When we receive Jukai, we are not only acknowledging that we are the Buddha, but vowing to realize it, to actualize it and to
manifest it in daily life. This, of course, is no easy thing. And to do this, the best way we know is to work for the liberation of
all sentient beings. That is the life of the Bodhisattva. So, even without clearly realizing who you are, the moment you make
that intention and decide to work towards the liberation of all beings, you are the Buddha. You are manifesting the Buddha
way. That is the most direct way. You are giving, which is called Danaparamita. You are giving your life for the sake of all
sentient beings – and that is all we really have to give. We think we have all kinds of trinkets and goodies to give but really the
most important thing we have to give is this life. That is the only thing of real value. Gold, money, property and all that is really
pretty empty. This life is the most precious and the most valuable thing: when we dedicate it and devote it to liberating all
sentient beings, we are truly giving, showing true generosity or Danaparamita. Then those three treasures and the three pure
precepts actually unfold into how we do this, expressed in the Ten Great Precepts.
In the first of the precepts, we vow not to kill, not to take any life, because the life we would take is no other than our own life.
What we see when we have the experience of Bodhi Mind, or Big Mind, or Buddha Mind is that everything is no other than me.
So, taking any life is taking one’s own life. And this applies to all these various precepts, when we vow not to steal, not to talk
about others’ errors and faults, not to blame others and elevate ourselves, and so on. Those are ways that we actually live our
life as a bodhisattva and just this is what receiving Jukai is. In the third Pure Precept, you are acknowledging your life as
bodhisattva. From that moment on, you are a bodhisattva. You may have been acting and living as a bodhisattva before now
but here you are acknowledging who you are. You are truly a bodhisattva. You truly are a child of the Buddha. And as a child
of the Buddha, as you mature and grow up, you grow up into a fully adult Buddha. And that is what our practice is.
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