rinpoche presenting sacred objects (mandala, stupa and sutra) to Acho Rinpoche, praying for the good health and longevity of the latter for the benefit of sentient beings. The prayer proper commenced after that.  

          After the prayer, Konde Rinpoche gave a teaching to the participants which could be summarized in three key points. First, it takes a great deal of merits for us to be able to practise together with a precious teacher, Acho Rinpoche. He advised us to take this opportunity very seriously and learn well under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche. Second, all the Buddhas relied on their teachers to show them the way to the ultimate state of enlightenment. So, we must have 100% faith in our root teacher - cherish his presence and follow his teachings, in order to succeed in our spiritual practice. Third, we must work hard on our spiritual practice in this very lifetime by chanting the Hundred Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva to eradicate our negative karma and reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha, aspiring for a rebirth in the pureland of Amitabha Budhda when our life in this world comes to an end. Only when we strive hard during our present lifetime on earth that, when we are finally reborn in the pureland of Amitabha Buddha, we will be able to meet him in person instantaneously when we appear from a fully blossomed lotus. A deceased who aspired to be reborn in the pureland of Amitabha Buddha will not be able to meet Amitabha Buddha in person instantaneously as he will be born into a closed lotus bud in the pureland due to his negative karma. It will take a very long time for his lotus bud to blossom fully, after his negative karma has been purified;  only then he would be able to meet Amitabha Buddha in person.

          Konde Rinpoche invited Acho Rinpoche to give his teaching to the audience too. Acho Rinpoche’s teachings could be summarized in four key points. First, we are spending too much time on our mobile phones today. We should make use of our mobiles phones to search for useful information but not waste too much of our time and energy reading all contents without selection; no one can finish reading all the contents available on the Internet in this lifetime. We should also verify the authenticity and accuracy of the information presented to us through our mobile phones, for there is too much fake news on the Internet. Second, he advised that a practitioner should keep a low profile and avoid the lime lights, or his false sense of ego will continue to grow bigger and eventually lead himself and others to a downfall instead. Third, he explained that the Vajrayana practice can help a practitioner attain a higher state of realization more swiftly in this lifetime, thus securing a higher state of attainment when he is reborn in the pureland of Amitabha Buddha. This will allow him to meet Amitabha Buddha instantaneously when he appeared from a fully blossomed lotus in the pureland when he reaches the pureland. Third, the pace of practice in this world is faster than that in the pureland of Amitabha Buddha. Reason being, this world has a mix of good and evil which can help train and purify our minds more effectively. Pureland is a world of kindness – safe but without challenges to help completely uproot the lust, hatred and ignorance in us. Therefore, a practitioner will need to spend a much longer time in the pureland to purify his mind but finally he still must come back to this world to help all sentient beings in order to attain the ultimate state of enlightenment. Fourth, he commended Konde Rinpoche for his spiritual accomplishment while remaining still very much a humble person. He told the audience that the Malaysians are indeed blessed to have Konde Rinpoche guiding them in their practice.

After lunch, we did a smoke puja. This is one of the methods of making offering to the deities and sentient beings by burning the items of offering in fire. It was then followed by another teaching given by Konde Rinpoche on the visualization method used in the Amitabha Buddha Practice. Acho Rinpoche also gave some key teachings on the Vajrayana practice. Finally, the two precious masters performed the soul deliverance prayer for all the deceased and conferred blessing to all participants in this prayer.

Reported by Sun-moon KFS in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26 Aug 2017.

Meeting KYCO in Malaysia

On 26^th August 2017, we visited KYCO (Kuan Yin Contemplative Order) at Petaling Jaya in Malaysia with Konde Rinpoche and Acho Rinpoche. Master Tony Wong is the founder of KYCO and he is the teacher of Sister Sherwin. She arranged this wonderful meeting among the three Buddhist masters. On our arrival, Konde Rinpoche and Acho Rinpoche presented the sacred objects to Master Tony, who is 78 year-old, praying for his longevity and health for the benefit of the sentient beings. Later, Master Tony told us about his spiritual journey on how he was converted from Christianity in his early days to a Buddhist teacher today.

