About Us
Generate Bodhicitta and cultivate the path to liberation.
Chapter I
Origins: Carrying Forward Master Renze's Approach
Lotus Wisdom Centre was founded by students and supporters inspired by the teachings of Master Renze. It is a community centred on Buddhist study and practice.
Over many years, Master Renze has placed particular importance on training practitioners and on systematic Buddhist education. Carrying forward this aspiration, his students have established practice centres and online communities in many places. Lotus Wisdom Centre continues this same spirit, with practice centres in Australia and New Zealand, offering people the opportunity to encounter the Dharma, study systematically and practise together.
Following the direction Master Renze teaches, the Centre is rooted in Mahayana Buddhism, guided by the stages of the path and centred on the Three Principal Aspects, holding to the principle generate Bodhicitta and cultivate the path to liberation. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and attain happiness.
Generate Bodhicitta and cultivate the path to liberation
Chapter II
The Gradual Path Is the Direct Path
The first task in Buddhist practice is to establish right view. Why do we study the Dharma? First set the goal straight, then plan where to begin, what to study and how to practise. As the ancient teachers said, “If the cause is not upright, the result will be crooked.” Without a clear aim, practice wanders and may even go astray.
The Three Principal Aspects of the Path—renunciation, Bodhicitta and the wisdom realising emptiness—are the direct route from first entering the Dharma to full awakening:
- Renunciation is the ground from which Bodhicitta arises;
- Bodhicitta is the heart that holds all three together;
- The wisdom realising emptiness is the shared cause of attainment for the noble ones of all three vehicles.
Our programmes take the stages of the path as their backbone and the Three Principal Aspects as their core, guiding practitioners step by step to establish right view and to develop concentration through seated meditation. Though the Dharma's methods are countless, our emphasis is on loosening self-grasping, working with habitual tendencies, purifying past actions, and contemplating renunciation and Bodhicitta.
How the Three Principal Aspects Relate
Renunciation, Bodhicitta and the view of emptiness — the direct path from first entering the Dharma to Buddhahood
- ◆Renunciation is the foundation from which Bodhicitta arises.
- ◆Without renunciation, practice remains on the path of humans and gods, still within the ordinary mind.
Renunciation
The cause of liberation — only by leaving behind the ordinary mind can one enter emptiness
★ Bodhicitta
The all-embracing heart — the core that unites the three principal aspects
- ◆Bodhicitta and the wisdom of emptiness are like the two wings of a bird.
- ◆Aiming at unsurpassed Buddhahood, one ends both kinds of birth and death and attains great, complete awakening.
Wisdom of Emptiness
The common cause of attainment for the noble ones of all three vehicles
The swiftest way to awakening is to generate genuine Bodhicitta
Chapter III
Uniting Understanding and Practice
Where does right view come from? Every method the Buddha taught has four aspects: listening, contemplation, meditation and realisation. Listening to the Dharma gives rise to faith and the wisdom of hearing; sustained reflection on its meaning brings firm conviction, the wisdom of contemplation; continued meditation and conduct lead on to direct insight.
These stages follow an order. “Without method, practice is blind; without sequence, it becomes proud and unrealistic.”
Practitioners today often fall into familiar pitfalls: going without a teacher, practising haphazardly, lacking right view, skipping stages, not actually practising, or rushing for results. The Centre therefore emphasises relying on a qualified teacher, following the stages of the path, and steadily building a sound, systematic understanding—brought into seated meditation and daily life.
Without method, practice is blind; without sequence, it grows proud
Chapter IV
The Dharma as the Standard, Beyond Sectarian Lines
Our study draws widely, taking only one standard—whether a teaching is authentic Dharma—without division by school or sect. Sound teachings from any qualified master may serve as study material.
The stages of the path, the Three Principal Aspects and right view are inseparable from every Buddhist tradition. They are common ground for Chan, Pure Land and Vajrayana alike, not the teaching of any single school—echoing Master Renze's own path through Chan, the Heart-Centre Dharma and Tibetan Buddhism.
Stand on the highest summit; walk the deepest sea floor. Let us walk the path of awakening together.
Stand on the highest summit; walk the deepest sea floor