Talk on Dharma

The greatest thing in life is to take refuge with the Triple Jewel

A talk given by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua on March 28, 1993, at Long Beach Monastery

The greatest thing in life is to take refuge with the Triple Jewel. You have to be serious about this. Don’t treat it casually, and don’t act on a whim. First of all, you have to choose a teacher of genuine understanding and wisdom to take refuge with. That way, when there is some principle you do not understand, you will receive the proper guidance that will allow you to gain insight into the Buddha’s knowledge and views. Don’t join “external sects” [sects that seek truth outside the mind] or listen to the instructions of misguided teachers.

It is not only now that external sects and misguided teachers have become so popular. They were also very numerous when the Buddha was in the world. At that time, there were ninety-six external sects and seventy-two cults. These flourished even more than the Proper Dharma. People joined these cults simply because they did not understand the truth. Such cults are very harmful, for they can easily lead you astray. You start out hoping to gain some benefit, but once you go astray, you will only be harmed. It is very dangerous.

If you want to take refuge with the Triple Jewel and enter the Treasury of the Proper Dharma Vision and the Wonderful Mind of Nirvana, you must look for wise teachers. However, even among left-home people, the wise and the unwise are intermingled; they are not all the same. If you make the mistake of joining an external sect, you will suffer great harm; and if you mistakenly follow the teachings of a misguided teacher, the harm is even greater.

Therefore, all of you who are studying the Buddhadharma, don’t let it happen that you seek to ascend but end up falling into the hells instead. Don’t let it be that you want to find happiness, but suffer boundless misery instead. That’s why I said that taking refuge is a matter of the highest priority; nothing is more important. When you take refuge with me, you have to consider everything clearly and recognize the path you’re taking.

Each of you should bring forth the utmost sincerity in repenting of your past offenses before the Buddhas. If you are really sincere in repenting, then your offenses will be eradicated, and your good roots will grow. But if you are not sincere, your offenses will still remain, and your good roots will not grow. So, it all depends on your sincerity and concentration. Do not let your mind get distracted; avoid deluded thoughts; and restrain your wild mind. You have to be true and sincere when taking refuge. If you simply go through the motions, you will not get a response.

If your faith is solid and your conduct is pure, then from the time you formally take refuge until you become a Buddha, you will not run into any great difficulties. If your faith is weak and your conduct is impure, then you can forget about becoming a Buddha. You will have a hard time just being a person. Not only laypeople, but even left-home people will fall into the hells if you do not cultivate.

Therefore, all you laypeople should do your best and work hard. Do not be absent-minded and disrespectful toward Buddhism. You should revere the Triple Jewel, make offerings to the Triple Jewel, believe in the Triple Jewel, and serve the Triple Jewel all your life. Then you will have a response in the Way. If you cannot do this after you take refuge, and you still act as if you had not taken refuge at all, then you will not have any responses.

Every morning when you get up, you should make the Four Vast Vows before the Buddhas. These are vows that every Bodhisattva should make. Make these vows in the morning, and in the evening ask yourself, “Living beings are limitless; have I saved them? I have vowed to cut off the endless afflictions. Have I cut them off? If not, I must cut them off. If I haven’t saved living beings, then I must save them. And if I haven’t gotten rid of my afflictions, I must cast them out. I have vowed to learn the boundless Dharma-doors. But have I learned them? No? Then I must do so.

No matter how busy I am, I ought to devote time to reciting Sutras and reading Buddhist books in order to learn the boundless Dharma-doors. I have vowed to accomplish the unsurpassed Buddha Way, but I am still an ordinary person, not a Buddha. I must hurry and cultivate in order to realize Buddhahood.” You should contemplate in this way every day. In the morning make the Four Vast Vows, and in the evening reflect to see whether you have fulfilled them.

The Buddhadharma Is in Practice,
Not in Talking

The Way and virtue are to people what roots are to a tree

A talk given on the morning of June 13,1958, during a Guanyin Session at Western Bliss Garden Monastery in Hong Kong

Time is like an arrow; the days and months fly by like a shuttlecock. The waves in the river follow one after another. Glory fades quickly. In the world, youth is followed by old age. In this way, we gradually return to the decay and extinction of old age and death, leaving no trace or shadow. Clearly, everything is impermanent.

