Dadao Series — Book 2
English Edition · 大道天書
◆ Prefaces ◆
Editorial Note: <div class="face-title-lg">大道天德–編輯誌</div>
<div class="text-block">大道系列天書的第二冊–大道天德，是對人類眾生所有良善生存，依附於日常的生活之中，由生存取向了知一切「唯心所識」的需要性，每一個動作都要有「心念意識」的相互結合，也是人類全部的必要接續。</div>
<div class="text-block">大道天德–按部就班把每天所有接續動作，通過了日常的「眼耳鼻舌身意」所起動，由「色聲香味觸法」而明白了，人類眾生所有『新唯識學』理諦，由人世間來進入平常的生活該如何？這就是人類所生存。</div>
<div class="text-block">整體「大道天德」目錄：在緣由人間形成初生之後，再發心無為，就有創造與開創來演化及進化，在對無常變化之流程，經由相對與平衡當中，將日常在「眼觀色、耳聽聲、鼻聞香、舌嚐味、身動觸覺、意起萬法」的。</div>
<div class="text-block">人類眾生所有「第七：末那識、第八：阿賴耶識、第九：菴摩羅識，以四大假合變化了成住壞空，正是覺有情菩薩與眾生，再來六度萬行：布施、持戒、忍辱、精進、禪定、智慧，產生了大乘菩薩行，真如與佛性。</div>
<div class="text-block">對於這種因緣條件，是在所有人類眾生日常生活中，每個人都需要有良好生存，但是，卻不知每個人日常用意名稱，根本都不了知整體接續又是如何？所以不論信仰任何宗教就有很大落差的，不能落實人世間。</div>
<div class="text-block">浩瀚宇宙天地成因，無極未動之初，萬物皆藏，在無中已成「含因」，因緣未熟萬物難成，又一切原動中就有成因，只待緣而發，其緣未至時，對所有作為難以達成，期至萬物初動，由無極降太極，一切初生因有起動。</div>
<div class="text-block">太極動而分兩儀，如此一而二，再而四之分，陰陽天地之初始由此而起，人世間因有陰陽而分男女，兩性成因時而更迭，在兩性分別，就由交合傳延後代而生生不息，又原始初動，因初生其原性純潔而無瑕疵。</div>
<div class="text-block">初生之念無分善惡，是在初動之念，具有先天原性，原性動而分善惡，在學習教化與經驗，累積人類眾生之所為，是應該與不應該，應為與不應為中，教育與學習，在前人承先啟後所教導受益良多。</div>
<div class="text-block">人類蒼生在學習與教育治理條件之下，也就束縛自己生存，又所規範若僅適合當時治理條件，而且就不能適應回返基礎，如此必要因治理之道，能為蒼生來謀福祉，否則！僅為治理而規範，已難成回返先天條件。</div>
<div class="text-block">在修持上，蒼生入於宗教，承前人引導而初入道場，其原始本性皆無善惡之念；亦在平常心當中行持，在此時之心念是最純潔無瑕，甚且完美無缺，入於宗教必有治理規範與條件，如何可為？又如何不可為？</div>
<div class="text-block">無常變化：對人類在世上生活，時刻不停時空旋轉，就會在時空流程有諸多變化，對每一個環節轉換，人人都處在「陰陽相互對立」，如此才能成就一切，人即在對立當中來成就因緣，區分未來之好壞。</div>
<div class="text-block">有時一件事務來臨，看似惡（壞）果，但在人類所作為當中，若能以善德心作行使與造就，又以感恩心完成，看似惡（壞）果來臨，後果能得到相反善緣（果），有時看似善（好）因，又在人類作為有很大變化的。</div>
<div class="text-block">世人皆有趨吉避凶本能，善喜吉祥，棄惡避禍，乃人本能（經驗）已具備如此觀念，甚且此觀念根深而牢不可拔，有時若遇惡運凶禍來臨之時，必要求取解厄方法，在平日有積善德功果者，就能早日脫離苦厄。</div>
<div class="text-block">若無善德因緣，又加上不明事理，必迷茫不知所措，也就造成心急亂投藥（醫）現象，以致於引發一連串苦厄來磨身心，又一樁接一樁考磨，有時正是在於自己「頑冥固化」難以體悟所導致，受考程而生退志。</div>
<div class="text-block">好因成好緣，壞因成壞緣，好因成壞緣，壞因成好緣等不同分別來成就，是在人之作為中，該如何完成造就善德因緣？方法必要多親近宗教，以及善德智識與前賢所薰習，給予開導或蒙諸天仙佛加持普照。</div>
<div class="face-sig-lg">理心光明禪師題於  大道天德天書再版前</div>
<div class="face-sig">丁酉中元、2017年08月</div>
Recommendation: <div class="face-title-lg">大道系列叢書第二冊</div>
<div class="face-title-lg">大道天德–推薦序</div>
<div class="text-block">人間過程：即如草木一春而已，最後落葉枝枯，終至凋萎而沒，如此已成枯木再受蟲蟻侵蝕，而落地歸根，其間經由「地水火風」四大假合助力，由芽而枝、而幹而枯而滅、由出生到長大，而壯都是如此！</div>
