In Buddhism itself, there is no distinction between orthodox and superstitious, since the fundamental teachings are the same everywhere. Buddhism flows out from the sea of wisdom and compassion that was engendered by Śākyamuni, the enlightened Buddha. Its teachings are full of wisdom, kindness, radiance, comfort, freshness, and coolness. Buddhism as a religion is alive in the communities that have been established based on the Buddha’s teachings.

The term orthodox Buddhism implies correct faith, proper vows, right understanding, upright behavior, and genuine trust. Such authentic faith should be placed in teachings that are (1) timeless, (2) universal, and (3) necessary. In other words, the teachings should have always been true in the past, should be true everywhere in the present, and should infallibly be true in the future.

Faith or reliance on a principle or a thing that fails to meet these three criteria is not correct faith and is therefore superstition. If a religion’s doctrines cannot stand the test of time, are incompatible with the environment, or cannot further develop in the face of change, the religion is superstitious.

It cannot be denied that in regions where Mahāyāna [lit. “Great Vehicle”] Buddhism is practiced, especially in China, authentic Buddhism has largely been the privilege of isolated, eminent monks and small numbers of gentry-scholars. Buddhism has seldom been correctly understood and practiced by the general populace, whose religious practice is actually a potpourri of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. For instance, practices such as worshipping gods and ghosts, and beliefs that people automatically become ghosts after death, are not Buddhist teachings.

Resources:
Orthodox Chinese Buddhism: A contemporary Chan Master’s answers to common questions, p.21

What Are the Basic Dogmas of Buddhism? In principle, Buddhism has no dogmas. What are closest to being dogmatic are the precepts. But precepts for Buddhists are not a covenant with God, so they are not mysterious as in some religions. Precepts in Buddhism come from principles of ethics and are hence purely rational.

The basic rules of conduct for Buddhists are the five precepts and the ten good deeds or virtues, although the specific precepts someone takes vary according to what class of practitioner he or she is. For example, for laypeople, there are the five precepts, the ten good deeds, and the eight precepts; for monastics, there are the ten precepts, the bhiksu precepts, and the bhiksunī precepts; and in the Mahāyāna tradition, there are the bodhisattva precepts. All these precepts, however, are based on the five precepts and ten good deeds. In other words, other precepts are extensions and detailed sub-branches of the five precepts and ten good deeds. Therefore, if one can keep the five precepts and carry out the ten good deeds, the rest will not be so difficult to follow.

The five precepts are abstention from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct (unchastity), verbal misconduct, and drinking alcohol. The ten good deeds are extensions and expansions of the five precepts, and require one to perform good deeds as well as abstain from misdeeds, as shown in figure.

In summary, the Buddhist precepts are to commit no evil and to perform all good. Any act harmful to one’s physical or mental health, family, society, country, to humanity, or to any sentient being falls under the scope of five precepts, and therefore should not be committed.

Anything truly beneficial to one’s own or to another’s welfare should be carried out with all effort. To commit evil violates the precepts, and not to perform good deeds violates the precepts, too.

However, Buddhism is broad-minded. If someone is unaware that certain behavior violates the precepts, such behavior does not count as an infraction. Also, if someone has no intention to violate the precepts, even if she breaks them she is not guilty [that is, does not generate the negative karma] of the transgression. On the other hand, if someone harbors the intention to break the precepts, even if she ends up not breaking them, she bears some guilt [produces negative karmic energy. One is guilty of fully transgressing the precepts only when one actually, intentionally, and successfully carries out the violation.

Resources

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, What Are the Basic Dogmas of Buddhism, p.26-28

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Having faith in the Three Jewels is certainly the most characteristic feature of a Buddhist. Followers of other, theistic religions either believe only in God (i.e., Jews and Muslims), or in the Holy Father, Holy Son, and Holy Spirit (i.e., [Protestant] Christians), or in this trinity plus the Holy Mother (i.e., Catholics). Because Buddhism is an atheistic religion, Buddhists do not worship the Buddha as a deity, nor do they regard him as the one and only Buddha or as the creator of everything who can absolve all the sins of humankind. Rather, the Buddha is a teacher who can help students change their dispositions, acquire knowledge, and cultivate their bodies and minds; he cannot, however, learn for the students or take entrance examinations for them.

