Venerable Miaozang is currently the Superintendent of Hsi Fang Temple and the President of San Diego Buddhist Association. She started her service in San Diego in October 2014.

She was born and raised in Malaysia. She joined Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order, based in Kaohsiung Taiwan in 2003 and made a lifetime vow in renouncing as a Buddhist Monastic in Jan. 2006.

She was given the renounced name of Venerable Miaozang (Chinese name which means auspicious treasures). After four years’ Buddhist training, she graduated with distinction in Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies in Fo Guang Shan Tsung Lin University. After graduation, she was assigned to different Buddhist temples in Taiwan, serving the community by leading meditation and Buddhist practices. Then, she was assigned to serve at Hsi Lai Temple, Hacienda Heights, in 2009 to 2014 in teaching Buddhist studies and leading meditation retreats there. Also, there was consistent outreach to different educational institutions in sharing a few significant Buddhist celebrations, like Chinese New Year, Buddha’s Birthday, Sangha Day, etc. At the same time, she also volunteered in administration at the University of the West, located in Rosemead, Los Angeles, which is an affiliated higher education institution of Fo Guang Shan.

Full Transcript

Auspicious greetings to everyone. I would like to share my PowerPoint. Can the hosts share that? Got it. Okay. I hope you can see the slides. So again, auspicious greetings to all. It is my honor to come again to share the Dharma with everyone. Of course, share what I've learned and what I've experienced when practicing the Buddha's teachings.

For today, I would like to take this opportunity to share with everyone this sutra called Ariya Pariya Sana Sutra, which in English we usually refer to as the Noble Search. This sutra is actually within the middle length discourses of the Buddha. The translation I'm going to use is from Bhikkhu Bodhi and Bhikkhu Nyanamoli.

I learned this sutra before I actually renounced. This sutra helped me to contemplate and really realize that becoming a monastic or renounced life is actually what I would like to devote my whole life to in learning about what is the Noble Search. When I learned about this sutra, it helped me contemplate on the differences between a noble search and the ignoble search. During that time, I was still at university, doing my applied accounting major. But I joined a Buddhist club where I had the opportunity to learn the sutra. On top of this, I also learned about the Surangama Sutra. Both sutras helped me to contemplate deeper the meaning of life and look deeper into what life is really about and what we are searching for.

In this sutra, we know that the Buddha was in Sarvasti together with Ananda. They were going for alms round and after alms round, they took a bath. Eventually, they went to Brahmin Ramaka's hermitage nearby. They came across a few bhikkhus who were discussing the Dharma. The Buddha stood there for a few minutes until the bhikkhus realized that the Buddha was there, and they stopped the discussion. The Buddha realized that they were discussing the Dharma, which is something very meaningful. So the Buddha actually continued on to sharing the sutras.

In this slide, I quote directly from the Majjhima Nikaya, translated by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi. In the sutra, it says, "Monks, there are these two kinds of search, the Noble Search and the Ignoble Search. And what is the Ignoble Search? One, being himself or herself, subject to death, he or she seeks what is also subject to death. Being himself or herself, subject to sorrow, he or she seeks what is also subject to sorrow. Being himself or herself, subject to defilement, he or she seeks what is also subject to defilement." This is what the Buddha defined as ignoble search. Ignoble can also be translated as common, which is something that we, every one of us, have been searching and working hard for.

What may be said to be subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death, to sorrow and defilement? In the sutra, the Buddha continues stating examples. Imagine this is like 2600 years ago. The Buddha said that wife and children, men and women, slaves, goats, sheep, fowls and pigs, elephants, cattle, horses, gold, silver - those are the acquisitions subject to changes, subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death, to sorrow and defilement. One who is tied to these things, clung onto them, attached to them, infatuated with them, and utterly absorbed in them, being himself or herself subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death, and to sorrow and defilement - this is what the Buddha mentioned in the sutra of the noble search.

Speaking of birth, aging, sickness, and death, we know that the Buddha, before enlightenment, learned from two teachers. One is Alara Kalama, an ascetic practitioner, where the Buddha before enlightenment realized the base of nothingness when it comes to meditative concentration. Alara was so happy for the Buddha. During that time, the Buddha before enlightenment still realized that there are times that one needs to enter into meditative concentration. From first jhana, the second, third, and fourth, and slowly, stage by stage, the mind experiences deeper and deeper meditative concentration until the level of the base of nothingness. But yet, when the time comes, one will still need to come out of the meditative concentration. And this is not nirvana. This is not realizing the answer, the solution to overcome birth, aging, sickness, and death.

That's the reason why the Buddha before enlightenment left Alara Kalama and went to the second teacher, Udaka Ramaputta. With that teacher, the Buddha before enlightenment was very diligent in the practice and achieved an even higher meditative state, which is neither perception nor non-perception. Yet, the Buddha during that time still realized that this is subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death, to sorrow and defilement. It is because even though when a person experienced this level, this is already a very high level meditative concentration, even higher than the base of nothingness. But yet, one will come out of that meditative state, and one will come to the end of one's lifespan, and still be within the cycle of rebirth.

