Namo Buddhaya! Welcome everyone to another video. In today's video we are going to take a look at the threefold practices in Buddhism. Now no matter how the way that you are approaching the Buddhist teachings, these are the three practices that you need to practice in Buddhism. Okay, so we are going to take a look at these things.
Before understanding these three practices, about these three practices, we have to understand why we should practice these things. Okay, what is the goal and what is the ultimate goal of Buddha's teachings? Now, the ultimate goal of all the Buddhist teachings is to liberate your mind from unsatisfactoriness.
Okay, liberate your mind from all the sufferings in life. Okay, because the Buddha said that the life is based on unsatisfactoriness. Okay, so... Once you have a deeper and a wiser understanding about your life, then you can liberate your mind from all the unsatisfactoriness in your life.
Okay, so Buddha realized that to achieve this state, to enlighten your mind and to liberate your mind, you need to make some conditions and you have to practice your mind. So that is why Buddha introduced us. these three practices to practice in our practical life in order to enlighten our mind.
So without any further ado, let's dive into these practices. So the first practice in Buddhism is called Sila. Now I have discussed about Sila in an earlier video, you can watch it here.
So basically the Sila means the moral and ethical conduct. Being disciplined. from your body and from your words okay so once you practice this sila you can be disciplined from your body and from your words now buddha understood that when we are living with people the way we behave right the actions that we do from our body and the words that we speak will impact the lives of other people as well as us okay it will impact the life of ourself the way we behave and where we speak. And also, it will highly influence the other's lives too. And that is why Buddha said, purify your conduct.
Do wholesome things from your body and from your words. So SILA helps you to practice the verbal and the physical conduct in a moral and a more ethical and wholesome way. So in SILA, we have precepts. Basically for lay people like you, you have five precepts that you can protect. The first one is abstaining from killing beings.
The Buddha says that stay away from killing beings. In that way you become disciplined from your body. Abstaining from stealing. Do not take others'possessions without their permissions, without the permissions of themselves, with the stealing mind. Once you protect that, you be disciplined from your body.
And Buddha said that, stay away from sexual misconduct. When you abstain from sexual misconduct, you become disciplined from your body. And the Buddha said, stay away from lying. Be disciplined from your words. Do not break the trust of others from your words.
And finally, Buddha says, stay away from intoxicating your body. Do not use intoxicants and other drugs. It will lead to harmful situations and harmful consequences in your life.
So basically, Buddha introduced us these five precepts to protect in your life. When you observe and when you protect these five precepts, you become disciplined from your body. So that is why SILA helps you to be disciplined, to live a disciplined life. Why we should live a disciplined life? We should live a disciplined life to stay away from regrets.
Because when you look at these five precepts, if you engage in these things, if you kill animals, if you steal others'possessions, if you commit sexual misconduct, if you lie and if you intoxicate yourself, what will happen? There are a lot of regrets. There will be a lot of regrets in your life. And also there are...
there will be things that you have to worry about. That is why Buddha says stay away from these five things and you will live a regretless life. Okay so that is the first practice. Moving on to the second practice we have Samadhi. Now Samadhi can be translated as concentration or mental peacefulness inside your mind.
Now remember This Samadhi is supported by the first practice that is called the Sila. The Buddha said when you practice Sila or when you live a moral and ethical life, What will happen? You will have less regrets in your mind.
You will have no regrets in your mind. Once you have no regrets in your mind, what will happen? It will lead to the mental happiness.
Because most of the people, they worry about the things that they have done in the past, okay? Unwholesome things that they have done in the past. But once you live according to the precepts, once you live a virtuous life, then... you can be happy about yourself and also your mind will be in a good and a happy state. That is why this Samadhi is supported by the Seelah.
Now, why we need Samadhi? Now, we need Samadhi to think clearly. Because you know that when your mind is busy, when your mind is scattered, and when it runs here and there, it is very difficult to think clearly. Now, Buddha considered that Thinking clearly and thinking freely is a great benefit to understand the reality of your life.
And that is why we need to practice Samadhi. For practicing Samadhi, Buddha introduced many meditations. So one type of meditation is called Samatha meditation. Samatha meditation helps you to condense your mind and find that peacefulness inside your mind.
It includes loving kindness meditations, breathing meditations, mindfulness meditations, all those meditations will help you to achieve a peaceful and a calm life. Okay, so, but remember this, to achieve a peaceful and calm life, we have to focus on living a virtuous life, living a disciplined life. Keep that in your mind.
So let's move on to the third practice. and this is the final practice in buddhist teachings that is called wisdom or bhanya in buddhism now so many people think that knowledge is wisdom always remember knowledge is a part of wisdom but it is not the wisdom now buddha explains that you must achieve wisdom from three means from three types of wisdoms the first type of wisdom is called sutamaya bhanya Sutta maya panna means the wisdom that is gained through learning. You can learn, you can read and you can listen to sermons.
That is called the knowledge. Of course, wisdom has a part of knowledge. And also the second type of wisdom is called chintamaya pratna. Chintamaya pratna is the wisdom that is gained by wisely reflecting.
The wisdom that is gained by wisely reflecting on what you have learned, the reality of your life. When Buddha teaches about the reality of the life, when Buddha teaches about the impermanence and the reality of all the things, you have to wisely reflect on it, okay? You have to think upon it.
And once you think, and once you wisely reflect on it, you gain the wisdom, you gain a deeper understanding, okay? That is called Chintamaya Prajna, the wisdom that is gained by wisely reflecting. And also in the third type of wisdom, this is the most important type of wisdom, that is called Bhavanamaya Prajna, the wisdom that is gained by practicing.
Now, the wisdom that is gained by practicing is supported by all those two wisdoms, Chintamaya Prajna and Svatamaya Prajna. The wisdom that is gained by listening or learning. and also the wisdom that is gained by wisely reflecting. Now Buddha says, when you learn and when you think and when you wisely reflect on it, then you can apply it to your practical life by doing meditations, by doing it practically. Many of the people believe that Bhavana Me Prakna is only based on meditations.
No, Bhavana does not mean only the meditation. It gives the meaning of development or practicing. Okay, so you have to look how can I apply these Buddha's teachings? How can I practice these things in my practical life? Once you do it your wisdom will be developed That is how you practice the wisdom in Buddha's teachings.
So basically these are the three main Practices in Buddhism. Sela gives you the ethical and wholesome bodily and verbal conduct And Samadhi will help you to develop a concentrated and a calmer and a peaceful mind. And Prajna gives you a deeper and a wiser understanding about the reality and our existence and all the experiences that we go through in our life.
Once you practice these three practices, you will be directed, your life will be focused on liberation. Your mind will be well prepared for the liberation and to a deeper understanding about the life. So these are the three practices that we practice in Buddhism.
Try to practice these things and try to apply it to your practical life. Wish you all happy and a peaceful life. Namu Bidhaya