So for these reasons, we can see that faith in Buddhism is purely rational and ethical. Buddhists’ worship of the Buddha is much like the filial reverence children give their parents: it is motivated by a desire to repay kindness. An orthodox Buddhist would certainly not worship the Buddha in order to seek prosperity or avoid misfortune. Although the power of a Buddha’s vows may be stimulated by the mental power produced by prayer and thereby bring about a miraculous response, this mainly depends on the person praying. If the person who prays has fixed karma that ripens, even if he or she prays, the Buddha can do nothing to help. If one can practice in accordance with the Buddha’s Dharma—for example, developing the perfections of giving, keeping precepts, patience, diligence, concentration, and wisdom—then one’s karmic energy from previous lives can be changed: heavy negative karma might result in only light karmic retribution, and light negative karma may be dissolved entirely. This is because the maturation of karma is analogous to the sprouting and growth of a plant, which require favorable conditions. A seed given sunlight, air, water, soil, fertilizer, and appropriate care by gardeners will grow very fast to its full size. On the contrary, if these conditions are lacking, the same seed will grow slowly into a frail plant, and might not even germinate at all. The same principles apply to karma and retribution in Buddhism. So the Buddha’s greatness is not due to his creation of the universe or absolution of sins (no one can really absolve another person’s sin), but because he personally realized the Dharma of liberation and taught it to others. Those who practice accordingly can also achieve liberation and can even help others become Buddhas, just as the Buddha did.

So, many Buddhists are unwilling to be addressed as “Buddhists” and prefer to be called “disciples of the Three Jewels.” This is because although the Buddha developed Buddhism, it is the Dharma that is the most essential part of Buddhism. The Buddha cannot liberate anyone ,but the Dharma allows people to emancipate themselves. To worship the Buddha is to show our adoration for him for his kindness inteaching us the Dharma he realized. Before his realization, the Buddha spent three immeasurable kalpas cultivating the bodhisattva path, and after his realization, he offered all he had learned to us without holding anything back. The greatness of his kindness is a billion times greater than all the meritorious worldly deeds combined—indeed, a billion times is really an understatement, as it really is beyond comparison or conception.

Propagation of the Dharma has to rely, however, on the Buddha’s cadres, the members of the Sangha. The Sangha consists of bodhisattvas (such as Mañjuśrī, Maitreya, Guanyin, and Earth Treasury), śrāvakas (including arhats such as Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, and Mahākāśyapa), and ordinary monastics (i.e., all monks and nuns who keep the precepts, practice the Dharma themselves, and expound the Dharma to others). Due to the Sangha, the Buddha’s Dharma of liberation and enlightenment has been propagated and handed down to us, and so the kindness of the Sangha is also immeasurable.

The task of spreading the Dharma is not limited to monastics, since laypeople can do this also. But only monastics can uphold the Dharma. What we mean by uphold the Dharma is to act as a representative and symbol of the Dharma, to maintain a Buddhist presence in the world. This is because if the average person on the street sees a monastic, he will think of Buddhism, but if he sees a lay Buddhist, he will not think of Buddhism. (Unless the layperson explicitly identifies himself as a Buddhist—but it would be awkward to do so every time he meets somebody.)

Summing up, we see that the Buddha uncovered the Dharma, that the Dharma is the core of Buddhism, and that the Sangha upholds the Dharma so that it remains in the world. That’s why between the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the Three Jewels, the jewel of the Dharma is of primary importance. This Dharma that leads us away from suffering to happiness was realized and taught by the Buddha, and is upheld and transmitted by the Sangha, so the Buddha and Sangha are also called jewels.