Since everything is impermanent, we should quickly find a refuge. All of you can count yourselves lucky, for you have searched around and finally come to believe in the Buddha. Faith in the Buddha enables us to attain the ultimate happiness of permanence, joy, true self, and purity. Therefore we should believe in the Buddha. But it’s not enough to say that we believe. We also have to cultivate according to the Dharma. If you believe but don’t cultivate, it’s like talking about food without eating it, or counting the wealth of others—it doesn’t benefit you in the least. So the ancients said:

Virtue must be cultivated. If it is not cultivated,
from where does virtue come?

We should personally practice, always hanging the words “birth” and “death” on our brows, and putting the words “Way” and “virtue” beneath our feet. Maybe that’s hard to understand—why should we put the words “Way” and “virtue” under our feet? It is because the Way and virtue are a person’s foundation. They are to us what roots are to a tree. Once we are endowed with the Way and virtue, we can stand on our own feet.

But with no base under our feet, we have no place to stand. We are in a fix, unable to advance or retreat, and we cannot accomplish anything. If we can actually practice these two things, then we can establish a good character and naturally be successful in whatever we do. So it’s said, “The Way and virtue are the foundation of being a person.” The Analects of Confucius also say, “The superior person attends to the root. When the root is established, the Way comes forth.” Only when the fundamentals are tended to can the Way come forth. This is wise advice from the ancients.

As mentioned earlier, the days pass as swiftly as an arrow, but we don’t notice it. As for the days gone by, just let them go. Only the future is worth pursuing. We should set guidelines for the future, so we won’t let the time pass in a muddle.

Western Bliss Garden Monastery has always promoted the Pure Land Dharma-door and exhorts everyone to vigorously recite the Buddha’s name. Every year, on the nineteenth of the sixth lunar month and the seventeenth of the eleventh lunar month, we will continue as usual to hold Dharma Sessions for reciting the names of Guanyin Bodhisattva and Amitabha Buddha.

However, everyone should certainly not just casually “attend as usual,” not taking it seriously and letting it pass lightly. Rather, each year we should be more vigorous than the year before; we should work intensively. During these seven days, no matter when and where we are, we should diligently be reciting the Bodhisattva’s name and never become lax. We should be mindful of the Bodhisattva; the Bodhisattvas shouldn’t have to be mindful of us.

Why don’t we want the Bodhisattva to be mindful of us? If you are nominally participating in this session, but in fact a lot of idle thoughts keep you from being diligent in reciting the Bodhisattva’s far-reaching name, the greatly kind and compassionate Bodhisattva will certainly take pity on you, you pitiful creature, and be worried because you are not sincerely participating in the session. Therefore, everyone should earnestly and sincerely recite, and go a step further by nurturing kindness, compassion, joy, and giving in your mind. If you can do that, then I guarantee that the Bodhisattva will aid and support you.

Moreover, everyone has come to the session of his own free will; Western Bliss Garden Monastery has never sent invitations to anyone. This shows that everyone is certainly not lacking in sincerity. This kind of initiative is very commendable. Therefore, we should not let this sincerity go to waste. We should all vow to recite until “the waters recede and the rocks appear” (the truth is brought to light), until the Bodhisattvas appear before us to speak the Dharma. Then, we will not have come to the session in vain.

This is the first day of the session. On this day, I bless you all and wish you success this year. If you don’t have any success, I will have to settle accounts with everyone. And if your account isn’t cleared up, you will be sorry. I won’t say too much now. It is better to recite the Bodhisattva’s name some more!

To Study Buddhism, We Must Cultivate
Precepts, Samadhi, and Wisdom

Always use precepts, samadhi, and wisdom to alert yourself; this will help you in your cultivation.

Every cultivator needs to have the Three Non-Outflow Studies of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom.

Precepts: Although there are the Five Precepts, the Ten Precepts, the Bodhisattva Precepts, and so on, the Five Precepts are the most fundamental. They are: do not kill, do not steal, do not engage in sexual misconduct, do not engage in false speech, and do not take intoxicants. If one can hold the precepts, one will not make transgressions.