<div class="text-block">如何真正替自己有所作為機會？真是既渺小又短暫，也都是替眾人忙碌而已，能替自己往後鋪路者，實在不容易；眾生皆喜好入於宗教修持，若以人類本質僅為修持而修持，必難以了脫今生，自然無法彰顯佛性本質。</div>
<div class="text-block">人之初性本善，在佛性中是不具善與惡，僅是如如不動，真如無垢而已，就不受人之善惡、喜好所影響，真如本性彰顯，必要自己精進用心於般若大智慧提昇，方能達至彼岸，能否進入第九「菴摩羅識」？不一定！</div>
<div class="text-block">人間就是含因改造界，前世所作所為無法得知，僅在今生受報而已，但在前世未明加無知，已是過往了，逝者不必掛懷，今世能否掌握於有生之年，斷除不良前因所改造？就由阿賴耶識轉換，方能下世替自己未來鋪路！</div>
<div class="text-block">菴摩羅識：亦稱為阿摩羅識，在佛性是真如本識，此為無垢識，因在本識所前導，正是由本識來彰顯，必能入於內境第九識當中；若想要彰顯佛性本質，一定要入於第九「菴摩羅識」方是正確！</div>
<div class="text-block">第九『菴摩羅識』所儲藏，此種分別在對人類八識田中，也就是「毘羅性海」種子因；如此若在第八識上，第三心：阿賴耶識貯藏，唯貯藏僅是待緣而已，經由第七識末那識所經過，必難入於彰顯真如之本性</div>
<div class="text-block">六波羅蜜之六度萬行，是以實際「萬法實行」、「萬緣皆通」過程，作為上求下化資糧，又由真正「無我真如」與「法性真如」兩者不相違逆；佛性必會依持在「佛性與真如」就是一體兩面，亦兩者皆是。</div>
<div class="text-block">真如：正是人類眾生原本所具備，不必彰顯亦具有，    眾生受現世環境所蒙蔽，無法由佛性來彰顯，進入宗教就要將自性回溯既往，也能回歸至原來本性，人類眾生又受五蘊所阻礙，但五蘊是成就彰顯佛性真如之要件。</div>
<div class="text-block">真如佛性無垢，清淨而無為：在人間落實於生活，若不經由外塵境所染著，何來有開展智慧之本質？人世間經由波折受難、困苦橫厄……，種種不如意所集成，此生正是前世生命改造界，會在人間經歷一切困厄所阻擋。</div>
<div class="text-block">真如亦稱佛性：在菩薩必須通過十行、十住、十地、十願、十智，而在十階段作為裡面，菩薩必要具大願力、大智慧、大悲心、大慈性、大福德集合，也對「大願力」、「大慈悲」所開展，方能於十地行持到達彼岸。</div>
<div class="text-block">大悟澈大智、中悟澈中智、小悟澈小智，眾生每日皆在開悟過程而不自知，實則開悟所分別，又如何能實際體證、累積智慧？能通過彰顯佛性真如要件，必要有實際作為而非只是道聽塗說，或從經典書本而來的。</div>
<div class="text-block">這些尚不足通過現世實際經驗應用，能有實際修持成就自己，有云「註解金剛經、講解金剛經、聽聞金剛經、實行金剛經者」又何人能成佛？大家謂之如何？說實在：僅有「實行者」方能成「佛」而已！</div>
<div class="text-block">佛菩薩是通過種種因緣和合，累積守中的本質，此間若無分別對待心，方能跳脫三界因緣困擾，人類眾生能否了脫，只在能將自己作為，正是通過「智慧與福德」才能有福慧雙修，此種「陰騭德性」方能長遠。</div>
<div class="text-block">對佛性，亦要時時保持赤子之心，才能真正長久將佛性如實來開展，必要時時不斷，而非時斷時續，方能立於真如境地，人世間就有諸多覺有情菩薩作為，以此來渡化周遭人、事、物，促成對提昇超越，是必要性！</div>
<div class="text-block">真如佛性擴展：是在實地了脫，而非寄望未來或歿度之後再來開展，能通過實地經驗，當下即能彰顯佛性，才能進入「覺有情」、「顯佛性」、「彰真如」，所以在世人能有「用心」即會成就，佛菩薩與眾生分別即在此。</div>
<div class="face-sig-lg">理心光明禪師題於  大道系列第二冊再版前</div>
<div class="face-sig">丁酉中元、2017年08月</div>
The second volume in the Great Way series of celestial books — Great Way Heavenly Virtue
Xingshan Chairperson, the Northern Pole Profound-Heaven Supreme Emperor
September 30, 1993 — the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, year of Guiyou (Thursday)
Xingshan saves beings, its achievements recorded; Writing continues, studying true principle.