 When the Buddha was in our world, taking refuge primarily meant seeking refuge in the Buddha; after he passed away, it has meant to seek shelter in the Sangha. The purpose of taking refuge is to learn the Dharma, and to learn the Dharma one must rely on the wise guidance of the Sangha; such guidance is given through the Sangha’s transmission of ideas and influence on one’s behavior. So after the Buddha’s passing away, the Sangha became the primary recipient of offerings to the Three Jewels. Buddhism teaches that we should “rely on the Dharma, not on an individual,”7 and so taking refuge in and transmitting the correct Dharma is of utmost importance. Consequently, the behavior of monastics is their personal business, and as long as they have correct views and can preach the Dharma, even if they break the precepts, laity should still give them respect and offerings. This respect should be given because of the principles of human relations between people of different social roles (lunli); just as the common saying goes, “There are no unvirtuous parents in the world” [implying that even if one’s parents commit wrong acts, one still must honor and respect them as parents]. The respect owed to imperfect monastics is also comparable to the respect a college graduate should have for his or her former elementary school teacher who has no college degree.

So, to an orthodox Buddhist, the Buddha is worshipped because of the Dharma, and the Sangha is paid reverence due to one’s faith in and acceptance of the Dharma. Worshipping the great bodhisattvas is one way of paying reverence to the Sangha. While of course we should revere and make offerings to spiritually realized monastics, great bodhisattvas, and arhats, we should also do the same for ordinary monks and nuns who keep precepts and teach the Dharma. In fact, such respect should even be extended to monastics who do not keep the precepts but have right view and can preach the Dharma correctly (what is essential is that they have right view and can teach the true Dharma). In fact, in these days long after the Buddha has left us, noble monastics [i.e., monks and nuns enlightened to the noble (Sārya) level] are hard to find, so we generally pay our respect to ordinary monks and nuns. The sūtras mention that making offering to ordinary monastics is no different from supporting noble monastics, and supporting either brings one inconceivable and immeasurable blessings.

The magnificence and grandeur of Buddhism are fully embodied in the Three Jewels, so to have faith in Buddhism is to have faith in the Three Jewels. Respect for the Sangha was unquestioned during the Buddha’s time and is likewise unquestioned even today in Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka. But in Chinese areas, reverence to the Sangha has never been accepted as a universal practice, perhaps because some monks and nuns are of dubious virtue. Generally, only a few eminent members of the Buddhist clergy are revered. Some people respect these eminent clerics for their virtue, yet others blindly worship them as if they were gods. And because of this custom of worshipping eminent monastics, some despicable clerics put on acts of strange behavior in order to attract the blind faith of the masses of ignorant people. These are all concepts urgently in need of correction, and an orthodox Buddhist would never behave in such a manner.

Resources

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, Why Do Buddhists Have Faith in the Three Jewels?, p.64-p.67.

In principle, Buddhism asserts equality. Hence, everyone can become a devotee, and everyone has the potential to become a Buddha. But devotees do differ in their levels of practice and spiritual attainment. And furthermore, according to the type of precepts they take, Buddhists are classified into the following nine ranks: upāsaka (Buddhist laymandisciple; C. jinshinan), upāsikā (Buddhist laywoman disciple; C. jinshinü), layman upholding the upavāsa precepts (jinzhunan), laywoman upholding the upavāsa precepts (jinzhunü), śrāmanera (novice monk; C.shami), śrāmanerikā (novice nun; C. shamini), śiksamānā (probationer; C. shichamona), bhiksu (monk; C. biqiu), and bhiksunī (nun; C. biqiuni).

Laypersons who have sought refuge in the Three Jewels and have taken the five precepts are upāsakas. Laity who keep the eight precepts or live in the monastery are said to be upholding the upavāsa precepts. Clergy who have taken the ten precepts are śrāmaneras or śrāmanerikās, and clergy who have received the full precepts are bhiksus or bhiksunīs.

The purpose of this stage was to verify that a woman was not pregnant and that she could adapt to life as a nun. Practitioners who have taken the bodhisattva precepts do not necessarily belong to any of the nine groups, because anyone, even non-human sentient beings such as animals, can keep the bodhisattva precepts.

Resources

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, How Many Kinds of Buddhist Practitioners Are There ?, p.62

All Christian denominations, new or old, emphasize the importance of baptism. It is only after baptism that one formally becomes a Christian. For many Christian sects, the beliefs behind this ritual are similar to those of some Indian religions that superstitiously claim that bathing in a sacred river can cleanse one’s sins.