What is samadhi? Ordinarily, samadhi refers to Dhyana (Chan) samadhi. Generally speaking, it means “unchanging.” When some people cultivate, they do a lot of idle thinking. Today they practice Chan meditation, but tomorrow they hear that reciting the Buddha’s name has a lot of merit and virtue, so they give up Chan and go recite the Buddha’s name. Two days later they hear the merit and virtue of reciting mantras is supreme, so they stop reciting the Buddha’s name and start reciting mantras instead.

In general, that’s how they carry on. Cultivating this Dharma-door today and that Dharma-door tomorrow, they end up achieving nothing. There are also some people who recite the Buddha’s or Bodhisattva’s name with the attitude of “sunning it one day and freezing it for ten.” They recite today, but quit tomorrow. This is because they have no samadhi. Samadhi is extremely important in our cultivation. If we have no samadhi, we will surely have no success in cultivation. Moreover, if we do not have sufficient samadhi and we lack a firm resolve in the Way, external temptations can easily influence us and cause us to fall.

Next there is “wisdom.” In the world, there are wise people and stupid people. Why is it that some people are smart and some are stupid? Of course, it involves cause and effect. All those who cultivated by reciting the Buddha’s name in former lives have comparatively more wisdom in this life. But those who didn’t plant good roots in the past have less wisdom than most people.

The Great Learning says,

If you are in samadhi, you can produce wisdom. But if you are not concentrated, if you produce droves of scattered thoughts, if you are hasty and flighty, then how can you calmly distinguish right from wrong and understand the truth?

Precepts are rules which keep us from committing offenses. While refraining from committing offenses, we should also cultivate the Way, and the secret to cultivating the Way is samadhi power. Once you have samadhi power, you can develop wisdom, and if you can progress one step further, you can understand the Way and become a Buddha.

That is why the three studies of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom are the essential requirements which all people who cultivate the Way should possess. If you do not hold the precepts, then you can create offenses and call forth karma. Lacking samadhi power, you will not be able to accomplish cultivation of the Way. You will not have any wisdom and will become dull-witted.

I exhort you all to take special note of the three studies of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom in your cultivation; always use them to alert yourself and I believe it will help you in your cultivation.

Don’t Wait Till You’re Thirsty
to Dig a Well

Who told you to act so recklessly and brashly when you were free of sickness, instead of taking care of yourself?

A talk given on the morning of June 17, 1958

Only after being sick do you realize
that the body is a source of suffering.
Only after dying do you realize
you applied your effort wrongly.

Living beings all have this problem. When you are not sick, you think the world is a happy and satisfying place. But when you get sick, you cannot move about, eat, or have the freedom to do what you want, and you endure all kinds of unbearable pain and misery. That’s when you discover that this body actually causes us a lot of suffering, but it’s already too late. As it is said,

When the horse is on the edge of the cliff,
it’s too late to draw in the the reins.

When the boat is in the middle of the river,
it’s too late to patch the leaks.

Who told you to act so recklessly and brashly when you were free of sickness, instead of cherishing and taking care of yourself? This is true not only with sickness, but also with the great matter of birth and death.

“Only after dying do you realize you applied your effort wrongly.” During ordinary times, you failed to examine and rectify yourself. But when you see King Yama, you realize that everything you have done in your life, and all your intentions, were improper. When you saw people reciting the Buddha’s name, you slandered them, called them superstitious, and laughed at them for being fools. But now it’s too late for regrets. You have brought the suffering of the Mountain of Knives and the Cauldron of Oil upon yourself. As it was said above, “When the horse is on the edge of the cliff, it’s too late to draw in the the reins. When the boat is in the middle of the river, it’s too late to patch the leaks.” Who told you not to prepare ahead of time?

So Zhuzi said, “Make preparations before it rains. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to dig a well.” Long before it starts to rain, we should consider the problems that might occur when it rains. For example, in northern China we use paper windows. Before it rains, we have to make sure the paper windows are pasted up well, so the rain will not wet the things inside the house. If we wait until it rains and then rush to paste up the windows, it’s a bit too late. Also, in poor villages where there is no running water, you have to consider the water source when you build a house. If you wait until you’re thirsty to dig a well, isn’t it too late?