The sublime teaching is Heaven's mandate; gods and humans together uphold the Way's renewing force.
Receiving the Heavenly Decree to Write
Tonight is the fifteenth night of the eighth month, the auspicious full-moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival. This hall is now honored to receive the continuation of the heavenly book. The Fortune God of this hall is commanded to welcome the descending deity ten li out; the City God of this hall is commanded to welcome five li out. All remaining gods and humans shall line up to receive the arrival — let there be no breach of ritual!
Before the Throne of Wuji, the Fairy Maiden of the Nine Heavens
Xingshan writes the Great Way, rescuing Heaven's design; universally transforming, witnessing the Way, the meaning of true principle.
The Heavenly Way is selfless; the heart is its instrument. Great Way Heavenly Virtue cultivates the foundation.
Reverently receiving the Empress's Decree of Wuji, descending to the hall to be proclaimed. Gods and humans, prostrate yourselves!
The Empress's Decree is opened and read aloud
Reverently receiving
The Great Heavenly Empress of Wuji issues her Imperial Decree:
The Mother dwells in the sacred realm of the Principle Heaven, yet her heart is bound to the nine billion original children who are deluded and do not return. The Mother's heart holds back tears; at times she leans upon the door in hope, yet the original-spirit children do not come home. Again and again she sends saints and Buddhas to descend to the mortal world to bring the original spirits back early, that they may gather once more before the Mother's countenance.
Observing the present age: human hearts are all deluded by the pursuit of profit, forgetting the cultivation of heart and nature, finding it hard to awaken to the path of return. Observing the Xingshan Hall of Taoyuan in northern Taiwan, on the continent of Nanzhanbuzhou: gods and humans together fulfill Heaven's mandate, sparing no effort in universal salvation. Since founding the hall, they have authored several heavenly books, all spreading the Great Way's grace and manifesting Heavenly Virtue.
I hereby command Nanping Daoji, the Ancient Buddha, to lead the Reason-pen Master Chen in transmitting true principle and narrating the Way of Return. The book shall be titled 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue,' one complete volume — serving as a reference for present-day cultivators to overcome obstacles and hindrances at their cultivation bottleneck, to elevate heart-nature and manifest it, returning to the original spiritual foundation.
The Mother observes the gods and humans of Xingshan, pledged to serve without slackness or laziness. This heavenly book is again entrusted to your hall to gather broad effect. Do not disappoint the Mother's expectation. Xingshan's children, with united hearts and consistent sincerity — the Mother's heart is greatly comforted. In addition to commanding the heavenly book's composition, I specially grant the Wisdom-pen's original-spirit further elevation in observation, to match your hall's effectiveness in universal salvation.
Do not disappoint the Mother's intent. Respect this decree; do not neglect it. Kowtow and give thanks.
The Empress of Wuji proclaims her Imperial Decree at
Nantian Direct-Governing Dao Hall, Taoyuan Xingshan Hall
Heaven's year of Guiyou, eighth month, fifteenth day, the Xu hour
Within the Golden Palace, the Inner Chancellor, Taibai the Immortal Elder
Xingshan's Great Way has glory; Heavenly Virtue, selfless, illuminates the heart.
The Reason-pen writes, transmitting the true doctrine; universally transforming beings, auspicious omens abound.