In the 70s’ Master Tony prayed to Kuan Yin (Avalokiesvara) to save his brother who was struck by cancer. One day, Master Tony was possessed by a high spirit who claimed himself to be “Lord of the North”, who came to help him based on the request of the “Lord of the East”. As a Christian, Master Tony was completely clueless of what happened. He could not control his actions although his mind remained calm and composed. The high spirit blessed his sick brother through him. His family members brought in two Taoist practitioners in an attempt to help him in vain. Instead, the high spirit ordered the two Taoist practitioners to just sit down on the floor while watching “him” blessing the sick man. Actually, Master Tony’s prayer to Kuan Yin was heard and the Lord of the North was therefore dispatched to help him (he found out later that the Lord of the North was actually Celestial Emperor Xuan Tian). Since then, Master Tony came under the tutelage of the immortals - Xuan Tian and Ji Gong (crazy monk). Gradually, he learnt the teachings of the Buddha. However, one day, they told him that he actually belonged to Kuan Yin and they would hand him over to Kuan Yin for his personal tutelage next.

Master Tony was an English educated Chinese who knew nothing about the faith of Kuan Yin at that point in time. However, Kuan Yin advised him not to read any books in the market as none of the books could accurately describe who Kuan Yin truly is. In fact, Master Tony made a promise to Kuan Yin when he prayed for his cancer-stricken brother that he would serve Kuan Yin if Kuan Yin could save his brother. So, Kuan Yin gave Master Tony personal teachings and the latter recorded all the teachings received over the years in writing. Kuan Yin advised Master Tony to practise on his own first for a period of time before teaching others. Kuan Yin also selected his students by allowing only the qualified ones to come under his guidance. Kuan Yin also prophesized that there would be many practitioners, Buddhists and practitioners of other faiths including the Tibetan Buddhism practitioners, coming to meet Master Tony in future, who will assure him of his path of practice being the right one. 

In the 80s’ H.E Tai Situpa of the Karma Kagyud of Tibetan Buddhism visited Malaysia for the first time. On his first meeting with Master Tony, the former requested to meet the latter for dinner. This was how the closely-knitted relationship started between the two. Ever since, many more Tibetan Buddhist masters and monks came visiting Master Tony. His students are mainly English educated Chinese like him who could hardly read Chinese. It was indeed amazing that the teachings of Kuan Yin could be so well transmitted to the English educated, thanks to Master Tony who took on the responsibility to do so. The teachings of Kuan Yin recorded by Master Tony are indeed infused with the wonderful flavor of the Buddhadharma.

Sister Sherwin became acquainted with Konde Rinpoche when she sought his help to deliver the soul of her late mother. When Master Tony met Konde Rinpoche, the former felt a sense of familiarity with the latter. Master Tony felt that he must be a student to Konde Rinpoche in his past life. He knelt before Konde Rinpoche and requested the latter to perform a “powa” practice for him in future, when he passes away. It was indeed a very touching moment. However, Konde Rinpoche told the audience that he would not want to perform “powa” for Master Tony but instead, pray for his longevity and hope that he would live till 108 year-old.

Master Tony told the audience that he read Acho Rinpoche’s book entitled “Dancing in the Sky” several years back. He felt rejoiced when reading the book and wished to meet the author one day. He felt very happy meeting Acho Rinpoche today and felt a similar sense of familiarity with the latter; he believed that the three of them must be spiritual brothers in their past lives. Acho Rinpoche told the audience that he found similarities in the spiritual journeys between Master Tony and his. Acho Rinpoche was also a Christian from young but he became a Buddhist later and had numerous inconceivable experiences throughout the years too.  

When Acho Rinpoche was still a child, there were Taoist master, Christian pastor and Buddhist monk who came to his house, asking his mother to let them take him a way – to be their successors in their faiths. When he was studying in the university, he started searching for answers to the many problems in life and went through many schools of philosophy and religion, searching for the right path. Finally, he settled down in Buddhism. Ever since, he has been a serious Buddhist practitioner. In the early years, someone brought him to a place with many believers. When the abbot was giving him blessing, he felt scared and started chanting the Great Compassion Mantra silently in his heart. However, the spiritual guide (spirit) left the abbot forever since that moment. Later, someone else brought him to another place and the abbot spent at least two hours trying to find out his true identity in vain, through his spiritual guide (spirit). The spiritual guide was unable to tell the true identity of Acho Rinpoche as the latter was clearly much higher in his spiritual attainment; the spiritual guide told the abbot that he could only see a ball of light!