When we study Buddhism, we understand that all things are impermanent and death is inevitable. So why don’t we first spend some time to look into the problem of our own death? It’s said,

Working “dead hard” is just like joining this session to recite the Bodhisattva’s name. We are holding this session first of all to pray for world peace, and secondly, to prepare for our future after this life. This is just making preparations before it rains.” We should participate in this session every year. Don’t skip a year. Then we will have great affinities with Amitabha Buddha and Guanyin Bodhi­sattva. We should recite until we see Amitabha Buddha as our teacher and Guanyin Bodhisattva as our close friend. If we can be the Buddha’s disciple and the Bodhisattva’s friend year after year, month after month, and day after day, we will naturally become old pals. Then when our life is about to end, the Buddha and Bodhisattva will surely come to lead us to the Pure Land in the West. No one should have doubts about it. It is said,

Cultivators should be careful not to doubt.
Once they doubt, they will be lost.

When we listen to a Good and Wise Advisor, we should not be the least bit skeptical. For example, if the Good and Wise Advisor says that cultivation requires arduous effort, you should truly believe it. If you believe completely, you will surely be able to understand the mind and see the nature, return to the origin and go back to the source. Therefore, we should always listen to the instructions of a Good and Wise Advisor. If he tells you to recite the Buddha’s name, you should follow the instruction and recite. If he tells you not to be stubborn, then don’t be stubborn. This is the essential secret of cultivation.

Earlier we said, “Only after being sick do you realize that the body is a source of suffering.” If people don’t go through some pain and suffering, they will not want to cultivate, because they don’t know what pain is if they have never been sick.

It’s also said, “It’s hard for the rich and honored to cultivate.” If a person is wealthy, he can have everything the way he wants, so why should he want to cultivate? So poverty and illnesses are all aiding conditions to our cultivation. When we get sick, there’s no need to be depressed. If we’re poor, there’s no reason to be worried. There’s a verse which goes,

If we are poor or sick ourselves, of course we should quickly resolve to cultivate. If we see others who are poor, sick, aging and dying, we should also take it as a warning. Life is like a succession of waves. If we can make a vow to be reborn, then we will be prepared in advance. We won’t be in a frantic scramble when it comes time to die. It is just like if a country hasn’t passed through times of disorder, the people will indulge in pleasures, and not know that they should be patriotic and defend their country. That’s the situation Buddhism is in right now. Currently no one is working to make Buddhism prosper, so Buddhism seems to be on the decline.

We should realize that it is not only the Bhikshus and Bhikshunis who are responsible for promoting Buddhism. It is the responsibility of every Buddhist. If each and every one of us can take up the responsibility, how can we worry that Buddhism will not thrive? But now, there are some Buddhists who think Buddhism is not as fashionable as other religions, so they don’t dare to tell anyone they are Buddhist. In fact, they even agree with others that Buddhism is mere superstition. Isn’t that pathetic? For example, there’s a non-Buddhist group at Daofeng Shan in Jiulung ( Hong Kong) which specializes in accepting Buddhist monks and nuns. After they become adjusted, they forget their roots and actually slander Buddhism.

People who truly believe in Buddhism would rather die than change their faith. We should pluck up our courage, and not let our resolve waver even if others make fun of us or tempt us. If every Buddhist remembers that he is a Buddhist, Buddhism will naturally prosper again.

Although other religions may experience temporary prosperity, the way of Heaven is a cycle, and when one extreme is reached, things turn around. No one should let their resolve be influenced by superficial signs of prosperity or decline. The truth is never extinguished. The flourishing of Buddhism depends on everyone’s hard work!

The Land of Ultimate Bliss
Is Right Before Our Eyes

We only need persist in our vigor, and we can certainly go home

A talk given on the morning of June 14, 1958

“I am going home! My fields and gardens are choked with weeds. Why should I not return? My mind has been my body’s slave; how sad and lamentable! I realize that the past is gone, but I can certainly rectify what is to come. I have not actually strayed too far from the path. I have awakened to today’s rights and yesterday’s wrongs.”

These sentences were spoken by Mr. Woo (Tao Yuan­ming). But I don’t know whether at the time he spoke these words he had truly enlightened to their meaning, because, when regarded in the light of the Buddhadharma, these sentences tally with the ultimate principle.

