Mar - Apr Issue - Amitabha Buddhist Centre

yet actualised the statue, helping in the various ways youhave still becomes the most unbelievable purification,purifying negative karma and defilements created frombeginningless rebirths, and an unbelievable way to collectskies of merit, especially if your help has been offeredwith bodhicittamotivation. In thatway, every singleaction becomes acause to actualisethe Maitreya statue,every single actionbecomes highlymeaningful, and soyou have alreadycollected immense,immense merits.So don’t have anyregret at all. Youshould have notone single regret—if you do, you willharm the merit thatyou have alreadycollected.The benefitsJust to brieflymention thebenefits of thisstatue, not onlyfor those whohave dedicatedtheir time andmade donations,even one rupee,but for anybodywho touches, sees,remembers, makesofferings to orcircumambulatesthe statue and soforth. Such actionsimmediatelybecome the cause offull enlightenmentfor sentient beingsand, by the way,4 The “Sutra of the Mudra Entering, Generating the Power same.5an unbelievable,unbelievable causeof temporary pleasure and, after that, ultimate happiness,total liberation from oceans of samsaric suffering. But themain benefit is the ultimate one, full enlightenment forsentient beings—the total cessation of all defilements,even the subtle ones, and the completion of all qualities;full enlightenment, where there is not one sentient beingleft and all beings are enlightened by you, through allthose actions done in relation to the Maitreya statue.Then the ultimate goal is reached.Even if you offer just one grain of rice to the MaitreyaBuddha statue, that will be the result—all temporal andultimate happiness up until every single sentient beinghas been brought to full enlightenment. When thathappens, the benefits of having offered that single grainof rice to the Buddha have been realised. So you can seethat the benefits of the statue are really incredible.A sutra states that even if you look at a drawing of theBuddha on a stone wall with anger, that still creates thecause to eventually see ten million buddhas.There are five Mahayana paths to enlightenment: thepaths of merit, preparation, right seeing, meditationand no more learning. The first path, the path of merit,has three categories: small, middle and great. When youachieve the great path of merit, wherever you are, yousee an unbelievable number of buddhas in nirmanakayaaspect.Just like the Kadampa Geshe Chayulwa, who wasfollowing his guru Chengawa, doing service withgreat devotion. He cleaned his guru’s room every day,collecting the dirt in his robes and throwing it outside.One day, when he was going down the stairs with allthe room’s dirt gathered in his robes, upon reaching thethird step he achieved the great path of merit and rightthere saw innumerable buddhas in nirmanakaya aspect.So the benefit is not just seeing countless buddhas butultimately achieving the total cessation of both grossand subtle obscurations and completing all qualities: fullenlightenment.of Devotion” mentions another benefit:Buddha said to Manjushri, “If any son or daughter ofthe race [lineage] or other person offering every daydivine food of a hundred tastes and divine clothingto self-buddhas [solitary realiser arhats] equallingthe number of atoms of the entire universe for eonsequalling the number of sand grains of the PacificOcean and, Manjushri, any son or daughter of therace or other person seeing a drawing of the Buddhaor other material representation such as a painting orstatue, the latter [seeing the image] collects infinitelygreater merit than the former [making the offerings].So there’s no question that those putting their palmstogether or offering flowers, perfume, incense or lightcollect infinitely greater merit than those [merely seeinga drawing, painting or statue of the Buddha].”The quote above mentions solitary realiser arhats, who areliberated from karma and delusion. You can’t imagine thekarma of making just one offering of food and clothingto solitary realiser arhats equalling the number of sandparticles of the Pacific Ocean and offering one hundreddevas’ food and clothing every day for one hundredeons. You can’t imagine; you can’t imagine. If you thinkabout it, you might completely faint; you can’t imagineit. But this merit becomes miniscule compared to themerit of merely seeing a statue of the Buddha. Therefore,any sentient being who sees the Maitreya statue or just apicture of the Maitreya statue, you really can’t imagine!Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! By merelyseeing it once in their lifetime they receive an incredibleamount of merit.The “Piled Flower Sutra” states, “The benefit youexperience from offering just one flower to a stupa isas great as all the happiness you have experienced sincebeginningless rebirths up to now.”If you think well about the benefit of making justthis one offering, it’s amazing, amazing, amazing,amazing! You receive all happiness up to ultimatehappiness, liberation from samsara, nirvana, and thenultimate full enlightenment for all sentient beings.Then, as I mentioned before, the final result is to freeeverybody—numberless hell beings, numberless hungryghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings,numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberlessintermediate state beings—from oceans of samsaricsuffering and bring them to full enlightenment. That isthe result of offering one flower to a stupa just once.The sutra says a stupa, but it means a statue, stupa orscripture; basically any holy object. So, whether it’s astatue of the Buddha or a painting of Buddha, it’s theHere you can see that the benefits are unbelievable,unbelievable. It really is most amazing, most amazing,most amazing how building this Maitreya statue willbenefit sentient beings!This is really what the world needs. The real need is thegood heart, the ultimate good heart—bodhicitta andcompassion for all living beings: for numberless hellbeings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals,numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberlessasuras and numberless intermediate state beings. Greatcompassion is needed more than anything else.That is beginning of bodhicitta. From the five Mahayanapaths to enlightenment, that is the root of all success upto enlightenment, all happiness; the root of temporaryand ultimate happiness, full enlightenment, for thenumberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts,numberless animals, numberless human beings,numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberlessintermediate state beings. Developing bodhicitta isunbelievable, most important, even without talkingabout buddhas in the world; the most important thingto bring peace and happiness. So we need to develop the