Learning Wisely

Hsing Yun, the founder of a Buddhist order called Fo Guang Shan, describes a three-step process for learning Buddhist teachings: ¹

1. Learn about a teaching.
2. Think about the teaching.
3. Apply the teaching in everyday life.

These three steps are repeated again and again as a person learns new teachings or explore familiar teachings in greater depth or from a new perspective. I encourage people to engage in these three steps when learning ideas that they want to apply spiritual humanism.

Hsing Yun also describes four reliances to keep in mind when studying Buddhist teachings.² Here is how I interpret the four reliances:

1. Rely on the teachings, not on the character of the teacher.
2. Rely on the meaning, not on the words.
3. Rely on practical consequences, not on conceptual debates.
4. Rely on wisdom, not on knowledge.

I encourage people to follow this advice when learning ideas that they want to apply to spiritual humanism.

1. Hsing Yun (2001). Buddhism Pure and Simple. Translated by Tom Graham. Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill. The three steps described on page 85.
2. Hsing Yun (2010). For All Living Beings. Translated by Robert Smitheram. Los Angeles, CA: Buddha’s Light Publishing. The four reliances described on page 118.