What does “I am going home” mean? We know that the self-nature of the Dharma body comes forth from the constantly tranquil light of the Buddhas of the ten directions. The Sutras say, “All living beings have the Buddha nature.” Our basic nature is not different from, not distinct from, the Buddha. If it were not this way, then it could not be said that “all have the Buddha nature.” Now we are unable to understand and become enlightened to our self-nature because we are defiled and scattered by the five desires and the wearisome dust of the Saha world. We state of no emptiness and join the dust. Therefore we cannot awaken to our own minds and recognize our own basic natures.

But we certainly should not continue to be so submerged and upside-down. We should return to our source: we should turn our backs on the dust and unite with enlighten­ment. Therefore, the words “going home” remind us to return to our original face, to our original home. Also, perhaps, the words “going home” can mean we rely on the strength of a Buddha or Bodhisattva; by means of the merit of reciting that Buddha’s or Bodhisattva’s name, we can be born in the Pure Land.

After one has awakened to one’s own nature and been born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, one makes great vows to turn the boat of compassion around and come back to the Saha world to rescue living beings. This is what is meant by “coming back again.” In the line, “My fields and gardens are choked with weeds,” what do the “fields and gardens” refer to? “Fields” refer to the field of the mind.

The principle here is very obvious. We often use the phrase “suddenly clear away the underbrush” to refer to the gaining of new insight. If we do not cultivate the mind well, our minds become a thicket of scattered thoughts, just as fields and gardens become overgrown with grass and weeds if not tended. These scattered thoughts choke the good field of the mind. As long as you have not “cleared away the underbrush,” you cannot return to the source or understand your mind and see your nature.

“Why should I not return?” This sentence is a gentle remonstration by the Buddhas and sages of the ten directions. They say, “How pitiful and foolish living beings are! Why don’t they hurry up and turn their heads around to see the other shore?” “My mind has been my body’s slave.” This means that living beings are attached to an environment composed of the six defiling objects—the objects of the senses—and cannot awaken to their own minds. So they are continually being turned by defiling objects; they race about feeding themselves and are intent upon making a profit up to the moment that their bodies give out. We undergo numerous sufferings as we toss and turn in the bitter sea of birth and death. Myriad agonies well up, and the suffering is unspeakable. This is also what is meant by “how sad and lamentable!”

Are we living beings are beyond salvation? Must we wallow in the deep abyss of the turning wheel of the six paths forever? Absolutely not! Although we made mistakes in the past, there is still hope for the future. You should know that you “can certainly rectify what is to come.”

In the future, we absolutely will not turn our backs on enlightenment and join with the dust, as we did in the past. Nor will we let our minds be a slave to our bodies. Everything we did in the past, such as not believing in cause and effect, not cultivating diligently, and creating the karma of killing and other offenses, was wrong. Now today, we are in this session reciting the Bodhisattva’s name. This is what is right. So we should “awaken to today’s rights and yesterday’s wrongs.” We should carefully protect what is good and immediately and firmly reform of what is bad. An ancient author said, “An inch of time is worth an inch of gold.” Actually, in the eyes of a cultivator, an inch of time is worth an inch of life. It is just as if each passing moment shortened our life by an inch.

This day is already done.
Our lives are that much less.
We should be diligent and vigorous,,
As if our own heads were at stake…

If we wish to change our errors and tend towards the good, we should do so quicky! We “have not actually strayed too far from the path;” we can still reform. The Land of Ultimate Bliss is within sight! We only need persist in our vigor, and we can certainly “go home.”

When the Foundation is Established,
the Way Comes Forth

A lecture at the University of Oregon on April 12, 1989

Confucius once said, “When there are three people walking, my teacher is bound to be among them. I select their good points and follow them. I take their bad points and change them in myself.” From these words, we know that Confucius was a devoted scholar who was one of a kind.

He was also a great educator who was in a class by himself. He was also a great statesman without equal. From these words, we also know that Confucius was humble and not careless. He never became conceited and arrogant. Why do I say this? Because he said that if there were three people, then he would have two teachers: one would be a teacher for him to emulate, and the other would be a teacher he wouldn’t want to emulate.

This is to select the good and follow it: If someone has good points, I will learn from him. If he has bad points, I will change them in myself and not imitate him. Those who are good can be our models, and we can emulate them. Those who are not good can be an example of what we should avoid. So if we can take this principle as our motto in being people, we will be at ease wherever we are. The ancients had this kind of humble and courteous virtue. Thus, it is not without reason that later generations have honored them as sages.

