Keep These Teachings Close to Your Heart

The Hard Lessons of Life

My dear children, how often do we wait until we have stumbled and fallen before we seek the truth? Many of you wait until you are struck by illness, or until your body is burdened by suffering so profound that you can no longer face it on your own. It is only when you find yourselves in such dire straits, requiring the compassionate assistance of the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, and Practitioner Su, that you finally become willing to listen.

Only then do you become willing to restrain the personality you have allowed to grow unchecked and inflated. Only then do you finally accept that your own thoughts and actions have been misguided and wrong. You begin to realise that these errors have not only harmed others but have also caused deep, lasting damage to your own spirit.

The Courage to Change

It is a difficult path to admit that we have been wrong, yet it is the only way to truly begin the process of change. You must find the courage to transform your habits and correct your path. When you are willing to change, you open the door to a new way of living, one that is aligned with the Universal Principle, the Truth, and the Right Way.

My dear children, you must keep the words of Namo Amituofo, Practitioner Su, and my own humble teachings close to your heart. Treat everything that is not in accordance with the Dharma as a warning—a boundary you must not cross. If you commit these errors, you will inevitably invite various forms of suffering into your life. Because the causes have already been sown, you are simply waiting for the conditions to mature. When those conditions ripen, the fruit of your actions will manifest, and that is when the suffering begins.

The Protective Power of Precepts

This is why the Precepts are so vital. They are not meant to restrict you, but to protect you. By observing the Precepts, you avoid planting negative causes in the first place. If you have already planted such seeds, the Precepts act as a shield, helping you to avoid the conditions that would cause those seeds to ripen into suffering. Therefore, never take the Precepts lightly or dismiss them as unimportant.

• The Precepts as Armour: They serve as a protective layer for your Body-Mind-Spirit, shielding you from the consequences of past ignorance.
• The Wisdom of Restraint: By choosing not to act on harmful impulses, you prevent the cycle of rebirth from continuing to spin in the direction of pain.
• The Path to Purity: Every moment you spend in accordance with the Precepts is a moment spent moving from confusion to awakening, from wrong paths to the right path, and from impurity to purity.

Do not wait for the storm of suffering to arrive before you seek shelter. Practise diligently, cherish every moment, and keep your heart aligned with the Buddha. Namo Amituofo.