The Urgent Necessity of Timely Correction

Teachings from Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju, recorded and transcribed by Namo Amituofo’s disciple, Venerable HaiZe.

My child, how many years have already passed in your life? How many years remain for you to use? Can you still manage to save yourself, to ensure you do not grow old, do not get sick, and that your spirit does not die, so that you may be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss? This is the most critical question you must ask yourself.

The Path of Immediate Transformation

To practise timely correction means that once you recognise your personality flaws and the areas where you are prone to making mistakes or creating negative causes, you must immediately cultivate your heart and change your ways. You must transform your heart, your thoughts, and your actions in that very moment. Do not allow yourself to create further mistakes or negative causes.

The Call to Diligent Practice

When you receive guidance from Namo Amituofo, from your teachers, or from Practitioner Su, can you correct yourself immediately? You must reflect deeply on your progress:

• Have you truly changed your personality?
• Have you calmed the hatred and resentment of your karmic creditors—your parents, teachers, and elders from countless lifetimes?
• Are you prepared to accept the resolution of these conflicts, the invitation of spirits, and the process of Chao Du?
• Are you confident in your progress toward rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss?

The Shadow of Impermanence

Before one reaches Awakening, this body remains a vessel of karmic retribution. If you fail to correct your ways in time, you will often bring upon yourself and others the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death. Do not think that because a disaster has not yet occurred, you are safe from these events. Do not think that because you are young, you have time to be lazy or slacking. Impermanence is always by your side, like a tiger watching its prey, ready to pounce upon your human body at any moment.

Purifying the Body, Heart, and Spirit

Timely correction is vital for every practitioner. The goal of our practice is the purification of the body, heart, and spirit. Personality flaws and the negative causes we create are the very things that pollute our body, heart, and spirit. We are already struggling to purify ourselves; why would we add more pollution to our own path? If you allow your personality flaws and mistakes to continue, the consequences are severe:

• You will constantly attract negative karma.
• Attached spirits will manifest before you.
• Your body, heart, and spirit will suffer.
• You will face the pains of aging, illness, and death.
• Your practice will regress instead of advancing.

Timely correction is a sign of being fiercely diligent; it is a true skill, and it is the manifestation of compassion and wisdom. Namo Amituofo.