The Buddha continues to share about the noble search. "What is the noble search? Here, someone being himself or herself, subject to birth, having understood the danger in what is also subject to birth, seeks the unborn supreme security from bondage, which is nirvana. Being himself or herself subject to aging, sickness, death, sorrow, and defilement, having understood the danger in what is subject to aging, he or she seeks the unaging, unailing, deathless, sorrowless, and undefiled supreme security from bondage, nirvana. This is the noble search."

By knowing ignoble search and noble search, let us move a little bit before the Buddha's enlightenment, even before Prince Siddhartha renounced. Every one of us knows that Prince Siddhartha lived a very comfortable life in the palace, and King Suddhodana, the father, ensured that whatever he needed was given, until the day when Prince Siddhartha went out of the palace walls and saw a sick person, an aging man, and also a dead man, with family members crying around that person, and eventually he saw a practitioner. Seeing all these sights, he realized that every one of us experiences changes physically. We experience sickness, aging, and death. But why do we still live this life as if nothing would happen?

This is what the Prince back then was thinking, until one day he braved himself and approached the king, his father, and asked his father to grant him these four wishes. Siddhartha mentioned to his dad, the king, "If you can grant me these four wishes, I will remain in this palace and inherit this kingdom. If you cannot grant me these four wishes, I'll move on and live a renounced life, and try to find solutions to this cycle of birth and death."

The four wishes are: Let there be no birth, aging, sickness, and death in this world. Is it possible? Of course not. The second wish: Let there be no distresses of sorrow, sadness, suffering, and unhappiness. Is that possible? Not possible. The third wish: Let there be no pain of separation from loved ones. Is it possible to have no death, no pain from the separation? Of course not. And the last wish: Let everything in this world never change.

These four wishes were written in the sutra of past and present causes and effects. When King Suddhodana heard these four wishes from Prince Siddhartha, the king, no matter how wealthy, no matter how many things that the king had, there was no way for the king to grant these four wishes to Prince Siddhartha. And then the king was thinking, this is absurd. How can it be? It's impossible to have no birth, old age, sickness, and death. It's impossible to have no distresses. It's impossible to have no pain when separating from a loved one. And of course, it's impossible to have everything that will never change. Everything changes.

Because these four wishes weren't granted, Buddha or Prince Siddhartha, every day he kept on thinking and contemplating about this problem. And when the king declined the four wishes, of course it's not really declined, but there's no way that the king can grant him these four wishes. That determines the prince to really go forward and live a renounced life and try to find possible solutions to this global issue here. This is like what we experience every day.

In the Buddha's mind or Siddhartha's mind, he kept on asking, before his enlightenment, before renouncing, "While I'm still unenlightened, being myself subject to birth, what is also subject to birth? Being myself subject to aging, sickness, death, sorrow, and defilement, I sought what is also subject to aging, sickness, death, sorrow, and defilement. Then I consider this: Why being myself subject to birth, do I seek what is also subject to birth? Why being myself subject to aging, sickness, death, sorrow, and defilement, do I still seek what is also subject to aging, sickness, death, sorrow, and defilement?"

And only then Prince Siddhartha decided to leave the palace and leave behind the whole kingdom and live a renounced life. And with this photo, you can see Channa feeling very sad, but this is what the prince has decided. He cut his hair, he removed whatever adornments that he had on himself and changed the clothes to just a piece of cloth and continued on his journey in trying to find the truth of life.

And then the sutra continues, "Suppose that being myself subject to birth, having understood the danger in what is also subject to birth, I seek the unborn supreme security from bondage nirvana. Suppose that being myself subject to aging, sickness, death, sorrow, and defilement, having understood the danger in what is subject to aging, sickness, death, sorrow, and defilement, I seek the unaging, unailing, deathless, sorrowless, and undefiled supreme security from bondage, which is the nirvana."

With this paragraph, I try to understand based on what the Buddha shared with us on the Four Noble Truths about the truth of suffering, the causes that give rise to suffering, and the way to the cessation of suffering and force the cessation of suffering. Being myself subject to aging, that is the truth. That is the truth about dukkha, separation from loved ones, not getting what we want. All this is dukkha. This is the truth of dukkha.

Having understood the danger in what is subject to aging, we try, when we recognize what is dukkha, we take one step further in getting to know what gives rise to this dukkha. We try to understand the causes that give rise to it. As I said, what the Buddha mentioned, we as sentient beings, whenever we experience the effects of our action, only then there's fear, only then there's precaution in our mind. But for Buddhas, they're always being very cautious of the causes that they are about to create, the causes that they're going to make, the causes that are going to plant at that moment.

So like one of us, including myself, this is a reminder to ourselves that in our everyday life, we really have to be mindful of the causes that we create, because whatever that we experience, it is not coming from the sky or coming from others, it's not coming from something externally, but it always starts from our own action. It always starts from our words. It starts from our mind. So by getting to know the causes, it helps us to really solve the problems in life.

And of course, seeking the unaging supreme security from bondage, which is nirvana, which is like trying to find ways, like practicing the noble eightfold path, how to live righteously, how to have right view, right speech, and so on and so forth. That is for us to seek the unaging or the unchanging and the truth of life. And I attained unaging supreme security from bondage. Even the "I" here, it is not really referring to someone or something that we attach to or we cling on to. That is what we call the cessation of suffering.

