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Homage to the Twelve Buddhas who Dissolve All Karma (part 3 of 5)

The Buddha who venerates the Dharma,
transmitting the truth
of bright and wide one mind.

The Buddha whose bright and joyful mind
touches every place.

Homage to the Twelve Buddhas who Dissolve All Karma (part 2 of 5)

The Buddha endowed with every kind of
fragrant and gentle compassion.

The Buddha who makes decisions
of vast and inconceivable importance.
The Buddha endowed with the virtue and merit
arising from a broad and harmonious mind.

The Buddha of great determination,
who subdues all obstacles,
and destroys mountains of karma.

This is a section of the Thousand Hands Sutra that can people read differently, depending upon their own experience and their good fortune in meeting an awakened teacher. If you haven’t guessed by now, the real Twelve Buddhas are the functioning of our own one mind, our own true nature.
“Dissolving karma” sometimes confuses people, but it’s important to remember that even karma isn’t a fixed and unchanging thing. Roughly speaking, think of it as momentum, where there are things that are pending, things that have manifested, and then the reactions arising afterwards. All along that course, changes we make will affect what happens, and what new directions arise. If we dissolve or untangle something before it manifests, then that changes. If, when something happens, we react gently instead of getting angry or contemptuous, understanding that we had a role what happened, then right there, with those reactions, we change the future results.
Daehaeng Kun Sunim said it’s a lot harder to change something once it’s manifested, but even then, if we are letting go of our frustration, anger, and justifications, we are changing our future. The important point here is that we don’t have to be prisoners to our pasts. Through continuous entrusting to our foundation, we can dissolve old hindrances and set a new course for ourselves. When we let go of things and let our one mind, our foundation, take care of things, it manifests as these twelve Buddhas.

Homage to the Twelve Buddhas who Dissolve All Karma

The Buddha whose deep humility
gives rise to virtue, upright behavior,
and actions grounded in the Dharma.

The Buddha who uses the treasure of one mind
to gently observe and take care of all beings.

All of us here at Hanmaum Seon Center and all of its branches
raise the great intention that water, fire, and wind should
all flow and circulate harmoniously.
We are all sharing this Earth together,
so the sea levels should not rise.
We are all living together as one body,
so there should be no great earthquakes.
As they go about their daily lives,
may all beings be free of accidents.
May all beings be free from poverty.
May every place of practice be protected,
and may its energy continue without end.
May all the work on behalf of helping people
to know about this great one mind,
may all these tasks, both large and small,
be free of hindrances from beginning to end.
May each and every one of us be filled with grace,
and may all of these great intentions become the reality of our lives.
Neither the living nor the dead are separate from each other,
with this in mind,
we raise the intention that all spirits
who have a connection with those of us here today,
whether from this life or past lives,
whether they were our grandparents, parents, brothers or sisters,
nieces, nephews, or even our children,
whether present here today,
or in the next town or the one beyond that,
whether awakened or lost in darkness,
whether currently having a body or not,

whether they are able to live freely,
or are caught up in ignorance,
May they all gather together here, now,
like streams flowing to the ocean
May every kind of suffering spirit,
may every spirit with a connection to Buddhism,
or any other religion,
may every spirit around the world,
through the virtue of their affinity with those here today,
or through the virtue of their ability to be touched by our intentions,
may each and every one of these spirits,
immediately enter one of the heavenly realms,
and there meet Amita Buddha.
May they thus give rise to the desire for enlightenment.
Having thus done so,
may they be reborn in a virtuous realm,
where they are able to practice and awaken.
May all of us as well be reborn in the heavenly realms.
May all of us here,
practitioners at this temple,
as well as those in other places,
understand the meaning of “one mind,”
and so get along harmoniously with each other,
and so keep brightening the light of our inherent nature,
and without delay,
attain true and upright enlightenment.

Let us never forget the kindnesses
and blessings of Buddhas and awakened teachers,
let us never forget the grace that we have received,
and thus always work to help free those beings
still lost in suffering.
Let us always go forward,
in this life and those to come,
following the path of the bodhisattva
and thus attain ultimate enlightenment!
Let it be so!

Sometimes, it takes saying something out loud for it to really sink in.

The Poem of Repentance

All harmful deeds I have committed
All unwise actions arising from greed and desire
All harm done through my body, speech, and thought,
I now repent of this and all other harm I have caused.

Buddha’s one mind holds all the visible and the invisible realms,
and their functioning
in one hand,
and gives infinite compassion to all beings.

Inherently free of all labels such as dirty or clean,
my one mind is utterly complete.
Just as it is,
it is the underlying truth that supports everything in the universe.

Alright! We’ve got a new video up with English subtitles! This is a big one, too. It was originally done in Korean, and is the story of how the new statue of Daehaeng Sunim came to be. There’s some great teachings here, as well as some wonderful views of the Seon Center as it is now, and what it looked like 20 years ago.

In praise of the truth
that my past, present, and future consciousness always functions together as one.

The one mind of all Buddhas is my one mind,
inherently free of stained or pure.
My past consciousness as an unenlightened being,
my present consciousness as a being striving for enlightenment,
and my future consciousness as an enlightened Buddha
will all become one,
and everything in the universe,
just as it is,
will be the continuous flowing of my one mind.

Change is hard. It really is. Have you ever hit ice with a hammer? It mostly just absorbs the blow and shrugs it off. A few chips may fly off, but not much more than that. The best way to melt ice? Put it out on the road on a hot summer day. Then it will be gone before you know it.

Likewise, if we change the way we’re viewing ourselves, others, and what we are trying to do, then we’ll naturally start to act in different ways. Once that viewpoint truly changes, then everything else will follow. So we have to input new ways of seeing things, new ways of looking at things that are more in line with a “higher” perspective.

The very last things to fall away will likely be the most ingrained habits of thought and ways viewing things, which also usually cause the worst of our problems. But if we keep working at trying to live in tune with this Buddha essence of ours, one day we’ll suddenly see through those too, and laugh at how silly we’ve been.

So try to repeat these verses three times or more, because it often takes that many times to begin to really ponder the meaning and let it sink down inside us.

In Praise of One Mind

All places of energy and inspiration,
all places where enlightenment can be realized,
are found within one mind.
Just thoroughly entrust one mind with everything that confronts me,
such that all discriminations and views
about myself and the world utterly disappear.
At that instant I combine with my inherent nature
and the past, present, and future are all the Buddha’s Pure Land.
If my mind is thus empty and pure,
I will be at ease in whatever place or time I find myself.