Reverently bearing the Jade Decree, descending to the hall. Gods and humans, prostrate!
The Jade Decree is opened and read aloud
Reverently receiving
The Great Celestial Worthy of the Jade Emperor, the High Emperor of Mysterious Spirit, issues this Decree:
We dwell in the Supreme of the Nine-Five, holding power over the ascent and descent of the Three Powers — Heaven, Earth, and Humanity — and overseeing the teaching responsibility of the Five Teachings. Observing the Nantian Direct-Governing Dao Hall of Taoyuan Xingshan Hall: you proclaim Heaven's principle on its behalf and universally transform. Your healing salvation of the world has received broad response. However, your hall should strengthen its literary efforts to facilitate the expansion of teaching.
We therefore command Nanping Daoji, the Ancient Buddha, as chief author, leading Reason-pen Master Chen to write books, expound principle, and save sentient beings. The High Truths of the Three Realms shall accompany, to match Heaven's heart and virtuous grace. The book is titled 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue,' and your hall is again commanded to continue writing. Present-day religious sects are numerous, yet all find it difficult to expound heart and nature.
This book specifically addresses present-day religious ills of bondage and liberation, giving cultivators further diligence and confidence to return to Wuji — this is the Mother's hope, and therefore Our heart is greatly pleased. We specially descend one Jade Decree to be brought and read. On the day the book is completed, merits shall be rewarded, consoling Heaven's heart and the grace bestowed.
Do not disappoint Our intent. Respect this decree; do not neglect it. Kowtow and give thanks.
The Great Celestial Worthy of the Jade Emperor, the High Emperor of Mysterious Spirit, descends the Jade Decree at
Nantian Direct-Governing Dao Hall, Taoyuan Xingshan Hall
Heaven's year of Guiyou, eighth month, fifteenth day, the Xu hour
The Northern Pole Profound-Heaven Supreme Emperor
October 2, 1993 — the seventeenth day of the eighth lunar month, year of Guiyou (Saturday)
The North opens the Great Way, crossing over the deluded; in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, hold fast with all your heart.
Mysterious beyond mystery, the realm knows no limit; the Heavenly Way, selfless, revitalizes the pool of the heart.
Supreme Virtue cultivates only the original heart's arrival; the Emperor transmits true principle — all is great wisdom.
Descending to Xingshan to write a preface; encouraging all disciples to know their own true nature.
Preface One
Tonight I descend to the Xingshan sacred hall to write a preface for 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue.' The Xingshan sacred hall was established several years ago. During this period, besides occasionally descending with sacred instructions, I have also been observing, monitoring, and guiding the words, deeds, merits, and faults of all the disciples — as a basis for their future bearing of great responsibility.
The Mother has bestowed the book 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue,' providing present-day religious cultivators — who face many difficulties and tribulations on the cultivation path — with guidance. Some obstacles arise from one's own actions without awareness; some are necessary tests of one's foundation by Heaven. Without testing, no vessel is formed. Testing is not Heaven's desire — rather, it is necessary to pass through the testing process to manifest each person's cultivation achievement.
The testing period is but a portion of human life. The greatest variable during this time is one's own heart-nature attitude and perspective — these are most crucial. The reason for the heavenly book's composition also lies here. I hope all Buddha-disciples can elevate the manifestation of their heart-nature, to match Heaven's virtuous grace and return to the original spirit's true position.
I am deeply gratified that Xingshan's disciples maintain their original devout sincerity, elevating the sacred gate to create new opportunities, serving as a standard and pillar in the northern Taiwan region. This is truly due to the excellent guidance of the sacred hall's gods and Buddhas. I pray this original intention remains unchanged as the foundation of walking the Way. I also hope all disciples can fulfill the mission entrusted by Heaven. This is the preface!
The Northern Pole Profound-Heaven Supreme Emperor descends the preface at
Nantian Direct-Governing Dao Hall, Taoyuan Xingshan Hall
Heaven's year of Guiyou, eighth month, seventeenth day, the Xu hour
Living Buddha Jigong
Saving the world and benefiting others — all begins with oneself; going forth with principle, developing righteousness.
Vividly viewing the world's true delusion; the Buddha-heart expounds principle, narrating the true mechanism.
Preface Two
This old monk descends tonight to write a preface for Xingshan's 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue.' Humans standing between heaven and earth hold the Three Powers — heaven, earth, and humanity — as the chief of all living things. What is most delightful is that humans possess thought, action, and conduct. In the present age, sacred halls are everywhere. There are quite a few true and genuine practitioners, yet some also borrow the Buddha's name to practice their own Way (theft).