In the 80s’ Acho Rinpoche visited Japan under an ASEAN-Japan Exchange Programme, and he was being arranged to stay in the house of a doctor, Akiyoshi,  in Saga Prefecture. However, Acho Rinpoche spent most of his time reading, doing his prayer and meditating instead of touring around the place. Doctor Akiyoshi found it strange and recommended him to meet a good friend of his, who was a senior abbot of a temple in the area. However, this abbot was very famous and had many appointments made in advance. They were told that it would take two months for their appointment to be made. So, they decided to just give it a miss and would visit the temple on their own. When they arrived at the car park of that temple, to their pleasant surprise, the abbot was standing near the car park – awaiting their arrival. The abbot told Akiyoshi that last night he was instructed by Kuan Yin to cancel all his appointments tomorrow and wait for the arrival of a very important person. He said that Acho Rinpoche was just the person because he “saw” Kuan Yin appearing above his head. The abbot invited them to enter his shrine and then started chanting some mantras and blessing Acho Rinpoche. Suddenly, Acho Rinpoche started chanting a mantra and blessing the abbot instead. The abbot was very surprised and he invited Acho Rinpoche to enter his personal shrine this time. There was a very huge statue of Acala being enshrined in this shrine, about two-storey tall. The abbot requested Acho Rinpoche to bless the Acala statue. Later, the abbot told Akiyoshi that Acho Rinpoche was actually chanting a very ancient version of Acala mantra, which would only be transmitted to the senior abbots in the Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism. The abbot also wrote a line on the paper which read “green dragon has manifested”. Acala Practice is the highest practice in Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism. “Green dragon” is the emblem of Acala. The abbot said that when Acho Rinpoche was blessing him, he saw the former transforming into Acala! The abbot was obviously shaken by the unexpected experience and he felt very touched. On this very first meeting between the two, the abbot presented a full set of sacred objects representing the lineage transmission to Acho Rinpoche which included a robe, rosary, crown etc., signifying that Acho Rinpoche has obtained the lineage of Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism.

Acho Rinpoche also told the audience about his connection with Konde Rinpoche. Konde Rinpoche is the abbot of the Horthang Monastery in Qing Hai Province of China. He met Acho Rinpoche in Singapore. One day, Konde Rinpoche dreamt of his root guru, Lama Ajun Toden Lodoe Gyatso, instructing him to offer a Guru Rinpoche’s crown to an important person. So, he prayed to Ejakati (One Knot), the most important Dharmapala (protector) of Ningma, for a clearer instruction on who this important person would be. Then, Konde Rinpoche had a vision of Acho Rinpoche in his meditation. He sought further advice from a few more seniors including Kade Rinpoche of Horthang Monastery, all of whom confirmed that Acho Rinpoche was indeed the reincarnation of the former abbot of Horthang Monastery. Acho Rinpoche told us that actually, before he was being recognized by Konde Rinpoche as a reincarnated Buddhist master, he already knew his true identity. He had frequently seen himself in a lama’s attire in either his dreams or meditation. He often found himself flying in space during his sleep, and saw the numerous sentient beings seeking his blessing below. He returned to the Western Blissful Pureland of Amitabha Buddha in his dream once and saw the numerous high beings seated on their lotus thrones.

Lastly, KYCO presented a birthday cake to Acho Rinpoche, celebrating his birthday which happened to fall on the same day. Finally, Master Tony showed us around his center (which was designed by Kuan Yin), bringing this auspicious meeting to a perfect closure.

Reported by Sun-moon KFS in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26-8-2017

Will the breakage of a lineage lead one to a downfall?

