Contributed by the Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated, Australia
Mentor: Bennie Spirit
Editor: Yinyue(Ivy)
With gratitude to Google AI Gemini
With gratitude to NotebookLM
Draft Date: 7 Aug, 2026
Location: BPI Meditation Center
Attendees at the Dharma assembly: Bennie, Ivy, Ellie, Grace, Enid, Dawn, Wujing, Aima
Question:Please, Master, guide me on whether these two definitions are correct—what is *thought/mindfulness* (*niàn*), and what is *mindfulness of the Buddha* (*niànfó*)?
*Mindfulness* (*niàn*): Looking at the written Chinese character, it consists of “now” (*jīn*) and “mind” (*xīn*). That means wherever your present mind is, that is where your mindfulness is. After having mindfulness, one will pursue and seek to attain it.
*Mindfulness of the Buddha* (*niànfó*): It is moment-to-moment awakening (*niàn-niàn juéwù*). Your mind is mindful of the Buddha’s merits, power, vow power, and everything about the Buddha, striving to be in accord with the Buddha.
Answer: Correct. At the very least, you must understand the Buddha’s Three Bodies (*Trikāya*) and Four Wisdoms (*Catur-jñāna*), and truly know how wonderful they are. Only when you are mindful of him and have him in your heart can you incline toward him.
This requires the guidance and teaching of a good spiritual friend (*kalyāṇa-mitra*).
Why is it that even after the Buddha’s disciples became Arhats, they still followed the Buddha step-by-step? It is because although they had attained Arhatship, they had not yet entered the Great Vehicle (*Mahāyāna*). They needed to seek how to enter, how to generate the initial resolve (*prathama-cittotpāda*), how to enter the First Ground (*bhūmi*), the Second Ground, and ascend level by level until attaining Buddhahood.
If they did not wish to continue practicing and learning, they had already reached their goal by becoming Arhats and could stop practicing. It is like learning a skill: graduating with high marks and achieving mastery makes many people content with little (*alpa-santuṣṭi*), unwilling to overexert themselves further.
Using the method of mindfulness of the Buddha is also a way to reflect upon oneself. In Volume 51 of the *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (*Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra*), the Buddha exclaimed with deep emotion:
“Wonderful! Wonderful! How is it that all these sentient beings possess the wisdom of the Tathāgata, yet in their ignorance and delusion, they neither know nor see it? I shall teach them the Sacred Path, enabling them to forever abandon false thoughts and attachments, and to personally perceive within their own bodies the vast wisdom of the Tathāgata, no different from that of the Buddha.” (CBETA, T10, no. 279, pp. 272c27-273a1)
While practicing mindfulness of the Buddha, by understanding all the meritorious deeds of Amitābha Buddha, we reflect upon ourselves: we inherently possess the merits of the Tathāgata. Previously we were unaware, but now, pointed out by the Buddha, we know. Yet, our stubborn habits (*vāsanā*) and routine tendencies still tightly cling to delusion and attachment.
How to let go is a key point. Once you let go, it turns out to be something that never existed in the first place; yet one firmly attached to it, believing it truly existed.
What is it that does not exist, yet humans believe to exist?
What you define as real does not actually exist in reality.
Just as stinky tofu is defined by some as delicious, while others find it unacceptable. Some think blue cheese tastes wonderful, while others find it too foul to swallow. All these perceptions come from definitions. In reality, those things are just those things; there is no inherent good, bad, right, wrong, true, or false. Once humans define them as good, bad, right, wrong, true, or false, those qualities appear to exist. Therefore, these are human definitions and do not truly exist.
Furthermore, these definitions can change. Many people initially cannot accept certain foods, but under environmental influence and gradual habituation, they slowly accept them, and over time it becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, they firmly cling to the belief that it truly exists and is good, grasping onto it without letting go—this is attachment. When it constantly hovers in the mind, it is called delusion (*vikalpa* / false thought).
If we lay down delusion and attachment, single-mindedly focus on mindfulness of the Buddha and mindfulness of memory of the Buddha, then in the present and the future, we will not be far from the Buddha. This is how Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva introduced how he accomplished his practice. It was by relying on this method of mindfulness of the Buddha that he became Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva, whose power is the greatest among all Bodhisattvas. If he walked over, most Bodhisattvas would be overwhelmed by his presence, let alone ordinary sentient beings.