If one wants to become an orthodox Buddhist disciple, one must take refuge in the Three Jewels. The significance of this ritual is very much the same as that of a royal coronation, the inauguration of a president, or the admission of a new member to a political party. It is an expression of loyalty from the bottom of one’s heart, a zealous promise, a prayer out of admiration, a new life, and a pious taking of sanctuary. Therefore, Buddhism stresses the importance of taking refuge. Without taking refuge, even if one believes in and worships the Buddhas one remains a noncommitted student of Buddhism, an auditor who never registered for classes. This ritual functions to solidify one’s faith and commitment.

In the ritual of taking refuge, a monk or a nun is invited to witness and lead the recitation, which goes as follows:

” I (your name), take refuge in the Buddha, take refuge in the Dharma, take refuge in the Sangha. (three times)
I (your name), have taken refuge in the Buddha, have taken refuge in the Dharma, have taken refuge in the Sangha. (three times)
I (your name), from now on, having taken refuge in the Three Jewels,
having become a Buddhist, will study and practice in the Dharma,
will always support the Three Jewels, and will never renounce this faith.

The ritual, simple but solemn, is designed to cause one to wholeheartedly take sanctuary in the Three Jewels, to rely on and revere the Three Jewels, and to bring forth pure, staunch faith and confidence. The first jewel is the Buddha, the second is the Buddha’s teachings, and the third is the community of monastics who spread the Buddha’s teachings. Taking refuge in these three can lead one to the jewels of peace of body and mind in the short term and liberation from samsāra or even to Buddhahood in the long term. That is why the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are called jewels, and why having faith in Buddhism is called “taking refuge in the Three Jewels.”

Resources

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, How Does One Become a Buddhist?, p.63-p.64

This is certainly a very important question. If one believes in Buddhism without practicing it in daily life, the only benefit one will acquire is the planting of a seed for future Buddhahood.

Such a person will hardly gain any benefit in this life. Buddhist practice is the realization of a Buddhist lifestyle. The four major aspects of practice are faith, precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom.

Without faith, one has not even entered the gate of Buddhist practice. So, faith is the first requirement to practice Buddhism. And taking refuge in the Three Jewels is the first step to establishing faith.

There are many classes of precepts. As a basic requirement, it is enough if one can adhere to the five precepts and ten good deeds. Of course, it is even better if one can take the eight precepts and/or the bodhisattva precepts. For Buddhists, precepts function very much like defensive fortifications do to soldiers holding a garrison during a battle. If someone cannot keep the five precepts and the ten good deeds, she will not even have the disposition of a Buddhist. And if one practices meditative absorptions without keeping the precepts, the meditator will fall into demonic states.

Meditative concentration is the practice of collecting and focusing the mind so that external surroundings will not disturb it. This is a common practice emphasized by many religions, including all the “outer-path” religions in India. The Daoist technique of abdominal breathing called tuna and the Christian practice of praying are also kinds of meditation to develop concentration. The purpose of such meditation is to allow the mind to settle on one object. Only when the mind can become absorbed in one object can one truly appreciate the lofty, great value of religion and attain physical ease and mental contentment—an experience clearly superior to sensual pleasure. Once someone experiences this concentrated state of mind, his religious faith will grow progressively faster. It is impossible for such a person not to have faith. But the practice of meditative concentration is not something unique to Buddhism.

What is unique to Buddhism is wisdom, which serves as a guide to meditation and an antidote to craving for meditative absorptions. Because concentration makes one’s mind undisturbed by external surroundings, when someone enters into an absorption state and experiences joy, it is very easy to become attached to the ecstasy and not want to leave the absorption. Upon dying, this kind of person will be reborn in a dhyāna heaven. According to Buddhist cosmology, the dhyāna heavens are divided into eight general levels, corresponding to the four absorptions of form and the four absorptions of formlessness.

All these heavens are in the realms of form and formlessness within the three realms, where one’s life expectancy is long; however, one is still unliberated from the cycle of rebirth. So Buddhists regard meditative concentration as one means of practice and not as an end in itself. The Chan school in China therefore stresses enlightenment over meditative concentration even though meditation is central to its practices.

Enlightenment is the blossoming of wisdom. Only when one gains the wisdom that penetrates into the true nature of all dharmas can one transcend samsāra and leave behind the three realms. For questions regarding practice, it is best if one can associate with a knowledgeable and skillful practitioner to help show one the way. This entry is only a summary of the basics, and is not intended to be comprehensive.