Tonight, we did a Guru Rinpoche Prayer with Acho Rinpoche. After which, he shared with us a post he read in the WeChat, which was a teaching given by Khenpo Sodargye. In this post, Khenpo Sodargye mentioned a teaching given by his late teacher, H.H Jigme Punchok Rinpoche, on the consequence of a student breaking his lineage. He said, when a Vajrayanist of Tibetan Buddhism deliberately breaks his lineage, the consequence of such breakage is as serious as one’s destroying one hundred stupas, and the person will certainly fall into the Three Lower Realms (animal, hell and hungry ghost). Khenpo Sodargye advised that a practitioner must be confident in his spiritual practice and make up his mind before taking any action: if he is not ready for something, it is best that he does not even start doing it at all; if he decides to do something, he must then resolve to completing it but not give up halfway. Why so? Fickle-mindedness is a flaw which cannot be taken lightly in the Law of Karma (cause-and-effect). When one is fickle-minded in his spiritual practice, he is culminating a negative propensity in his mind-stream, for such negative propensities will continue to grow stronger, thus increasing his level of sufferings in future. What he harvests from his current action will generate only meagre merits and he is unlikely to succeed in his future undertakings due to his lack of perseverance.

When a practitioner cannot persevere in his spiritual practice, he will do the same on his worldly undertakings too and will not succeed in his worldly achievement either. He cited an example of a student who went for a teaching on “Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra” but quit halfway because he changed his mind and wanted to receive the empowerment of another teaching. Although there is merit in learning the other teaching which will bear its good fruit in future, he has created a negative karma by quitting the teaching on “Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra” halfway, which will also bear its bad fruit in future. It all depends on which karma will ripen first. Generally, there is hardly anyone who could persevere in his practice right till the end but the consequence of discontinuity is indeed scary.

Acho Rinpoche expressed his personal views on this post too. He said that although what Khenpo Sodargye said was valid to some extent, it should not be generalized but assessed base on individual cases. The key consideration lies in the reason why a student chose to leave his teacher. For instance, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher who was involved in a scandal recently, impersonated as an accomplished master initially but was accused by his westerner students of wrong doings (physically and sexually assaulting his students) lately. A student who abandons such teacher is not wrong. On the contrary, if he continues with such teacher-student relationship, he will fall into the Three Lower Realms. The other Taiwanese Buddhist teacher who followed H.H Dalai Lama in his teachings was doing fine initially. However, he picked a female layman Buddhist to lead his ordained community before he passed away. The female successor was scandalous, and some of the former abbots of this community left the group, accusing her of her wrong doings. This lady even threatened those who betrayed her that they would fall into hell; she also coerced some of the novice monks into committing serious misconducts with her. These are two examples of wrong teachers who ought to be abandoned by their students. In short, we should use our wisdom to analyze the cause-and-effect of every situation and make the right choice.

Acho Rinpoche said, although the Vajrayana School has a special teaching on advising a student to view his teacher as a Buddha, H.H Dalai Lama explained that the premise of such teaching is based on a “qualified teacher”; the wrongful acts of a “wrong teacher” should be exposed publicly. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche also said that when a student views his teacher as a Buddha, the teacher should also view his student as a Buddha. A teacher who physically assaulted his students obviously does not view his students as Buddhas. Acho Rinpoche clarified that there were indeed “crazy monks” in the past who were actually enlightened masters; however, they were very rare indeed. So, a student should observe the behavior of his teacher to determine if he conducts himself according to the teachings of the Buddha. A student may choose to leave a teacher who misconducts himself and needs not worry about falling into the lower realms because of the breakage of lineage.

Later, Dharma Sister Yue shared with us her recent experience related to the practice, through the Internet. She said, “I had a few dreams related to the practice lately. In the first dream, we went to an island with Buddha Master (Acho Rinpoche). It was surrounded by a vast ocean. We were doing a prayer with Buddha Master on the island. Suddenly, a huge black dragon appeared from the sea and it looked very angry and wanted to eat us. Buddha Master stood up calmly, chanted some mantras and blessed the dragon. Eventually, the dragon withdrew back into the sea and just swam around calmly. Later, we saw many houses inside the sea, with many residents within. It looked just like our human world, with the beings living their daily lives like we do. Next, I noticed that the sea level began to rise, submerging lots of houses. Interestingly, our island continued to float above the water and so, we were safe.  At this juncture, I heard someone screaming for help somewhere on the island. Buddha Master followed the voice and brought us along, to save the ones needing help. I could not see anyone at all but Buddha Master seemed to know where they were. He stretched out his hand and reached out to three little beings buried underneath a rock. They were of the size of Buddha Master’s finger. He blessed them and brought them back to life, revitalized and became active again. We felt very happy and laughed aloud. This dream came to a perfect closure.