Can we, just like Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva, rely solely on the method of mindfulness of the Buddha to bring forth all our inherently possessed capacities? Not counting other abilities, if you bring out just a single one, you will enjoy endless benefit, and you won’t care for things like study, work, family, or daily life anymore, because you will know these are all obstacles and entanglements, not unhindered freedom (*saṃsāra* vs. *svatantra*). What you inherently possess is true ease and liberation.
What are the inherent capacities of ease that humans possess? All-Wisdom (*sarvajñatā*), Natural Wisdom (*svayaṃbhū-jñāna*), Uninstructed Wisdom (*anācāryaka-jñāna*), the Supernatural Power of Divine Transformation (*ṛddhi-vidhi-jñāna-sākṣātkriyā-abhijñā*), the Divine Eye (*divya-cakṣur-jñāna-sākṣātkriyā-abhijñā*)—which is a form of wisdom, a point within All-Wisdom, where vision is unhindered by light or darkness, distance, or physical obstacles, allowing you to attain seeing as it truly is (*yathā-bhūta*)… and the Divine Ear (*divya-śrotra-jñāna-sākṣātkriyā-abhijñā*)…
These are capacities commonly used by every Buddha. Relying on these capacities, one understands the law of cause and effect (*karma-hetu-phala*). However, if you only know how to use this causal law to observe, you often only see the surface. Those unwilling to deduce and analyze will never see the law of cause and effect. Starting from a single point, exploring infinitely forward, backward, left, and right, you will follow its threads, discovering what conditions (*pratyaya*) lead to what transformations; only then can you truly master the law of cause and effect. All of this must be built on the foundation of seeing things as they truly are.
Thus, while non-Buddhist practitioners (*tīrthika*) possessed absolute supernatural powers (*abhijñā*), they were not good at reasoning, lacking the patience and meticulousness of the Buddha, and thus could not comprehend with refinement. They didn’t even see it because they didn’t deduce that far. For example, the non-Buddhist leaders Maudgalyāyana and Śāriputra were long known for their great supernatural powers; Maudgalyāyana was born in every lifetime with the innate Divine Eye—it was his default factory setting. We should know why these two non-Buddhist leaders with immense supernatural powers ultimately took refuge in Buddhism. It was because once, on the road, they met a disciple of the Buddha and asked out of curiosity, “What does your Master teach?” The Buddha’s disciple told them: “All phenomena arise from causes and conditions; all phenomena cease due to causes and conditions. My Master, the Great Śramaṇa, constantly teaches thus.” They always taught this. Because they possessed absolute supernatural powers, they immediately explored along this concept, and finally realized: “Ah, the Buddha is truly the All-Knowing One (*sarvajña*), able to explore to the ultimate root.” Therefore, they went with the Buddha to leave household life and further elevate themselves.
We also inherently possess these capabilities to see everything as it truly is without hindrance, and to hear everything as it truly is without hindrance, up to the Six Supernatural Powers (*ṣaḍ-abhijñā*), and even attaining unhindered penetration in everything. These are things you originally possessed. The most extraordinary point is the “Supernatural Power of Divine Transformation”—you can manifest everything according to your mind’s desire, or cause everything to vanish on the spot; you fully possess these capacities.
The key issue is that no one knows this. Why doesn’t anyone know? Because no one has the time to know—they are too busy engaging in false thoughts, too busy clinging tightly without letting go, grasping whatever they see, like a bear harvesting corn… Not knowing how much was picked each day, only to realize in the end that nothing was left. Think about it, everyone: after eating for so many years, do those things remain? Many people wear clothes every day; do the clothes from many years ago remain? You maintain that body in every lifetime; has that body from lifetime after lifetime remained?
Learning to the end, one discovers that even this body is a firm delusion (*dṛḍha-vikalpa*), a form of delusion itself—extremely firm, unlike your usual fleeting thoughts which remain in a wave state or particle state, not yet successfully collapsed/superimposed. Your body is a complete combination of information and matter, called “firm delusion” in the Buddha Dharma. At the conclusion of the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra*, it discusses what the Five Aggregates (*pañca-skandha*) ultimately are: Form, Feeling, Perception, Volition, and Consciousness (*rūpa, vedanā, saṃjñā, saṃskāra, vijñāna*). Form is this physical body. Feeling is physical sensation. Perception is thought. Volition is the continuous flux of body and mind. Consciousness is the root of the body-mind transformation, the force of habit (*vāsanā*). Thus, when summarizing at the end of the *Śūraṅgama Sūtra*, the Buddha stated: the Five Aggregates are simply delusions.