Moreover, what is done in this world merely creates bitter fruit for the next life. If in this world one can seek even one part of benefit for sentient beings, one creates ten parts of merit for the next life. Human beings are all deluded by what lies before their eyes, never looking behind. If they could look behind, they would certainly not create karmic sins for the next life.
Consider: previously accumulated karmic sins bring torment. Yet do sentient beings still dare do evil? Not necessarily! Cultivators at sacred halls suffer previous karma without knowing it, sometimes resenting heaven and earth as unfair. The reason lies in their own past karma, therefore coming as testing in this life. The difficulties of the testing process are surely manifold.
Heaven, seeing this, cannot bear to punish without first teaching. Again and again sending Immortals and Buddhas to descend, saving and explaining to sentient beings — all in hope they may early end karmic entanglement. At times manifesting to save, at times everywhere expounding teaching — yet the deluded remain deluded. Those who can be suddenly awakened must have innate conditions and personal vow-power to bring it about.
These bottlenecks and tribulations — if one can receive good knowledge to explain and awaken — can also be resolved. Otherwise, one must rely on the compassion of Immortals and Buddhas to manifest and save. This is precisely the main purpose of this book. But in the process of cultivation, there are many obstructions and tests. Only those who step beyond the fence can integrate principle into heart and nature.
Only thus can one elevate one's cultivation, completely clear accumulated lifetimes' karmic obstacles, and cultivate with ease. This is a necessary condition, providing the human world with a good standard of cultivation, opportunity for upward growth — achieving oneself and also achieving sentient beings. This is the preface!
Living Buddha Jigong descends the preface at
Nantian Direct-Governing Sacred Hall, Taoyuan Xingshan Hall
Heaven's year of Guiyou, eighth month, seventeenth day, the Xu hour
◆ Main Text ◆
第一回 緣由
Ancient Buddha Daoji of Nanping
Patriarch of Daoism, the Primordial Ancestor Taishang, Lord of the Way and its Virtue
October 9, 1993, the 24th day of the 8th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
The Great Dao and Heavenly Virtue inscribe the Celestial Register; the will to save all living souls knows no bounds.
Lifting forth the Buddha-nature, returning to the Original; restoring the Natural, the Principle shines through once more.
The primordial realm of Great Clarity manifests before the eyes; Supreme Virtue reveals itself through the heart alone.
Every path, every great road—all lead through; in the ancestral incense's continuity, the gateway to Heaven appears.
Through the merit of the Path, karmic debts are fulfilled; Virtue's grace extends to the four quarters, saving those in distant peril.
Descending from Heaven, the Principle is expounded, the Heart's chapter recounted; the Venerable alights at Penglai, the Dao's lineage flows on without end.
The karmic affinity of humans dictates they cannot live in isolation, especially in the present age. If living souls were to dwell alone in mountains, rivers, and seas today, their daily lives would be fraught with inconvenience. Consider that we have now entered the era of information, where civilization and technology have supplanted the past. Should humans choose to live apart, it would surely be with great resolve and after enduring many setbacks.
Heaven's Dao is impartial, aiding only virtue,  
Where love resides, human morality adheres.
Heaven and Earth, the Great Dao is trod by all,  
Without self, without action, virtue never withers.
The karmic affinity of all living souls is one and the same,
Yet each creates deeds of differing merit.
Chapter 1: The Origin of Affinity
The Azure Heaven does not forsake a single Original Spirit Child on account of good or evil deeds. All things possess spiritual nature, wrought by Heaven and Earth; the sole distinction lies between the awakened and the deluded. Therefore the Azure Heaven yearns for all Original Spirit Children to return unto their source. Sentient beings descend from their primordial station into the mortal world — a descent that knows no judgment of good or evil.
Through the interplay of heavenly timing, earthly advantage, and human accord, manifold answers take shape; and within each answer, right and wrong, the true and the unjust are born anew. As the ancient saying goes, a hair's breadth of error leads a thousand leagues astray — herein lies the measure of each soul's triumph or defeat. Each person holds a different vantage and bearing; yet the Azure Heaven lays no blame upon sentient beings, but instead establishes teachings to illuminate them all.
