February 28, 2004

Some people said: “Practice should be accompanied by some sicknesses.”  You will understand what the suffering is when you are sick.  If the Pure-Land practitioners want to practice well, then they should abandon the Saha World.  Even thought you had recited Amitabha’s name for all your lifetime, it is still not easy for you to be reborn in the Western Pure-Land if you cling very much to the fame and profit in this world.

Sickness is one of the Eight Distresses in Buddha’s teaching.  You will not be compassionate if you have not experience any sufferings.  While you are suffering by the sickness, it is easy to relate the same type of suffering happened on other sentient beings.  It is certainly very painful even happened on an animal.  All of these are the unfavorable situations, which stimulate our practice.  We should not ask for a smooth practice.  There will be some obstructions if we want to have a smooth practice.  It is just the starting point of our practice when we bump into some obstacles.

Someone once said: “There are holes and it is uneven on the surface of the earth.”  Many people thought, what should we do?  One person said: “It doesn’t matter.  I will buy a lot of carpets to cover the surface of the earth.”  If you were the one who had bumped into this problem, what would you do to resolve it?  Would you buy lots of carpets to cover the surface of the earth?  Or, would you have some other ways?  If you would buy lots of carpets, then the surface of the earth wouldn’t be all covered up until you were getting old because it is not a small area.  There is a simplest way.  As long as you remember to put a pair of shoes on your feet and wear those shoes well then nothing will happen while walking.

When there are some problems in your life, for example, your boss didn’t treat you right; your family member didn’t treat you well; your classmate didn’t treat you nice, this is the time that you should remember to put your shoes on.  If you want to change others and want others to treat you well like the way you want, it is just like covering the surface of the earth with carpets and you will be exhausted.  Therefore, the most important thing to a practitioner is to practice on the mind—your Self-Nature.  When you tame you mind well, it’s just like to put the shoes on your feet.  It will protect your feet from getting hurt.

Yesterday, a retired policeman came to our temple.  He asked me three questions.  One of them is: “I have read many Buddhist books.  These books mention the force of Karma and Karma will affect our rebirth.  What will be the judge of good or bad Karma?”  I said: “The best judge is your mind.  Whether you are creating good or bad Karma, it all depends on what you want to do and it all starts from your mind.  We cannot see our mind but our mind is everywhere.  We create different Karma and different causes and conditions because we have lots of different thoughts.”

No matter what method you practicing on, if you didn’t train your mind well, you would not be able to go beyond to a higher level.  Our minds are always busy.  Before we study any Buddha Dharma we always look outwards.  After we study any Buddha Dharma we beg Buddha to bless us this and that.  We never ask for ourselves.  Only when we ask for ourselves and look inwards, our lives will be different.  The most important thing for Guan-Yin practice is to listen inwards to your Self-Nature.  Our Self-Nature is pure by its nature.  But, we don’t know our Self-Nature is already pure.  We don’t know we should put our shoes on.  Therefore, we have lots of defilements that trap us in the Cyclic Existence.  No matter it is a good time or a bad time, we should always have awareness on our way of practice.  Don’t blame others for their insufficient compassion and wisdom.  We should look inwards and ask for ourselves, and then we will have a very happy life.  Hope everybody practice diligently while walking on the way of practice.