H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III has given specific instructions on how to listen to His discourses and why this is important if one is to learn the correct Buddha-dharma so as to attain the compassion and wisdom to become enlightened in this lifetime.[1] However, it has been very difficult for non-Chinese speaking students to hear these discourses.
Pre-COVID
The inability to use the Buddha Master’s teachings on-line or even have them for in person classes was the main reason we ended the Xuanfa Five Vidyas University (XFVU), which had tried to implement the Buddha Master’s Seven Dharma System for listening to the Dharma Discourses. Both the Chinese and English-speaking students who were able to participate in these classes we held at Sanger stated that they benefited from these sessions.
COVID and Beyond
Now more of these teachings are available in English and we are able to read preliminary translations on the internet and even record them for Learning from Buddha College and Seminary (LFBCS) classes. With the advent of COVID we formed the Lemonade Sangha to make lemonade out of our confinement and be able to focus on our meditation and practice. The response was very good, and many expressed their joy to be able to meet, even if on-line, and when we were able to read even preliminary translations of the Buddha Master’s Dharma Discourses, it was wonderful. That was still not enough, for even when we read them twice, students needed to study them more to be able to take advantage of the Seven Dharma System.
Now that they can be recorded for LFBCS use and the student has unlimited access to that discourse while enrolled in a class using that discourse, we will again attempt to implement the Buddha’s system for learning. For more background on this system go to D01-The Supreme and Magnificent Dharma-Lesson Five for Zhaxi Zhuoma’s notes on H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha’s discourse on “It Will Be Fruitless If One Does Not Listen to Discourses in Accordance with the Dharma Expounded in This Discourse” that contains the Seven Dharma System concept. The student reads or listens to the translated discourse and may need to answer various questions while preparing for the Final Project or Paper.
Identify Passages-Final Project Step 1
The student then prepares a list of at least ten passages from the discourse that are meaningful to him/her. No need to comment on them at this stage. The course instruction for this phase provides examples as to why that passage is meaningful, but there can be other reasons as well:
- They fill in details in your understanding of the Buddha’s teachings.
- They tie together different aspects in your understanding of the Buddha’s teachings.
- They give you a new overview of how the Buddha’s teachings fit together.
- They give you new/deeper ways to carry out your daily practice.
- They help you apply the Buddha’s teachings to your thoughts/words/actions in daily life.
- They help you bring the Buddha’s teachings to other people in your life (including strangers).
- Any other reason.
The purpose of this step is to let the course facilitator see how well the student is grasping the material and enable the facilitator to provide feedback and guidance. It also enables the student and facilitator to communicate on just how the student will conduct the second step in completing his/her Final Project .
Final Project Step 2
As part of preparing a Final Project or Paper, the next step is to explain what the ten or more passages from the text mean and why they were selected–why these were important to you.
Final Project Step 3
This is one of the most important parts of the process as it requires you to know the material well enough to explain it to someone else and it develops your bodhicitta by at least trying to share Dharma with others. This phase is different for the two types of students. All students need to prepare a paper or essay as in step 2 and this may be enough for the Buddhist Studies students or he/she may choose to do what is required of the Xiuxing Seminary students and that is to “explain” what you include in your paper or essay to someone else and document that process. You may just read your paper, but you may also use other media to accomplish this goal–verse, drama, drawing, discursive discussion, or any other mode that makes sense to you for the passages you have chosen. The other person can be the course facilitator, another LFBCS mentor, friend, family member, etc. You should:
- Encourage questions from your “listener” to be sure that they are understanding what you are explaining.
- When you are done, have your listener give/submit a statement of the key take-aways they understood from your presentation. They are not to offer a critique, but just give you feedback on what they learned. Like the Tibetan debate guidelines, it should be positive experience to both the explainer and the listener.
- Record this session (in Zoom, for example) and submit the recording to the facilitator as a record of your work. Ideally the listener’s statement would be part of the recording session, but it can also be a written statement or a separate recording.
This format is based on the Seven Dharma System given by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III. There may also be a final exam. I
[1] The discourse that explains this, “It Will Be Fruitless If One Does Not Listen to Discourses in Accordance with the Dharma Expounded in This Discourse,” is not available yet in English, but a summary is included in the required course “D01-Buddhism for Beginners, Listening to the Supreme & Magnificent Dharma.”