Looking at all the sutras that mention the first half of the sutra that focusing on the distinction between ignoble search as well as the noble search. And I would like to take this opportunity to also relate to what we have been practicing in Fo Guang Shan under the guidance of our founder, our teacher, Venerable Master Hsing Yun. He's 96 years old this year where his eyes cannot see. He can barely walk, sitting on a wheelchair all the time, but in his mind is trying to find different ways to be of service to others. And even after his stroke three years ago, he even had a brain injury, brain surgery, where the doctor removed a blood clot as big as a fist. But then after resting for a year, he recovered and he remembers he can still talk. He can resume whatever that he has been doing every day. But of course, in Venerable Master's mind, he said that he's not sick, he's not in pain, but he's just physically inconvenienced.

Among the teachings that he shared with us is like, we all know that the introduction of Buddhism has been over 2600 years. It has been a long time since the Buddha's enlightenment until today. And Buddhism has been introduced to the five continents around the world, meaning in Asian countries, in Australia, in Africa, in Europe, in America, around the globe. We embrace different cultures, we embrace differences from our cultural background and our educational background. Every one of us interprets the Buddhist teachings according to what we understand.

So when Buddhism was being introduced to Asian countries, many people have too much emphasis on aging, sickness, death, from birth, aging, sickness, and death. And many people assume that when it comes to death, that is an end to this life. However, many people misunderstood the teachings from the Buddha. So that's the reason why Venerable Master re-emphasized this cycle of birth and death by putting birth or rebirth towards the end, instead of saying birth, sickness, old age, or aging and death, Venerable Master said that we can kind of change the sequence a little bit. We can talk about old age or aging, sickness, death, and then after death, it is rebirth. After death, that is a new beginning.

Even though we learn about the noble search and ignoble search, but we live as a human life here, we won't know how many lifetimes that we still have to move on, move forward with the Buddhist selfless practice until enlightenment. But then living this life, if we emphasize too much on life is suffering, life is so dukkha, birth, old age, or aging, sickness, and death are all about suffering, then people, non-Buddhists might think that Buddhism is very pessimistic. Buddhism is always talking about hard and long practices where life is full of suffering.

But then what the Buddha shared with us is to help us realize that whatever that we pursue in this life, those are all upayas, those are all skillful means, those are all necessities in our daily needs. And always remember our teacher, the Buddha, when he first realized enlightenment, he shared with the five bhikkhus the middle path or the middle way. When it comes to middle, it's not really drawing a line, the middle is the middle. When it comes to middle path, it is the emphasis of a balance in our lifetime, the balance in our daily life.

Living as a laity or just like those with families, you still need to work, you still need to learn, everyone still needs to pursue one's career, but at the same time, one realizes that there's a distinction between what we really want to excel in this life and what we cling on to this life. We have to understand that. Always going back to what the Buddha has done himself, living in a luxury life in a palace, indulging in all the enjoyment and not thinking about putting effort in making one better or in focusing on practices or living in an ascetic practice for six years, taking only a grain a day, almost lost one's life. Both are extremes, both are not the middle path. Both are not noble search. So living in this life, we still need to recognize the necessities.

We still need to look at whatever we do, whatever we have as the means to help us live this life as a human so that we can continue on with our practice every day. But by knowing the distinction between ignoble search and noble search, it helps us to raise awareness of not craving, not clinging to the things that are constantly changing. Always reminding ourselves if everything is subject to changes, what is the point of holding on to it?

When it comes to the definition of clinging or holding, it deters us from really being present. When we are doing certain things, our minds are still thinking about the things that we cling to. This is clinging. Sometimes people might have overstretched the idea of living a simple life and emphasize too much on minimalism. Meaning that one discards whatever they have, lives in a secluded life, up in a hill, up in a mountain, away from people, away from society, and only focuses on self-practice. Again, this is not what the Buddha has taught us.

Let us remind ourselves by reading the sutras that we know how the Buddha lived his life after enlightenment. The Buddha is always within being with the sangha. The Buddha is always going to the city, going to the village, talking to people, talking to the king, talking to the villagers and citizens. Every day the Buddha has interaction with the people around him. And every day whenever the disciples or anyone who has any questions or even without questions, when the Buddha views that there is a need to share teaching, the Buddha will always be there to share the ways that he has experienced before. And of course, the Buddha said to try it, practice it, and don't just believe it.

As a conclusion and reflection even to myself, when I learn and when I read again and again about this sutra on the noble search, it reminds us in this life never to forget one's initial exploration. Whatever we vow to be, no matter that there are a lot of desires, sensual pleasures that we experience from time to time, sometimes it's inevitable. But then when we read the sutras, we read the Buddha's teachings, it acts as a reminder for us to stay focused on the noble path. It helps us to be aware of the possible clinging that we might have and always remind ourselves to seek the unaging, un-ailing, deathless, sorrowless, and undefiled supreme security from bondage. And we remain focused on this path.

So thank you again. This is what I would like to share with everyone on the noble search. Thank you.