Yes, Buddhists definitely believe in the effectiveness of repentance. While completed acts of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and major deception (falsely claiming that one is a noble one) will definitely bring about retribution for the perpetrator, other misdeeds, such as attempted offences, unintentional breaking of the precepts, and failures to follow the rules of dignified conduct [for monastics] can all be repented with all retribution dissolved in accordance with the methods prescribed by the Buddha.

 

The function of repentance is to initiate a relentless process of self-reflection and self-discipline, to develop vigilance based on self-awareness, and to purify one’s mind with self-respect, so as to prevent the occurrence of the same mistake. As long as one has the determination to start afresh, and realizes that the past is gone and there is no point in dwelling on it, one’s mind will be relieved from the feeling of guilt and will regain serenity. This is the function of repentance. The wrongdoing has to be honestly revealed (to the community, or to several persons, or to one person, or to one’s own conscience, in accordance with the category and degree of wrongdoing, followed by genuine regret and a resolution not to repeat it). Otherwise the shadow of the misdeed will be hidden permanently in the mind, and will develop into karmic seeds that invite retribution later. Repentance immediately dissolves from one’s consciousness the seeds produced by the misdeed. 

However, the purpose of repentance is to cleanse one’s mind to prevent reoccurrence of wrongdoing. If one repeatedly misbehaves, repents, and then misbehaves again, then the efficacy of repentance will be lost. Moreover, the repentance of Buddhists is quite different from that of Christians, who pray to God for absolution. Buddhists do not believe any god has the power to absolve sin. To Buddhists, the real meaning of repentance is to cleanse the contaminated mind in order to restore its purity.

Resources

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, Do Buddhists Believe That Repentance Is Effective?, p.45-46

No, Buddhists do not believe in the existence of an eternal, unchanging soul.

Someone who believes in the reality of an eternal soul is not truly a Buddhist, but rather an outer-path adherent maintaining the existence of the self (shenwo waidao). Most people except materialists believe that everyone has an eternal, immutable soul.

In America and Europe, the recently popular Theosophical Society also investigates the soul. Such soul-belief is also more or less prevalent in Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Daoism. These religions claim that when one dies, one will be judged for his good or bad deeds by God or King Yama, and will be sent to heaven or hell based on his behavior. Belief in the soul is even more deeply rooted in popular Chinese culture. There is a grossly wrong belief that upon one’s death one’s soul becomes a ghost. “Soul” and “ghost” are inseparably entangled in Chinese folklore. More ridiculously, because some ghosts possess minor supernormal powers, some people think the soul is composed of three distinct “cloudsouls” (hun) and seven distinct “whitesouls” (po).

Actually, though, ghosts just constitute one of the six destinies in samsāra, as do humans. And just like humans, ghosts are born and also die. (Humans are born from a womb, whereas ghosts come to existence through spontaneous birth.) As discussed before, when someone dies, she does not automatically become a ghost. There are many ideas about the soul (linghun) in Chinese folk belief. The soul is often conceived as bridging one life and the next. In this view, “birth” occurs when the soul enters an embryo, and “death” occurs when the soul leaves behind a corporeal body. So the body and soul are analogous to a house and its owner: when the house gets old, the owner moves to a new one. The houses can be changed frequently, but the person living in them is the same. Put differently, a person is a soul plus an external body; the corporeal body is changeable, but the soul is immutable. In this view, the soul is the entity that experiences various births and deaths.

This concept of the soul is not an orthodox Buddhist concept because it contradicts the doctrine of dependent origination and extinction. From an understanding of impermanence, we know that phenomena are constantly arising and passing away, and that nothing, whether physical or mental, is everlasting. Observed with the naked eye, things present us with the illusion that they do not change. But if we examine them with precision instruments, we see that nothing remains still for even a split second. The process of “production and reproduction” discussed in the Classic of Changes also implies the phenomenon of “continual destruction,” which in essence means that everything is in a state of constant change and transformation.

