[Nitiananda]

There is such a thing as Truth. But what is Truth? A certain truth is, for example, that having money, a person can have some freedom of action and be happy. But such truths are not absolute. Why is this so? Because the possession of money under certain conditions can not give either freedom or happiness. Therefore this truth is relative. What is the absolute Truth? This is the Truth that does not change under any circumstances. For example: a person is mortal, a person necessarily grows old, a person is sick. Really aware of this, they strive to completely eliminate pollution in the soul, in order to defeat these three armies - death, old age, disease - and to find the only true state - Absolute Freedom, Absolute Happiness and Absolute Joy - the perfect, independent and highest state of Liberation.

Absolute Freedom means that now you are free to choose a new birth, you can by your own will reincarnate anywhere - create a body in the lower worlds or go to Maha Nirvana - and voluntarily leave these worlds. In other words, now you have learned to create karma or to get rid of it at will and consciously.

Absolute Happiness means that you do not experience any suffering. Because of the absence of harmful desires, your soul is in bliss and silence. And your past experience does not violate your state of mind at all, that is, you are completely free from the influence of past actions, which is called karma.

Absolute Joy is joy that results from the accumulation of your inner prana. If you achieve success in practice, your inner energy brings you the highest pleasure, even if you do not eat or do not experience sensual pleasures. It is a joy that does not need external objects for its origin. Therefore, it is called the Absolute.

Four practices

When the Great Sage of the Shakya-Shakyamuni clan gained this higher state, he felt a desire to give others the opportunity to escape quickly from this total suffering of the circle of existence. Therefore, he preached the Four Practices for Entering the Truth Stream. They are like that. First: to meet with a high guru who practices the Truth. Next, listen and study the Law - the Dharma that it gives. Then, think carefully about the Dharma and, based on it, analyze your current state. And, at last, in reality to take practical steps - to think, speak and act in everyday life - in accordance with this Law. Further, since Shakyamuni saw the innate roots of each individual's karma, he revealed the path of the Hinayana to the lay faithful who were committed to the lay faithful and gave them ways to distance themselves from worldly desires. For most of the disciples, he preached the mixed teachings of Hinayana and Mahayana, giving the opportunity to dive into the Causal World - the World Without Forms - and gain the level of the Arhat. And the highest disciples: Sariputte, Mahamoggallana, Anuruda, Punna-Mantanniputta, Uppalavanne, Maha Kheme and Yasodhara - he preached the secret teachings of the Diamond Chariot. However, since the latter teaching is secret, and only disciples who have already attained Liberation can practice it, we will deal here with Hinayana and Mahayana.
Hinayana

It is often said that many disciples of the Buddha Shakyamuni calmed the mind and entered a state of perfect silence, almost without experiencing the experience of other dimensions and only through intense meditation such as "The Four Stages of Mastery of Memorization" or "Five Accumulations of Captivations Is Not Me": my Form-Appearance is fickle, Feelings are fickle, Presentations are fickle, Experience accumulation is unstable, Distinction is impermanent. Since my body, attachments and even thoughts are impermanent, it means that I can not rely on them. So they are the cause of my suffering and are not me. Hence, I must separate myself and the body, myself and sensations, myself and images, myself and thoughts. From such work of consciousness, there came the state of Denial of This World, Renunciation from Attachments, and they reached Liberation.

This state can be imagined as a state of even water in a vessel, to which nothing is already working. Before it rocked, and now we have eliminated the circumstances, in view of which it rocked. Then, little by little, the vessel and the water in it by themselves will come to a perfectly calm state. The mud will settle and the water will be clear and transparent. That's what Nirvana is in Hinayana.

But, probably, someone thinks: "Is not Hinayana alone enough? Is not the state of separation from all phenomena and perfect calm of consciousness sufficient? Why do there exist other systems of practice? "There is one point to think about, namely: what will happen if an energetic impact is once again applied to this Nirvana Hinayana? Naturally, when there is no impact, everything is stable and stable. However, such a state, even in the absence of personal interference from within, will be upset during the intervention from the outside.

After all, what kind of thinking is practiced by Hinayana? He denies everything: this world is dirty, everything is vicious, all is suffering. He denies everything in this way. Then this world will appear to him an illusion, and he will eventually be able to enter Nirvana.

However, if something happens that partially undermines his denial, he will immediately lose the ability to enter Nirvana. Even if he has already visited it, he will be forced to descend again into this World of Phenomena.