Someone also said, “All people are my teachers.” Everyone is my teacher. “I am a teacher for all people.” I am also everyone’s teacher. Everyone is my professor, and I am also everyone’s professor. We learn from each other and rub off on each other. “I always teach myself.” I constantly act as my own teacher. Every day, we should briefly reflect on what we have done that day. “Were the things that I did today appropriate? Were they reasonable? Did I do anything unreasonable?” We should frequently examine ourselves. Thus Zengzi said, “I daily examine myself on three points– whether, in transacting business for others, I may have been not faithful; whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere; whether I may have not mastered and practiced the instructions of my teacher.”

Zengzi said of himself that he was not a very intelligent person. So the Classic of Filiality (Xiaojing) says, “Zhongni (Confucius) was seated and Zengzi was attending upon him. The Master said, ‘The ancient kings had the highest virtue and the essentials of the Way. If these are used among the people, they will dwell in harmony and no resentment will arise between the ruler and his subjects. Did you know this?’

Zengzi rose from his seat and said, ‘Seng is not smart. How could he know this?’” He stood up and respectfully said to his Teacher, Confucius, “I, Seng, am very dull-witted. I’m not able to know about the highest virtue and the essentials of the Way of the ancient kings.” If the people can use this, then they will be in harmony and there will be no enmity between the government and the people. This is the great Dharma for governing a nation, cultivating oneself, and regulating the family. Zengseng said he was not intelligent enough to understand it. Then Confucius said, “We received our body, hair, and skin from our parents and dare not harm them. This is the beginning of filiality.”

The Analects say, “A superior person attends to the foundation. Once the foundation is established, the Way comes forth. Are not filiality and fraternal respect the foundation of a person?” A superior person studies the fundamental principles. He devotes his attention to the fundamental principles. “Once the foundation is established, the Way comes forth.” When the foundation is established, then the roots will be deep and strong, and the leaves and branches will flourish. The coming forth of the Way is also the coming forth of the root, the establishing of the foundation.

“Are not filiality and fraternal respect the foundation of a person?” We must trace back to the source and know what we should pay attention to in our human life. What are the roots that people should seek? Filiality and fraternal respect. We should be filial to our parents and respectful to our elders. This is the most important human obligation. The most important matter is not finishing our studies and making a lot of money. We must fulfill our obligations of filiality and fraternal respect–this is our top priority. If we are not filial to our parents, then we are said to have forgotten our roots. People who forget their roots basically don’t understand what it means to be human. Therefore, our foremost human obligation is to be filial to our parents.

In the West, in English there isn’t a very obvious explanation of what it means to be filial to one’s parents. Being filial to parents means repaying their kindness, the fundamental kindness which ought to be repaid. Our bodies were given to us by our parents. Therefore, we must protect our bodies, making sure that our thoughts are wholesome, our bodies are healthy, our ideas are healthy, our conduct is healthy, and we are healthy all-around. We cannot harm our bodies. That means we cannot use our bodies, given by our parents, to do things that break the law or go against the rules of etiquette. We have to follow the rules, do things in the proper way, and be true and honest people.

What is the human foundation? It is humaneness, righteousness, the Way, virtue, loyalty, and filiality. From the time of our birth, the concept of filial piety should be instilled in each of us and we should pay attention to it. If you can be filial, Lord God will be pleased. If you can be filial, the Bodhisattvas will be pleased. If you can be filial, the Buddhas will be pleased. If you can be filial, your parents won’t get mad at you for sure. If you can be filial, you certainly won’t compete for advantages against your brothers and sisters. Filial piety is the spirit of heaven and earth and the human foundation.

We should be loyal to our country. To be loyal to the country, we have to be public-spirited and unselfish, perfectly fair and just. We should cherish and protect our own country and not think about invading other countries in thought after thought. If we only protect our own country, then we are being loyal. If we invade other countries, then we are not being loyal. Why is this? If you invade another country, you have to use the lives and wealth of your own country to fight, make war, and kill others.