The purpose of establishing teachings for universal transformation is to guide living beings toward understanding, that they may discern the right from the not-right. So too does the Way of Heaven instruct: time and again it manifests its truth, simply desiring that living beings pass from ignorance to understanding, from understanding to thorough comprehension. Such is the Great Virtue of Heaven — employing education and guidance as the compass for all conduct.
Through this Great Virtue of instruction, living beings come to understand; yet from their mortal perspective, countless crisscrossing patterns emerge, spawning infinite origins and causes. Within these causes, one must further distinguish the upright from the crooked, the right from the wrong, the true from the false. Karmic conditions arise herein, and only after the Way of Heaven's teaching is truly grasped can one put it into earnest practice.
Actions bear distinctions, and within those distinctions manifold karmic conditions arise, interlocking ring upon ring to form this variegated world. Karmic cause and effect gives rise to the present human realm, and the environment itself is wrought by karmic conditions. Within this process, if one does not send karmic conditions outward and then draw them inward to forge an isolated self, then within that self there shall be no external conditions to sway it.
Nor should one, on account of good or evil, wrap oneself in isolation. Refraining from external conditions, there is naught to add. Yet though such self-containment appears selfish, within human nature it is precisely the paramount karmic condition for the manifestation of Buddha-nature. This very self is the chief condition for revealing the Buddha-nature within.
But if one remains confined within one's own self, unable to bestow blessing upon others — from the cultivator's standpoint, achievement amounts to preserving virtue for oneself alone. Only when, from within the self, one extends guidance to other conditions for the benefit of all under Heaven can the world be accomplished. Otherwise, self-contained in isolation, how could one fulfill Heaven and Earth? For within the self lies the seed of the public good, and that public good can unite with the multitude.
The multitude constitutes the public good; therefore one must lead from the private self toward the public, that righteous qi may arise between Heaven and Earth. Can humanity then live apart from its kind? Surely not! To live apart, one would have to bear all things alone — yet why would Heaven create so many souls if isolation were their end? Living beings must therefore move from the private toward the public, and only thus may the world be brought to fulfillment.
The many make up the "public," thus enabling the private to be guided toward the public, so that the heavens and earth may give rise to righteousness. Thus, can humans live apart from their community? No! If they could live in isolation, all burdens would have to be borne alone, and why then would there be so many living souls in the world? It is necessary for living souls to transform the private into the public to achieve the world's fulfillment.
If humankind is too selfish,  
Heaven will remake them in great equity.
第二回 人間
Master of Penetrating Heaven, Heavenly Worthy of Numinous Treasure
October 16, 1993, the 2nd day of the 9th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
The Spirit Mountain guides the soul to True Suchness,  
Virtue's treasure flows from the heart through sincerity.
Heaven sends down the pen to enlighten the world,  
The Venerable opens the golden scripture to expound the Original Spirit.
Humanity cannot depart from its kind. In this present life, through the instruction of religion, one surely has the opportunity to seek blessings for living beings — and with greater certainty. Moreover, people of this age live in affluence. Amid plenty, they toil without rest, seldom finding a single moment of pause. How then can elevation be attained? It is most difficult indeed!
The origin of man is hard to fathom,  
Time and space have both made their plan.
Chapter 2: The Human Realm
The Way of Heaven is impartial — equal and just. Among human bonds lies the cause of life's unending transmission. Within this transmission, the good and evil of humankind are wrought through the transformations of Yin and Yang. In the process of transformation, causes are formed and causes are lost. Through forming and losing, a binding relationship takes shape between person and person, forging an inseparable web of connection in the mortal world.
Within this web, people unite through feeling and affection to form societies and nations. Among them, some rise above the multitude, some tower above their fellows, some remain unheard of, some live plainly and unadorned, and some muddle through their days in mediocrity until life's end. In the human world, each plays a different role, and the part allotted to every soul is unique.
Behold! Human life is conceived from the union of Yin and Yang. Nurtured ten months within the mother's womb, the fruit ripens and falls. With a wailing cry, one enters this world. Unknowingly, one grows. Upon maturity, one understands not whence one came nor why one must come. One can only, shrouded in ignorance of what lies ahead, make one's first plans.
From the moment of leaving the mother's womb — three years of nursing, years of arduous upbringing, seasons of instruction — one passes gradually from unknowing to an understanding of how to conduct oneself in the world. Yet it is precisely because, upon falling into the mortal realm, one loses the Pre-heaven and is veiled from one's Original Nature. If education teaches only worldly conduct without illuminating the heart-nature — the very origin of being — then to speak of returning is truly as difficult as ascending to Heaven!
