MAHAYANA SUTRA

The fifth lecture
"The Attainment and the Perfection of Mahayana Yoga"


Everything is from oneself

Today, I shall go on to Mahayana Yoga after talking about the key to cultivate the mind of equality. It is often written in sutra about the mind of equality as follows; You should love in the equal and the best manner. I think these words of the sutra is not enough because we can't understand the standard of the most loving state. Whom do I love more than anybody else? My mother? My son? My lover? I answer to this question as such; The standard of the most loving state should be the love toward oneself. In other words, there is no one who is more important than oneself.

Compared to oneself, the lover is not important, neitherr parents, nor children.

Some of you may say, "No, I consider my child more important than myself.", or "No, I consider my lover more important than myself.". But this is not the fact. Why is it not the fact?

Let's say that that you had your mentality ruined by being thrown in to the isolated room. In China or Soviet Union, a person will be taken into custody and thoroughly made to eat sweet foods. This ruins the balance of one's mentality little by little. In this state, it is said that everyone will feel that they don't need husband, child, or wife.

In other words, such people are all farther than oneself. Everything is far from oneself. The self is the most loving thing. The self is the most important thing. So in order to cultivate the mind of equality, first of all, you should compare between self and the others so as to make it equal. And you can't enter Mahayana Yoga after Jnana Yoga unless your self and others became equal.

Some of you may say "I don't love myself.". In such case, I want to ask the following question; "Why do you do spiritual practice though you say that you don't love yourself?", "Aren't you doing spiritual practice so as to escape from suffering?" He is doing spiritual practice for himself.

So you must put yourself as the basement of the mind of equality. This is the teaching which belongs to the secret teaching. But you don't necessary have to put yourself as the basement from the very beginning. At the previous stage, you should put your lover as the basement. And when you could overcome this, in the end you should then put yourself instead of the lover.

The four immeasurable minds - the maturity of mind

After cultivating the mind of equality, one goes on to the practice of Mahayana. In the practice of Mahayana, one accumulates great amount of merit. They are the good deeds through love, benevolence, and praising others. What changes can we find after the perfection of these practice?

First, the struggle in the human realm disappears because they practice love, compassion, and the practice to praise other people. Satisfaction also disappears. Such an emotion can be transcended. As the result, the karma of heaven will be cut out, the karma of Asura will be cut out, and one will be able to be connected much higher world. And the practice of compassion helps him to understand that this six realms of desires are the accumulation of suffering. Since compassion let a man understand the mind of suffering people, he can experience various sufferings of others as one's own suffering.

It is natural that there will be benefit for other people by the practice of the four immeasurable mind; the practice of the equality, love, compassion, and praising others. But moreover, they brings more benefit to the practitioner himself. And the benefit is the maturity of mind which comes from the experience which one can have by its practice.

Being loved by everyone

In Jnana Yoga, one eradicated karma by analysing karma within oneself. It was like having the certificate for reincarnating into high world. However this is not enough, because the people you meet with still have certain bad information about yourself. If such information remains, you have to reincarnate into the six realms of desires.

However, the bad information which other people have disappears by the perfection of Mahayana Yoga, because bad information disappears if one's mind is matured, and if hecan love, feel compassion to, and praise all people. There will be no one who has ill feeling toward you, or who is against you.

On the contrary, the karma to be loved by everyone occurs. This can also be the karma for becoming "the body of reward" in "Astral Yoga". If one becomes the body of reward he wouldn't have to reincarnate into the six realms of desires. He can reincarnate into the high Astral world. And if this person wants to, he can come down to the human realm with his body of manifesttation as the savior. However, I shall give the explanation on the body of reward tomorrow.

In addition, he can understand that the energy of pleasure, sorrow, or love of other people is made out of vibration. He recognizes that it is not the word, not the deed, but the vibration. And in the end, he recognizes that the structure of mind itself is made out of vibration.

Then, he can understand from vibration whether the other people has affection or not, not using any words. The vibration of sorrow immediately comes into us. Every emotion comes to us by vibration. This indicates that he can immediately respond to other's mind. But his mind does not move though it is responding to it, because of the perfection of Jnana Yoga.

He can understand others without moving his own mind. And he is loved by everyone. One can become the body of reward with the help of such karma.