A modern interpretation of the Mahayana Buddhist theory of knowledge and practice

"How Do We Know Ourselves?" is a book that reinterprets "The Mahayana Sutra," a representative scripture from the early days of Mahayana Buddhism and considered to have laid the foundation for the epistemology and practice of Mahayana Buddhism, so that even today's readers can easily access it.
Monk Jeonghwa, who has been working hard to popularize Buddhist philosophy by translating 『The Awakening of Mahayana Faith』 and 『The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch』 into Korean and publishing a book of lectures on 『The Middle Treatise』, 『The Diamond Sutra』, and 『The Heart Sutra』, etc., in this book, explains the core concepts of the difficult Buddhist theory of consciousness, such as Alaya-vijnana, dependent arising nature, the nature of the confluence of the worlds, and the nature of original sincerity and reality, in an easy-to-understand manner. At the same time, he helps readers realize that the entire world of life is one vehicle (一乘) and a great vehicle (大乘) based on the theory of dependent origination taught by the Buddha, and move forward with the Bodhisattva practice of benefiting both oneself and others.

“『The Treatise on the Mahayana』(攝大乘論) is a book written by the monk Asanga, who was active around the 4th to 5th century, in which he explains in detail the ‘foundation of perception’, ‘phenomena of perception’, and methods for letting go of attachment.
This book explains that if you practice Paramita based on the teaching of dependent origination preached by the Buddha, that is, that the world of life is a single community of life, your foundation of perception will change and you will achieve enlightenment.

The reason I wrote this book's teachings under the title, "How Much Do We Know Ourselves?" is because I believed that Venerable Asang wrote the "Supravāda Mahayana" based on the premise that the world of life itself is a network of knowledge.
What Venerable Muchak said is that understanding the cognitive system in which knowledge operates is the foundation of practice and the basis for transforming the foundation of perception.

In understanding the teachings of Venerable Mucha, the book 『Records of Lectures on the Mahayana Sutra』 (『Records of Lectures on the Mahayana Sutra』, Taipei: Zhengmen Publishing, 1992), which summarizes the lectures given by Venerable Yinshun of Taiwan, was of great help.
“I understood and interpreted the teachings of the two monks in my own way, and rather than being faithful to the original translation, I could say that I wrote what I understood as the main text.”
--- From the preface

“If you look at the Abhidharma Mahayana Sutra, there are many stories of bodhisattvas who have attained the state of Mahayana by observing all phenomena that occur in the body and mind as they are and realizing the Buddha-nature, the intelligence that serves as the basis for living beings to carry out complete life activities.
According to their teachings, each and every life activity is interconnected with the entire living world like a net.
This is a story about how the life activities of each individual, like the mesh of a net, are connected to the life activities of the whole, yet the life of each individual does not exist as a part of the whole, but rather forms its own world entirely.
It is as if the entire world of life is riding together on one vehicle, the great vehicle.
“And yet, the form of each living being is in itself the form of Mahayana, and the overlapping of each Mahayana form again becomes one life world.”
--- pp.16~17

“All the relationships that living beings encounter as they live can be said to create the memories of those living beings in harmony with the range of acceptance of the sensory and interpretive organs of each living being. Therefore, on the one hand, the relationships of the living world can be said to be the subject that creates memories. On the other hand, since the formation of memories varies depending on the lifestyle each living being has led, it can be said that the relationships of life and the life activities of living beings create embodied memories. However, ultimately, embodied memories determine life activities.
This is similar to how, if you tie a fragrant flower to a scentless substance and leave it for a long time, the scent of the flower will seep into the scentless substance, and when you squeeze the substance, a fragrant oil will come out.
“At first, it can be said that the flower acted as the cause of the fragrance, but later it is like an odorless substance becoming the cause of a fragrant oil, and when we look at the fragrance permeating, it is like the fragrant flower and the odorless substance coming together to produce a new fragrant substance, and the physical properties of the flower and the substance change.”
--- pp.36~37

“The tenth stage is called the Dharma Cloud Land (法雲地), because the thoughts, words, and actions of a Bodhisattva practitioner who has passed the ninth stage and achieved the merit of practicing altruism are always unfettered activities while being able to seamlessly use the wisdom needed by all living beings. It is like having merit water (功德水) for all living beings in the clouds (法雲) of wisdom that fill the sky and rain merit rain where it is needed.
This means that we have become a Dharma body that can practice without fail any action, no matter how small, that is for the sake of the community of life, and that can refrain from doing any action, no matter how small, that would harm the community of life.
“Becoming a member of the 10th branch of Dharma means that you can perform the activities of a Bodhisattva consciously or unconsciously.”
--- p.192

“When the conditions of perception change, you may see images that you have never experienced in your daily life, experience a state of unified perception where subject and object disappear, and in some cases, you may experience an empty state of mind when no images are created.
Therefore, being able to freely enter and exit a state of consciousness can be said to have established a foundation for a deep and broad understanding that perceived events and objects are interpretations based on images created by the mind.
This is called wisdom purification.
Therefore, I pay my respects to those who have achieved the Bodhisattva practice and attained the four purities mentioned above.”
--- p.312

“Whether we are aware of it or not, the flow of life as a community continues because we share life information and talk to each other.
To do so, one would have had to create and deconstruct specific images, read the changes unfolding in the network of life, and record the information thus read.
Since even such natural inaction is like the operation of refined information, we must also see that the flow of life that appears to be inaction is also formed based on interpreted information of existence.
That is why dismantling information is as important as creating it.
Because the flow of life always occurs through the resonance of multiple waves.
If we remain stuck on information that has already been formed, it will be difficult to engage in interpretive activities that are fully aligned with the infinite flow of life, and it will easily make the present a shadow of the past.
That is why we call the act of interpretation that remains as a shadow of the past a polluted information activity.
“Polluted activity is like longing for the past while aiming for the future.”

--- p.325