The difference between Hinayana and Mahayana

Mahayana by method is very different from Hinayana. A person must meet people and love them, and not avoid them. And he must take on their karma and be able to destroy it by analyzing their own state. To do this, he needs some divine ability, superior to a person's abilities. He also needs strong will.

Practitioners of the Mahayana enjoy life in this world to some extent, because one can not practice the Mahayana, not being in any way sensitive to external influences, and practitioners of Hina

Six Perfections

The Six Perfection and the Four Diminities are the main practices of the Mahayana aimed at cultivating bodhichitta [1] actions and bodhichitta intentions, respectively.

What is the Six Perfection? This is the Giving or Sacrifice, the Observance of the Commandments and the Vows, Patience, Persevering Efforts, Meditation and Wisdom.

Order here is very important, because one follows from the other. If a person does not want to engage in disinterested service and sacrifice, he will not be able to keep the commandments. If a person can not keep the commandments, then his thoughts wander, he is unable to concentrate and will not be able to endure the return of bad karma, not to mention that he has no intention of making utmost efforts to develop meditative abilities.

So, the Paramità of Sacrifice. What is this step needed for? With the help of proper donations, karma is cleared and efforts are directed to become capable of realizing high worlds. And, as already mentioned, there are three main types of sacrifice or giving. The first is the material donations of money and things to a true guru or true teaching; then - the gift of peace of mind, bringing happiness to others; and the third type of sacrifice is the preaching of the True Law (Dharma) in order to spread it.

When you can easily keep the commandments, thanks to a persistent and consistent practice, your karma will be washed away, willpower will become stronger, and the ability to patience will appear during a long meditative practice. This is the third Paramita - the strengthening of the will, the perfection of patience. Then, on the basis of what has already been achieved, it is necessary to conduct in full force the practice, which has a form. And this will be the perfection of Persevering Effort. And at the stage when this state is reached, they pass to the fifth process, that is, they begin to persevere in meditation aimed directly at achievement. This is the fifth Paramita - the perfection of meditation. In fact, all the Paramitas become truly Paramitam, only when perfection is achieved in the latter - the Paramita of Wisdom. And if after the first achievements of the state of Wisdom cultivate it constantly, then in the end the Truth is achieved. This is the teaching of Mahayana Buddhism. And this way of practice is called the Sixth Perfection.

Four Dimensionalities

Then, the basic state of the soul in the Mahayana is the Four Dimensionalities: Holy Love, Holy Compassion, Holy Praise (joy of success and the happiness of others) and Holy Impartiality (equal treatment of all living beings, as well as an indifferent attitude to the return of one's own karma).

What is love in Mahayana? Meditation on the cultivation of this state begins with one person - from the one you prefer to everyone else, and then the consciousness expands and on others - the father, mother, spouse, friends and acquaintances. Remembering everyone you know, you gradually spread love to all living beings and sincerely wish them happiness, love, joy and meeting with the true Teachings: "Let this person, or this soul, or that living entity, let everyone I know , and everyone I do not know will be freed from suffering sooner, they will quickly free themselves from ignorance, quickly destroy worldly desires, quickly learn other worlds and find true happiness in Maha Nirvana. "

The next is Holy Compassion. Imagining all living beings in the same order, starting with the nearest ones, it is necessary to cultivate in their soul immeasurable compassion for them because their connection with the Truth is too weak, or because they continue to commit bad deeds. "This person is suffering now because of his past deeds, which he does now, without knowing the Law of Karma. He denies the Truth and believes that there are no worlds other than this. Even finding happiness, he does not understand how it is relative and fleeting. May he enter more quickly into the Stream of the True Law! "Compassion is a state of the soul, addressed to the primordial ignorance of all souls.

Human consciousness is an interesting thing. For all who surpass him in anything at all, it immediately reacts with jealousy and envy. But this dirt does not so much interfere with others as it does to itself. Conversely, sincere joy to the happiness and success of others makes a person strong and generous. The ability to rejoice over others is no less important than the ability to compassion. It also determines the tendency of man's spiritual development. It is not necessary to praise aloud at all - too frequent praise can lead to flattery on one side and conceit on the other. But admiration in the soul subconsciously will cause you to become the same. And it is especially useful to praise religious merit. To learn such qualities of the soul, it is necessary in the same order to imagine the faces of people, to find their good and wholeheartedly to praise them for it.

The final stage of meditation of the Four Dimensionalities involves two aspects: the outer - an immeasurably equal relation to all living beings - and the inner one - the immense indifference to the return of one's own karma - both good and bad. During this meditation, it is necessary to imagine two people next to you -