Living a Simple Life: Teachings from Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju

Recorded and transcribed by Namo Amituofo’s disciple, Venerable HaiZe.

On the second day of February in the year 2024, during the third session of the Thrice Yearning Ceremony, Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju offered these profound teachings on the path to liberation.

The Art of Living Simply

To live a simple life is to practise the art of not clinging. It means that you do not remain attached to anything within this human world. Through the process of learning to see through and let go, you will find that your grip on external material desires and emotions begins to loosen. You must understand the necessity to let go. To grasp tightly at the world will only lead you into the cycle of impermanence and being reincarnated.

Clinging tightly and being unable to let go is a form of selfishness; it is also a form of self-protection, an attempt to leave a way out for oneself. In such situations, it is difficult for one's practice to be pure, and even harder to achieve spiritual success.

Transcending the Karmic Body

As a practitioner, you must not only live a simple life, but you must also see through and let go of this body—this body of karma. Within this body and within your consciousness, everything that has occurred since beginningless time is recorded. Much of this history remains in a dormant, static state.

However, if there are ripples, vibrations, desires, thoughts, emotions, or anger, these all serve to attract and awaken the karmic creditors, attached spirits, and demon crowds within your consciousness. This is the manifestation of karma, which causes the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death to unfold before your eyes. This is truly the suffering of human life.

The Path of the Awakened

Living a simple life, being without desire, and not seeking fame or profit is the proper attitude for a practitioner. It is a state that is in sync with the vow of diligent practice to save oneself and save all sentient beings. When you embrace this simplicity, you are aligning your heart with the Truth.

The Stillness of the True Nature

Living a simple life is visible in the actions of those who have realised their true nature: in the process of pure practice and purification, in the absence of disputes between self and others, in the state where the mind is settled and unmoving, and in the absence of the past, dwelling only in the present. May you all find the strength to let go, to purify your hearts, and to chant Namo Amituofo all the way to the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Namo Amituofo