While physical phenomena undergo an endless succession of change, it is even easier to observe the transience of mental states. Psychological changes engender mental states, which bring about good or bad actions. Actions, in turn, influence our mental inclinations. Our future is actually shaped by this circular interaction of mental states and behavior. If this is the case, is it possible for an eternal, never-changing soul to exist? Of course it is impossible. A fixed soul doesn’t even exist when we are alive, not to mention after we die: our bodies and minds exist in a state of incessant change. So if Buddhists don’t believe in a soul, what is the fundamental substance that transmigrates among the six destinies and can transcend mundane existence? The answer to this question exemplifies the exquisite nature of Buddhist philosophy in de-emphasizing the value of a permanent self, but at the same time recognizing the value of self-improvement and self-transformation. Buddhists believe that “phenomena arise dependent on conditions” and “things inherently lack self-nature.”

In accordance with this view, the physical world exists dependent on causes and conditions, as does the spiritual [mental] domain. Things arise when the right causes and conditions are present, and they disintegrate and disappear when causes and conditions disperse. Something as large as a celestial body or even the whole universe, or as small as a blade of grass, a particle, or a single atom, all exist because of the right combination of an internal cause and external conditions. Without causes and conditions, nothing would exist. Thus, in a sense, we can say that nothing really exists.

Scientists studying physics and chemistry can easily support this observation. And what of the spiritual domain? Although Buddhists do not believe in a soul, they are by no means materialists. Buddhists describe the spiritual domain with the term “consciousness.” In Nikāya Buddhism, six consciousnesses are discussed, with the sixth consciousness serving as the entity that integrates the life process. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, two more consciousnesses are mentioned, for a total of eight consciousnesses. The eighth consciousness is the entity that integrates the life process [providing coherence and continuity within one life and between lives].

I will use the Mahāyāna tradition rather than the Nikāya tradition to describe consciousness, below.

The first six consciousnesses in the Mahāyāna tradition have the same names as the six consciousnesses in the Nikāya tradition. In the Mahāyāna tradition, however, the functions of the sixth consciousness are further analyzed and broken into three parts which are labeled the sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousness. All the eight consciousnesses are actually one entity: they are given different names in accordance with their eight different functions.

Residue from all the activities of the first seven consciousnesses, good or evil, is deposited and registered in the eighth consciousness, which serves as the depository of all karmic seeds. The supervisor of this warehouse is the seventh consciousness, and the sixth consciousness works like a warehouse clerk handling the in and out of inventory.

The first five consciousnesses execute actions. So the function of the eighth consciousness is storage. But the storage is not that of a one-way depository. It takes deposits from outside and makes withdrawals from inside. What is deposited is the psychological residue of behavior, which is imprinted on the field of consciousness and called karmic impressions or seeds; what is withdrawn are psychological impulses that later develop into behavior and the results of behavior, called karmic fruits or active dharmas.

In this manner, things move in and out, out and in, seeds becoming active dharmas, and active dharmas leaving behind more seeds. The same pattern is repeated throughout this life, the next life, and infinite future lives. The flow of cause and effect from seed to active dharma and active dharma to seed goes on and on, from countless lives in the past until countless lives in the future. This flow of causality comprises the coherence we experience in one life and the continuity between different lives. Because seeds and active dharmas incessantly move in and out of consciousness, the eighth consciousness itself is ceaselessly changing. This consciousness is qualitatively different not only between two lives, but even between two fleeting thoughts. Exactly because thoughts arise and pass away moment to moment, and every thought is different from all other thoughts, we are capable either of sinking and rising in the sea of samsāra or of going beyond it. The eighth consciousness, therefore, exists in the continuum of momentarily changing karmic seeds and fruits.

Besides this changing continuum of karmic seeds and fruits, there is no such thing as the eighth consciousness itself. An analogy to a current of water is illustrative. A current of water is nothing but water flowing in continuous motion. Besides the flowing water, there is no such thing as a current itself. The objective of Buddhist practice toward liberation is to disrupt this current of birth and death induced by karmic seeds and fruits. When the function of the eighth consciousness ceases, that is, when nothing is deposited and nothing is withdrawn, that is the complete realization of emptiness. In Buddhism, this process is called “transforming the (defiled) consciousness into (purified) wisdom,” after which one will not be dominated by birth and death and will be free within the domain of birth and death.