When you attain Buddhahood and look closely, they truly are just delusions. Before breaking through, you do not know and cannot confirm that it is a collection of delusions; you can only hear about it. As you make breakthroughs, you learn how much of it is delusion. Therefore, from the perspective of a Buddha, this world is nothing more than information.
What kind of information? Information of delusion, information created according to delusion, and image information displayed after creation. This includes animals having DNA, which is their information. Plants also have DNA, which is their information. Even the silicon-based state of mountains, rivers, and the earth—it is wrong to think they have no information. From a molecular structure perspective, their information is different, and their appearances are different. Therefore, recent scientific development has also entered the field of information science, calling it the “holographic universe”—everything is information. Aside from information, there is nothing else. However, modern science has not yet touched the ultimate boundary. In the time of the Buddha, the Buddha not only touched the boundary, but thoroughly penetrated it, mastering it freely and at ease.
This potential is inherently possessed by everyone. It is just a matter of whether you are willing to excavate your innate wish-fulfilling treasure. There are so many wish-fulfilling treasures, yet they are left sitting there while you chase after false thoughts all day long, clinging tightly without letting go—delusion and attachment. Doing only this leaves you unsatisfied lifetime after lifetime, helpless and furious, yet continuing to grasp—one life after another, endlessly living in dissatisfaction, inability to grasp, helplessness, and anger, just drifting along like this.
Wise people, once aware, will no longer act foolishly. Those who are thoroughly foolish have no way to know and can only continue acting foolishly. Now, whether we choose to be fools or wise people, let us make a clear resolution.
How wonderful it is to be awakened at every moment and at ease at every moment! Therefore, whether someone is wise can be heard as soon as they speak. What comes out of a fool’s mouth remains the words of a fool.
If there were truly a real thing for you to sever, that would be fine; but it is fundamentally a non-existent definition. How do you sever something that is non-existent? Speaking of delusion and attachment—they do not exist at all. At their ultimate root, they come from your definitions or others’ definitions. You inherited and learned others’ definitions, but these definitions themselves do not exist. Good, bad, right, wrong, true, and false do not exist. Everyone defines them differently, and even a single person’s definition changes. For example, a man looks for a woman and defines her as good before getting married. If he determines she is bad, he will not marry her. But facts prove that it isn’t inherently good. It is only considered good when it satisfies my defined “good”; if it fails to satisfy my defined “good,” it becomes “bad.” That is to say, the other person is good one moment and bad the next. When complying with me, they are good; when defying me, they are bad. So good and bad are completely chaotic because the good and bad you defined do not exist in the first place. Stating whether it is good or bad is adding non-existence upon non-existence. People live in non-existence and still try to grasp onto non-existence; how can you grasp it? If you could grasp it, you would not die or grow old. There is nothing that can be grasped. Modern science, researching at the most microscopic level, finds it extremely difficult to grasp a quark as solid matter. Can you grasp it? It is nothing at all, so what are you grasping? The source of all things is simply nothing; if you cannot grasp that, how can you grasp these phenomena? Therefore, people live all day in delusion and attachment, insisting on grasping, and as a result, create infinite karma (*karman*) and suffer infinite retribution (*vipāka*), only to continue grasping again—thus cycling endlessly, without end and without beginning. Because it is a complete closed loop, once set in motion, it has no beginning or end. If you want to soak in this, soaking in a state of believing there is something where there is actually nothing, then continue to be foolish. If you don’t want to be a fool, jump out of this closed loop. It’s very simple: just ascend to the third dimension, and with one step, you are out. But without ascending to the third dimension, there is no way. However, this circle was drawn by yourself; if you stop drawing it, the circle begins to break, and eventually, you can leave. Originally, there was no such circle. Within this original “not a single thing exists,” one feels tens of thousands of seemingly existing things. Humans, amid illusions, engage in these illusory false thoughts, speak these dreamlike words, and perform inverted right-and-wrong deeds lifetime after lifetime, thinking they gained something or lost something. At the ultimate root, you have neither gain nor loss (*nāprapti nāhāni*).
