Learning The Wisdom of the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment(7/23-7/24 in Dharma Drum Vancouver Center)

On Saturday the Venerable Guo Hui held his second lecture on the Complete Enlightenment Sutra. The hall was packed and many people had their pads out, ready to take notes. The amount of enthusiasm for such a difficult sutra was impressive to say the least, although I should have expected it after two years at Dharma Drum Vancouver Center.

The format of the sutra seemed to be question and answer, with highly accomplished bodhisattvas asking the Buddha about the higher levels of accomplishment on the Mahayana path, and how to attain such levels. Ven. Guo Hui explained both the letter and the spirit of these difficult topics, in many places through using easy to understand metaphors or stories, some from the modern day.

One important takeaway from the whole thing is that a bodhisattva's work is massive in time and space. Each successive stage on the bodhisattva path sounds grander and more complete than the one before, yet that same drive to complete enlightenment that was there in the very beginning never lets up, in fact, it only gets stronger. Bodhisattvas never rest at any place along the path to Buddhahood, no matter how pleasant or how liberated a state they find themselves in.

After listening to the lecture I am reminded never to be complacent and to reach back into scripture for more motivation.

By Merle Langlois