One the following night, I had my second dream. In this dream, we went to a mysterious place marked by 26 English alphabets. This was a very secluded place. It was a huge green forest, with every tribal village marked by the alphabets. When we reached an E tribal village, the sentient beings there had wings and they were flying about in the air. Buddha Master continued to give us teaching while walking around the villages. Suddenly, I saw many colorful birds appearing in the sky, dancing so beautifully in the sky. We felt very happy watching the show. Suddenly, the birds flew towards us and then I realized that it was because the sentient beings there were flying among them, welcoming the arrival of Buddha Master.

In my third dream, I saw that we were all dragons. My best friend and I could transform into human form at will, appearing as dragon and human interchangeably. The sense of transformation was very vivid and I thought I could not be dreaming. In that dream, I was telling myself that ‘No wonder Buddha Master told us that we were from the dragon family. It is actually true.’ We could fly and swim in the sea at will, and freely.”

In my fourth dream, I saw a purple Buddha Eye, the one that I usually saw during my prayers. In the center of the Buddha Eye was a Sakyamuni Buddha sitting in a meditative posture. I could sometimes see some alphabets, such as YC, and rainbow lights in numerous shapes and sizes.

I am grateful for the blessing of Buddha Master. My homage to the Sun Moon Lamp Buddha.”

Lastly, Acho Rinpoche led us in the recitation of the various titles of the Buddhas and dedicated the merit to this world which is facing a very difficult time. May all sentient beings be happy and their sufferings eradicated. And may all sentient beings attain enlightenment swiftly.

Reported by Sun-Moon KFS on 19-8-2017 in Singapore.

What is the practice of a Buddhist?

          Tonight, we did a Guru Rinpoche prayer. After which, Acho Rinpoche mentioned that Dharma Brother Zhong just asked him many questions related to the practice. The last question raised by Zhong was indeed a very good one: how should one practise the teachings after becoming a Buddhist？Acho Rinpoche advised that a Buddhist should practise the Three Teachings viz. precepts, meditation and wisdom. Minimally, a Buddhist must abide strictly by the Five Precepts and do good. The Five Precepts include no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no excessive drinking of alcohol (drunk), no lying and no killing; a Buddhist must not transgress any of the said precepts. It is indeed difficult for anyone to eradicate his negative propensities formed after the numerous lifetimes. However, a Buddhist must henceforth resolve to gradually eradicate his negative propensities no matter how long it would take. For a person who has not attained the state of full enlightenment, he will continue to face the issues of his negative propensities; even a renowned teacher is not spared of this dilemma. Grand Master advised his students not to pick on his shortcomings but should learn his positive values instead. In addition to the need to abide by the precepts, a Buddhist should also do all actions that will bring benefit to others.   

          A Buddhist should also practise the Six Perfections (offering, discipline, tolerance, diligence, meditation and wisdom). Offering includes the offering of teachings, offering of wealth and offering of fearlessness. When one comes across a good teaching such as the Lotus Sutra, he should share the teachings with others; this is considered an offering of the teachings. Building temples, printing the teachings and helping the poor are considered the offering of wealth. When one helps to dispel the sense of fear in others and even sacrifices himself to protect others, is considered making offering of fearlessness. A person who is rich in this life must have offered his wealth to help others in his past life; such action of kindness would have helped him earn the good merits for this life. A person who is poor in this life had obviously not offered his wealth to help others in his past life; such action lacking in kindness would not have helped him earn any merit for this life. Therefore, a poor person should try his best to offer his wealth to help others in this life, so that he will earn his merits and become a rich person in his next life. A Buddha is also known as “The Holy One Who Has Perfected The Two Full Accomplishments”, which refers to his full accomplishment of merits and wisdom. Tolerance is another crucial practice of the Six Perfections. Anyone living in this world must tolerate all the adversities in life including the nagging of his wife and criticism of others etc.  When one learns to tolerate an adversity in life, he is likely to feel being treated unfairly while trying very hard not be carried away by his negative emotions; not losing one’s head is a commendable achievement. However, the ultimate teaching of tolerance actually requires a person to not feel emotional at all in the face of adversity. Diligence means doing one’s spiritual practice with vigor. Meditation is just part of the spiritual practice. Finally, our innate wisdom will naturally unfold through the practice of meditation.