There is a saying, “If war is waged over a piece of land, the slaughtered will fill the wilds. If war is waged over a city, the slaughtered will fill the city.” If you fight over land, the ground will be covered with corpses. If you attack a city and massacre the people inside it, the city will be filled with the dead. This is known as “using the country’s resources to devour people’s flesh.” It’s the same as eating people! “Death is insufficient punishment for this crime.” Ah! This is a capital crime. If you commit this capital crime, you are not being loyal to your own country, and you are not being wise in your dealings with other countries.

We should always maintain a kind and compassionate attitude and cherish all people. We ought to be benevolent towards everyone. We should take stock of what we do. We should do fewer things to benefit ourselves and not do anything that harms others. We have to develop and expand the qualities of humaneness, righteousness, the Way, virtue, loyalty, and filiality–these are the basic requirements for being a person.

We should establish this human foundation. Once we do that, we will be healthy all our lives. We’ll be healthy in body and happy in spirit. It won’t be the case that we’re worried and afflicted to the point that our hair turns white, our eyes grow blurry, and our ears go deaf. It won’t be that even when it’s all over, we still don’t wake up–we’re still as puzzled as ever, having spent our entire lives in muddled confusion.

Doing It Just Right is the Middle Way

In the Dharma-door of investigating Chan, you must fix your attention on what you are doing. At all times, you should return the light and reflect within. Don’t be too tense, and don’t be too slack. It’s said,

    Too tight, and it’ll break. Too slack, and it’ll be loose. Neither tight nor slack, and it will turn out right.

But neither tense nor slack is the Middle Way. Walking, standing, sitting and lying down, don’t be apart from this. Once you leave this, you have missed it. What is this? It’s the ultimate meaning of the Middle Way.

In investigating Chan, you must be impartial, not leaning to one side. Don’t go too far, and don’t fail to go far enough. If you go too far, or not far enough, it’s not the Middle Way. If you don’t fall into the two extremes of emptiness and existence, then that’s the Middle Way. It’s said, `The Middle Way is neither emptiness nor existence.’ It is True Emptiness and Wonderful Existence. Do not be attached to true emptiness, and do not be obstructed by wonderful existence, for true emptiness and wonderful existence cannot be grasped or renounced. You cannot take hold of them or let go of them. That’s the true emptiness and wonderful existence.

When you are applying effort, you should finish what you start; only then will you accomplish anything. As it’s said, “Carry it through from beginning to end.” You shouldn’t “put it in the sun for one day and freeze it for ten,” retreat in the face of difficulty, or give up halfway – that’s the behavior of people without backbone. The ancients said,

    In cultivation, don’t be afraid to go slowly. Just be afraid of standing still.

In your daily investigation of Chan, be mindful of your own meditation topic, and slash through all your idle thoughts with your Vajra-jewelled sword of wisdom. When idle thinking is severed, wisdom will arise. With the light of wisdom, you can smash through the gloom of ignorance. Once ignorance is smashed, you can transcend the Three Realms, escape birth and death, and crash your way out of the wheel of life (i.e. the twelve links of conditioned co- production).

Those who apply effort in cultivating the Way must have patience. No matter how hard it is, you must patiently bear it. With patience you can reach the other shore. So in joining this Chan Session, you all should not be afraid of hardship. It’s said,

“When bitterness ends, sweetness comes.”

If you don’t start at the very bottom, you can’t reach the top. Remember that a ten thousand foot skyscraper is built from the ground up. It isn’t built in mid-air. Therefore, Chan cultivators must start with the basics, which are to get rid of idle thinking. If you can stop your idle thoughts, then at that point,

The moon appears in the waters of a pure heart; There are no clouds in the sky of a calm mind.

When the heart is at peace, all problems go away. When the mind is still, the myriad things are in harmony. As it is said:

 True wealth is stopping the mind and cutting off thought: True fields of blessings are devoid of all selfish desires.

One investigates Chan just to get rid of the false and keep the true. It is also to pan for gold, to look for gold dust in the sand, which is a difficult task. But if you want to find gold, you have to look in the sand, and be patient. Do you want to understand your inherent Buddha-nature? Do you want to understand your mind and see your nature? Then you must patiently cultivate, study and investigate, and when enough time has passed, you will suddenly penetrate and enlighten to the fact that it is
originally this way!

“Ignorance means ‘not understading’. The root of ignorance is desire”

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua