During the , we gather to offer our hearts to the Buddha. It is a time for deep reflection and spiritual renewal. Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju offers us this vital guidance on the essential work of knowing and changing our hearts and actions.
True sensitivity and spiritual awareness arise only from a pure heart. You may ask, from where does this purity come? It is cultivated through specific, disciplined actions in your daily life:
Speaking less and avoiding idle chatter.Refraining from judging the faults or rights and wrongs of others.Ceasing to engage in discriminations and attachment.Letting go of ego-attachment, ego-views, and ego-love.Refraining from seeing faults in the people, things, and events around you.Actively changing your personality traits and habits.Practising the art of seeing through and letting go.Maintaining a heart that is selfless, free from wandering thoughts and idle imaginings.
These are the fundamental principles of our practice. You know these truths, children, yet you find that putting them into practice is incredibly difficult. You must understand that this is not merely an intellectual exercise; you must truly put in the work from the depths of your heart to see any real change.
The Trap of Personality and Habit
Practice requires you to let go of the personality traits and habits you have cultivated throughout your life in this world. You must understand that these traits are not who you truly are. They are composed of a complex web of confusion, , illusory experiences, and the laws of karma and cause and effect. If you continue to follow your old habits, you are merely indulging your ego. If you find it difficult to face these habits, you are avoiding the very work that leads to liberation.
Furthermore, if you change your outward appearance but your heart remains unchanged, you are only deceiving yourself and others. These three behaviours—following habits, avoiding the challenge of change, and superficial transformation—are all working against your practice. It is difficult to achieve spiritual success this way, and it is even harder to speak of realising your true nature.
The Urgency of Impermanence
Perhaps you feel that you are still young and that there is no need to rush your practice. You may think that you do not need to achieve spiritual success or realise your true nature right now. Children, you must understand that when impermanence arrives, all worldly matters come to an end in an instant. You must be active and persistent in your practice at all times.
Those who have realised their true nature see all beings as one with themselves, and they act according to the needs of the moment. However, for those who have not yet reached this state, you must remember to be strict with yourselves and lenient with others. Do not fall into the trap of being lenient with yourselves while being strict with others. Do not constantly find excuses to forgive yourselves or look for opportunities to relax your discipline. Once you begin to easily forgive and relax, it becomes very difficult to return to the right path. This is a warning that the patriarchs and venerable masters throughout history have always emphasised for those who seek to achieve success in their practice.
The Path to Rediscovery
You must strive to do every single thing well. Hold tightly onto the Buddha-name, . Prostrate to the Buddha with sincerity, recite the sutras with focus, and listen to the teachings so that they enter your heart and mind. Most importantly, make the firm decision to change your personality traits and habits, and then put that decision into actual practice. This is how you will step by step find your way back to your original, true nature.
Qualities such as , , and Selfless Giving, along with sensitive awareness, the ability to learn from one experience to understand many others, and diligent practice, are all in sync with the Truth and your true self. You now stand between your old habits and the heart and actions that are in sync with the Truth. You must know how to choose the right path and walk it with determination.
Recorded by the Buddha's disciple, Venerable HaiZe.