Therefore the original intent of religion is likewise to teach living beings how to walk the great road of return from the mortal world. The root of humanity's origin descends from Heaven itself. If one speaks only of Heaven giving birth and Earth nurturing, yet offers no instruction, then one merely tumbles through daily existence. One ought to employ one's fleeting span of years to perfect oneself and to perform good deeds that benefit the multitude.
If one acts from self-interest, seeking gain for oneself alone, there shall be many realms in this life that can never reach perfection. Moreover, those who create sin unknowingly — from unawareness they forge karma, and having forged it, know not how to amend. Thus the karmic seed has already ripened into fruit, and in the next life they shall again be ensnared. This is the common affliction to which living beings are most prone.
In the human world, where education is lacking, one must rely upon religion for guidance. Yet the saints, immortals, and buddhas were themselves cultivated from human beings. It was only because, in past lives, their conduct accorded with the Virtue and grace of the Heavenly Mind. Therefore, having returned to Heaven, they hold living beings perpetually in their thoughts — at times descending to the mortal world, at times dwelling forever among humankind — wishing to release living beings from their afflictions and guide them to reform their faults and walk the Right Path.
Thus they leave traces of Virtue in the human world, that within the sphere of Virtue, living beings may have a model to follow and emulate. For this reason, religion in the mortal world flourishes greatly. Especially in this present age, ten thousand faiths arise together, entering an entirely new epoch. Concerning human relations, through the development of religion, beings descend across many lives from other realms into this present existence.
People labor busily throughout the day for the sake of subsistence. Even were one to amass all the treasures of the world, they would belong to oneself alone — yet one eats at most three meals a day and sleeps in a bed scarce eight chi long. For this, far too much is already possessed. Yet the greater one's achievements and the higher one's station, the more the soul feels hollow and void. This is the greatest affliction of living beings in this age.
The most urgent task at this moment is this: how ought one to elevate one's conduct? If one dwells in an environment rich with wise and good companions, and all associates seek to benefit living beings and bring blessings to the people — this is called great good fortune. But if one's surroundings lack such wise companions, then one sinks into wine, lust, wealth, and wrath, with self-interest as one's foundation. How then can one devise blessings for the multitude? Truly a cause for lamentation!
If blessings and fortune descend,  
Beware, for true misdeeds abound.
Life transforms the human realm,  
Joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, endless in turn.
Amidst joys and sorrows, partings and reunions,
Suffering, emptiness, impermanence, cycles turn.
第三回 初生
Master of the Three Pure Ones, the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning
October 23, 1993, the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
From the Infinite, the Great Pole descends,  
First to the world, the primal ground extends.
The Heavenly Dao, impartial, aids the virtuous  
Before the honored, it opens paths, relying on Heaven's grace
Binding both halves in sacred union; passing down posterity through endless ages.
The process of birth is hard to fathom,  
In the vast universe, Heaven and Earth gallop.
To humankind, wisdom is given,  
Transforming the netherworld, blessings are bestowed.
From the Infinite, the Great Ultimate sprang,  
Yin and Yang thus came to weave the cosmic mesh.
Chapter 3: The First Birth
The vast cosmos — the formation of Heaven and Earth. When the Infinite had not yet stirred, all things lay concealed within the void. Yet even in non-existence, 'latent causes' were already formed; before karmic conditions ripened, all things could not come to be. Within every primal movement, forming causes already reside, awaiting only the right conditions to manifest. When conditions have not yet arrived, all efforts remain unfulfilled — until all things first stir, descending from the Infinite to the Supreme Ultimate, and all initial births are set in motion.
The Supreme Ultimate stirs and divides into the Two Forms; thus one becomes two, then two becomes four. From this arise Yin and Yang — the very dawn of Heaven and Earth. In the human world, Yin and Yang divide male from female; the two sexes' karmic causes form and alternate in turn. Through their union they transmit and extend posterity, giving birth without cease. In that primal first movement, because of initial birth, the Original Nature is pure and without blemish.
At root, not a trace of good or evil exists, nor any discriminating or comparing mind. The two sexes, after that first movement, through food develop desire; from desire arise the seven emotions and six cravings. At this moment of primal inception, all is most pure and without flaw. Because desire stirs, the opportunity for life's continuation first appears. In humanity's very beginning, before the primal thought arises, all is most pure and unblemished — this is the human world's most fundamental thought.