From the above discussion, we see that the eighth consciousness is not equivalent to an eternal soul. If an eternal soul did exist, then the transformation of an ordinary person into a noble one, that is, liberation from the cycle of birth and death, would be impossible. Buddhists reject the concept of an eternal soul, and their ultimate goal is to negate the eighth consciousness altogether. Only after the defiled, delusionridden, provisionally-manifest eighth consciousness is negated is complete liberation attained. After the negation of the eighth consciousness, however, it does not mean that nothing exists. Instead, one experiences the illuminating wisdom of “neither emptiness nor inherent existence” (feikong feiyou) rather than the entanglements of ignorance and vexations.

Resources

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, Do Buddhists Believe in the Existence of the Soul?, p.34-38

Buddhists certainly believe that one can transfer merit accumulated by oneself to another person. Transference (S. parin āmana; C. huixiang) means to take something from oneself and direct it toward another or others. This operates through sympathetic resonance, which was mentioned in the previous entry.

In the transfer of merits, one’s mental power is transmitted, via the power of Buddhas’ and bodhisattvas’ vows, toward the specified recipient(s). This process is analogous to sunlight traveling through the air, striking a reflective object (such as a mirror or metallic object), and thereby illuminating a dark room. Although the dark room is not directly exposed to sunlight, the reflected or “transferred” light can illuminate it. At the same time, although one transfers merit, one’s own merits do not decrease one iota. An analogy from the Buddhist sūtras compares this process to an oil lamp lighting other lamps—although one lamp may light many other lamps, the original lamp in no way becomes less bright. Therefore, after performing meritorious action, an orthodox Buddhist will aspire to transfer the merit gained toward all sentient beings. Such behavior springs forth naturally from a compassionate mind.

Resources

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, Do Buddhists Believe That Merit Can Be Transferred to Other People? , p.50

The Chinese word pusa is an abbreviated transliteration of the Sanskrit word bodhisattva. The complete transliteration should be putisadou. “Bodhi” means “awakened” or “enlightened” and “sattva “ means “sentient being refers to any form of life that can feel love and other emotions, mainly animals. Bodhisattvas are enlightened sentient beings who are aware of all sentient beings’ sufferings, feel sympathy for others’ plight, and act to succor them. Therefore, we often speak of a person who is altruistic and helps those in difficulties as “having the heart of a bodhisattva.”

The basic meaning of the word bodhisattva is very different from what most Chinese people understand. The clay or wooden statues of various spirits or gods such as the neighborhood locality god or city god are definitely not bodhisattvas. Rather, bodhisattvas are those who have faith in the Buddha’s teachings and seek to practice them, who then vow to liberate themselves and others, and who can even disregard themselves in order to save others.

To become a Buddha, a sentient being must pass through the stage of being a bodhisattva, and he or she must make and take to heart great vows, especially the Four Great Vows: “ To deliver innumerable sentient beings, to cut off endless vexations, to master limitless approaches to the Dharma, and to attain supreme Buddhahood.” We can see how difficult it is to be a real bodhisattva.

But in another sense of the word, anyone who aspires to become a Buddha, from the time the vow is first generated until the eventual attainment of Buddhahood, can be called a bodhisattva.
But in another sense of the word, anyone who aspires to become a Buddha, from the time the vow is first generated until the eventual attainment of Buddhahood, can be called a bodhisattva. Hence, there is a difference between ordinary bodhisattvas and noble bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas mentioned in the sūtras are mostly noble bodhisattvas. According to the Sūtra on the Deeds of Bodhisattvas as Necklaces of Gems, bodhisattvas can be classified into fifty-two levels, and only the top twelve levels (from the first ground to the tenth ground, plus  the ground of equivalent enlightenment and the ground of wondrous enlightenment) are noble stages. Actually, a bodhisattva in the wondrous enlightenment stage is a Buddha, and a bodhisattva in the equivalent enlightenment stage will become a Buddha in his next life. The bodhisattvas we know of, such as Guanyin, Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Samantabhadra, Mañjuśrī, Maitreya, and Earth Treasury are bodhisattvas at the stage of equivalent enlightenment.

Resources

Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, What does Pusa (Bodhisattva) Mean? , p.95