Take care of your own heart and don’t mind the outside state
2024-03-10
Lecture by Master Guang-Qin(釋廣欽)
This physical body of ours will undergo birth, old age, sickness and death, and will one day be discarded. It is a useless thing. We must give up our body and use this body to practice asceticism and temper it. We should not cherish it too much in order to get rid of our attachment to this form. A person who practices asceticism to achieve perfection, his heart will shine with the spiritual light of Svabhava, and it will reflect the past.
If you become a monk, you should not compare yourself to lay people. You should see through fame and wealth, take everything lightly, and not try to get relationship. Cultivation is natural and voluntary. Wherever you go, Skanda Bodhisattva will voluntarily support you. Only by dedicating yourself to temple affairs can you increase your blessings and wisdom, otherwise you will never be able to be free from life and death.
If you have been freed from life and death and can spread the Dharma and benefit living beings, then even though you do not pursue fame and fortune, fame and fortune will naturally follow along.
If we can cultivate this mind to be pure, then when we die, this mind will enter the lotus and be naturally transformed(upa-pāduka) from the Sukhāvatī lotus pond, instead of an unclean body that comes from the essence and blood of parents. If born from parents, there will still be reincarnation.
Although we are living in the Saha world now, if we recite the Buddha's name, the mind is pure, the land will be pure. If the mind is pure and free from worries and delusions, this will also be a pure land. This is the Pure Land of Saha, and the heart is the Sukhāvatī.
What does receive precept mean? It is to endure humiliation. The practice of patience is fundamental. If you do this way, you can influence people wherever you go. There is virtue in cultivating patience, which not only makes people happy when they see you, but can also influence others. The purpose of cultivation is to be the same wherever you are and to be at ease. The purpose of cultivation is to cultivate these things.
Practice according to Master's teachings, recite the Buddha's name while doing things, and get rid of ātma-grāha (self-ego attachment) and dharma-grāha (attachment), only then will wisdom be developed. Wisdom is invisible and uncatchable. When wisdom is activated, you don't know it. When something happens, you know how to deal with it. This is wisdom.
Where are the Sutras? The Sutras are hidden in our hearts. But this can only be opened by opening up wisdom. Without wisdom, you will be confused when reading the Sutras. If your wisdom is already open, you will feel familiar with the Sutras and understand some truths.
Beating the dharma instruments and chanting Sanskrit chants are all learned naturally and are not learned deliberately. Once the wisdom is activated, you just do it naturally.
Human beings are subject to the eight sufferings of birth, old age, illness, death, and separation from love. If you have the willpower to practice asceticism, you will have small supernatural powers in the future. You know everything no matter where you are, you will be aware of it, so you can have ideas and decide for yourself.
Nowadays, people of all shapes and sizes come to Cheng-tian Temple, but finding tranquility amidst the turmoil is true cultivation. Some people even go to the side of the road to cultivate. Even when a car drives by, they don't feel anything.
You must pay attention to your own heart. What you want is to be naturally happy with the Dharma in your heart. Don't be happy because the external environment is good. You must take care of your own heart. Don't care about the outside state. You must cultivate until you don't feel anything.
Everything is not something you can just talk about or distinguish, but you can experience it with your own wisdom.
Don't expect the benefactor to send you things, don't rely on the benefactor, as long as we work hard and achieve success, the Eight Legions will support us.