This is mindfulness of the Buddha. Moment-to-moment awakening is mindfulness of the Buddha—awakening to what everything you inherently possess actually is. Moment-to-moment awakening: the Buddhas have already developed what they awakened to the ultimate limit, Great Perfection (*Mahāsaṃpūrṇa*). Moment-to-moment awakening: we ourselves have made ourselves thoroughly foolish, almost to the point of a perfect state of foolishness.
Question: Is the ability to analyze and observe also part of All-Wisdom?
Answer: Analytical capability is also a type within All-Wisdom, a form of Subtle Wisdom (*sūkṣma-jñāna*). As you observe something, you enter into the subtlety of that object, clearly discerning and distinguishing what each subtle point ultimately is.
Question: Why answer so much for one question about what mindfulness of the Buddha means?
Answer: For instance, the understanding of oneself and the understanding of the Buddha. Only when you know and understand can it be called *mindfulness* (*niàn*). If you know nothing, then what you are mindful of is knowing nothing. Only when you know can you be mindful, analyze, organize, and distinguish what is the Buddha and what is you. What the Buddha is like, and what you are like. You inherently possess everything of the Buddha, but you just do not put it into application. You have used all your mental energy on eating, drinking, playing, and enjoying, on greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt (*rāga, dveṣa, moha, māna, vicikitsā*), and on creating suffering. Although your goal is to attain peace and happiness, these activities—eating, drinking, playing, greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt, and the evil karma you commit—can only bring suffering, yet you believe they will bring peace and happiness. Therefore, in the Buddha Dharma, this is called “inverted sentient beings” (*viparyaya-sattva*). Thoroughly, clearly, and lucidly understanding the above is called mindfulness of the Buddha.
Because all Buddhas achieved enlightenment precisely through moment-to-moment awakening like this.
Thus, when the Fifth Patriarch rescued the Sixth Patriarch who had fallen into the Quicksand River, he said: “Do not dwell, move forward,” because things that have passed no longer exist. If you always linger in the past—wondering why others harmed you, why others set you up when you treated them so well—staying stuck there is completely meaningless, because time has already passed. “The past is un-obtainable” (*atītam ananvāgatam* / *atītaṃ na upalabyate*).
From now on, if we are “moment-to-moment completely luminous and clear,” you will be able to bring forth everything you inherently possess, because you will no longer be obstructed by things that are inherently non-existent. You will no longer deceive yourself and others regarding right, wrong, good, or bad. Over time, the roots and senses will drop away (*indriya-visaṃyoga*), and what you inherently possess will be right there; at that time, you can learn to use it. For example, your Divine Eye—you can bring it out and use it! Open your eyes; with the Divine Eye, you will see everything without any obstruction. Your Divine Ear will hear everything. For details, see the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra*, which describes in detail what the various supernatural powers are like and why Bodhisattvas must use these powers. A Bodhisattva without supernatural powers is like a bird without wings. A bird without wings can do nothing. Only by relying on supernatural powers can a Bodhisattva benefit endless sentient beings, so he must unlock all his inherent wisdom. Supernatural power is a form of wisdom, which is why it is called “Wisdom-Realized Power” (*jñāna-sākṣātkriyā-abhijñā*).
If you thoroughly and clearly understand the above, you are canonically practicing mindfulness of the Buddha.
If you are still spinning in circles somewhere and cannot get out, you cannot be called mindful of the Buddha—that is called “mindful of ignorance,” because one does not know. Or one has drifted off into other false thoughts, not knowing what the Buddha is, what awakening is, or what one’s true nature is—unawakened moment to moment. Habitual momentum being hard to brake is normal; no one expects you to slam on the brakes and stop instantly.
When moving at extremely high speeds and experiencing deceleration braking exceeding 20G (20 times gravitational acceleration) in an instant, the human body endures extremely powerful forward impact forces. This causes blood to surge instantaneously to the head or face, visceral displacement, muscle strains, rib fractures, and even loss of consciousness or fatal danger within a very short time due to cerebral hypoxia or vascular rupture.
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