          Acho Rinpoche also mentioned two cases of dispute which occurred in the Buddhist circle recently. The first case is related to a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who lives in the west, who is being accused by his westerner students for his misconducts. The second case is related to a successor of a Buddhist sect in Taiwan. The Tibetan Buddhist teacher being mentioned in the first case has been teaching in the west for about 30 years by now, who has established more than 100 seats worldwide and who has tens of thousands of westerner students. However, he was being accused by his closed disciples for his misconducts such as beating up his students and sexually assaulting his female students. His students consulted H.H Dalai Lama on how should this problem be handled. H.H Dalai Lama told the students that although this teacher is a good friend of his but the latter has indeed misbehaved. Initially, this teacher offered to enter a retreat and stopped his teachings. However, he was finally forced to fully relinquish his role as the spiritual director of all the seats worldwide. The second case is related to a Taiwanese Buddhist sect which is quite huge in size. Many of its ordained and layman students attended the teachings of H.H Dalai Lama in the past on the Lamrim (“Stages of the Path” by Master Tsongkapa). However, before the late abbot of this Taiwanese Buddhist sect passed away, he appointed a Chinese female layman Buddhist to be his successor as he believed that she is the reincarnation of Master Khedrup Gelek Pelzang.  This lady has been leading the ordained community of the sect since then, which is a clear violation of a rule set by Sakyamuni Buddha in the past. She is also being accused of having wrongful affair with a novice monk in her sect. Some of the students of this sect consulted H.H Dalai Lama on whether it is wrong for a lady to lead an ordained community, and they also complained about her other wrongful actions. Similarly, H.H Dalai Lama advised the students to publicly expose the wrongful acts of a Buddhist teacher, in order to protect the true teachings of the Buddha. Acho Rinpoche supports the rule set by Sakyamuni Buddha that a layman Buddhist must not lead an ordained community. However, Acho Rinpoche disagrees with the view that a female cannot be a spiritual leader (this is a common view held by most of the traditional Buddhist sects that belittle the spiritual capacity and attainment of a female practitioner) because historically, there are indeed great adepts among the female practitioners.    

          Acho Rinpoche said that there are all sorts of news being circulated on the Internet, with true facts and fake news mixed together, causing a lot of confusions to the readers. A practitioner will need to differentiate between the truth and fake news using his wisdom, to avoid being misled into the wrong paths; this is indeed a sad situation of the current age of degeneration. In short, the most crucial point is just that a practitioner must abide by the precepts strictly and do his daily spiritual practice with vigor.

Reported by Sun-moon KFS on 12-8-2017 @Singapore

9 Negative Habits to Be Abandoned by Advanced Practitioners

           Tonight, we did a Guru Rinpoche Prayer under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche. After which, he shared with us the following story about a student who consulted Venerable Hui Lu of Taiwan on his spiritual practice. The student is a practitioner who abides strictly by the precepts; however, he just cannot tolerate his fellow practitioners who fail to do so. He criticized others for failing to abide by the precepts and felt troubled by this matter. Venerable Hui Lu asked him if Sakyamuni Buddha would feel troubled in the same way that he did. The student said that he did not think so. Venerable Hui Lu told his student that Sakyamuni Buddha would certainly accommodate the shortcomings of others and would not criticize them. He told his students that the latter only scored 50 marks out of 100 for abiding by the precepts, and the remaining 50 marks will need to be earned based on his tolerance of the shortcomings of others. Sakyamuni Buddha was a very disciplined person but he accepted the fact that others were not. When a person thinks that he has done better than others in terms of upholding the precepts, he will inevitably start scrutinizing the shortcomings of others and criticize them, thus committing negative karma through his speech. In that sense, he will not score 100 marks in his practice of upholding the precepts. The student returned to his own Buddhist center and continued to do his practice by focusing on his own conduct and not paying attention to the shortcomings of others. People of his center noticed the change in him and later learnt the teachings given by Venerable Hui Lu too. Acho Rinpoche advised that a practitioner should not criticize the shortcomings of others but, on the contrary, wish for their gradual improvements instead. Not only that, a practitioner should learn to rejoice in the good deeds of others. Generally, a person will feel jealous about others doing better than himself out of ego, and fail to rejoice in the success of others; such mindset will only impede his progress on the path to enlightenment.

          Next, Acho Rinpoche shared an article he read on the Internet which talked about 9 negative habits in spiritual practice which should be abandoned. Initially, a practitioner will be told to abandon his attachment to his family, his wealth, his career, his relationships etc., which are considered the more obvious attachments in our worldly pursuits. However, to an advanced practitioner, there are more subtle attachments in the spiritual practice that should also be abandoned.

1^st, abandon the “duration of practice” one has gone through. An advanced practitioner tends to feel proud about his long duration of practice and thinks that he is more advanced in his spiritual practice than others. However, spiritual accomplishment is not measured by the duration of practice because there are those who had attained enlightenment immediately when being initiated into the practice.

2^nd, abandon the “number of sutras” one has read. An advanced practitioner tends to feel proud about the large number of sutras he has read. However, the amount of reading does not translate into a true spiritual accomplishment of a practitioner. The Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Master Hui Neng, understood the teaching of Diamond Sutra when he first heard it. There are many who have read the numerous sutras and yet do not understand the teachings expounded.

3^rd, abandon the “spiritual experience” one has attained. There are numerous methods expounded by the Buddha, tailored for the different needs of the individuals. Every method is designed to lead a practitioner to the state of enlightenment one day. So, an advanced practitioner should not assume that his own experience is the only authoritative method.

4^th, abandon “arguments”. An advanced practitioner tends to assume that his views about the Buddhist teachings is the most accurate and ultimate one, and like to debate with others to prove his points. So, he should abandon the differences in opinion and not debate with others.

5^th, abandon the “tendency of wanting to teach others”. An advanced practitioner tends to assume that he knows a lot more than others and like to teach others, and claim credit when others seem to be making improvements. However, a person will naturally attain spiritual realization when the time is ripe, not because of the teaching given by someone. There is no need for one to claim credit over the progress of others as that will only create a sense of arrogance in the “teacher”.  

6^th, abandon the “merits of offering”. A practitioner should understand the profound meaning of “Formless Offering” and “mental activities free of attachment”, and does not feel attached to the merits of offering.

7^th, abandon the pride of making “connections with the great masters”. All the great maters are great because of their high spiritual attainment, which has nothing to do with us. One should not brag about his connections with the many great masters and take their glamor as his own.  

8^th, abandon the “wish for recognition”. When one yearns for the recognition and praises of others, he is desiring a worldly achievement which will impede his spiritual progress and binds him to the state of suffering.

9^th, abandon the “practice”. When a practitioner has reached the final stage of spiritual cultivation, he must abandon even the conceptual thinking of “practice”. When one attains the state free of ego, what is the basis for a conceptual thinking of “I” who does the “practice”? When one still has the concept of “I” who does the  “practice”, he is still bound to the state of worldly achievement.

Acho Rinpoche said, “practice” is only an expedient method. In the past, those who were busy cooking in the kitchens and cleaning in the toilets were the ones who finally attained enlightenment, simply because they were selflessly working for others.  These 9 negative habits to be abandoned are targeted at the advanced practitioners because they are the ones who will face the dilemma of “self-attachment” and “teaching-attachment”.  As long as one has not truly abandoned such habits, he will never attain the state of enlightenment.

Reported by Sun-moon KFS on 6-8-2017

@Singapore