The thought of initial birth knows no distinction of good or evil; it is the very first movement of thought, possessing the Pre-heaven Original Nature. When the Original Nature stirs, good and evil are divided. Through learning, education, and experience, one accumulates the deeds of humankind — what should and should not be done, what ought and ought not be undertaken. Through education and learning, by inheriting the wisdom of those who came before and inspiring those who follow, one benefits greatly from their teaching.
Because of time, because of place, because of differences in customs and folkways, standards are established — adapting the way of governance to meet the needs of the age. Yet in education and learning, many provisions prove unsuitable for the original foundation, serving only the conditions of governance. Humanity's first movement proceeds from non-existence to existence; from movement, human nature is committed to the standards of daily life.
Thus habit is formed, and the Original Nature becomes obscured and blocked. If one can turn the force of habit toward introspection, then in the process of learning, all unsuitable conditions of governance may be cast away. But in the process of casting away, one must employ great wisdom to accomplish anything. Otherwise, one drifts with the current and buries oneself once more.
Humanity and sentient beings, under the conditions of learning and governance, bind their own existence. If the standards established serve only the governance of the age and do not serve the foundation of return, then it is necessary that through governance one seeks blessings for sentient beings. Otherwise, merely governing for governance's sake, one can hardly achieve the conditions for returning to the Pre-heaven.
The process of initial birth is hard to comprehend; the vast cosmos, Heaven and Earth sweep on.
Granting humanity wisdom and insight; transforming the earthly realm, blessings are bestowed.
The Infinite and Supreme Ultimate bring forth Yin and Yang; Heaven and Earth first formed — a net is spread.
Bound together in marriage,
Offspring thrive, lineage long.
第四回 發心
The Ancient Buddha Jigong of Nanping, the Living Buddha Jigong
October 30, 1993, the 16th day of the 9th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
Ji Dao in life reveals the Buddha-nature,  
Public virtue, self-purified, clears the heart.
Living scenes first stir the heart  
Buddha and Dao, one in innate spirit
When a person harbors good wishes, Heaven surely follows — but one must also weigh the aspirant's conduct. Sentient beings frequently give rise to aspiration, yet it is in that first movement that one's true attitude and conduct are revealed — forming the basis for all future achievement of the Dao enterprise. But if one can use one's own benefit to create public benefit — that is, selflessness — then this kind of aspiration can more easily move Heaven and Earth and achieve wholesome karma.
With heart resolved, one may achieve between heaven and earth;  
First resolve unswayed, one becomes Buddha or immortal.
Thereafter, affairs obstruct and hinder,  
Transforming the heart’s field, once pure and clear.
When mortals wish for good, Heaven will comply,
Their resolve must endure, from start to finish, high.
Chapter 4: Awakening the Heart
A person's whole life in this world is spent in toil; the heart is hard to clear, the nature hard to illuminate. Humanity and sentient beings are ensnared by life's myriad trifling concerns, finding it difficult to steal even a moment's peace. Alas, most pass their entire days in blindness and busyness — how lamentable! Yet if one can attain even a brief spell of spiritual clarity, it is already a great joy in this life.
To enter religion for cultivation is also the fruit of former karmic affinity, and it is the most vital link in present-day education. Yet upon entering religion, the initial aspiration is purely good, free of evil. For newcomers, all is unknown and unclear; therefore every action is like a child's innocence — lovable, selfless, and guileless, giving all who witness it a feeling of utter endearment.
Such conduct wholly accords with heaven-endowed innocence. Yet gradually, through religion's doctrinal constraints, one comes to understand what is prohibited and what is prescribed. Such restraint is necessary for believers and cultivators alike; only because precepts and rules must be observed can there arise the good and reverent who honor religion's standards.
Precepts and regulations impose constraint, causing the innocent pure nature to develop distinctions, producing various bindings within the heart, making it difficult to manifest the Original Nature. By this time, it is already obscured and blocked — the heaven-endowed good ability. Yet within the constraints of precepts and doctrines, one can understand the way of conducting oneself in the world. This is religion's virtue — its power to correct不良 habits and undesirable tendencies, serving to rectify one's life.
Therefore society's moral atmosphere improves, and Dao halls spring up everywhere. For those newly entering the Dao hall, whose original nature is innocent, doctrinal constraints may produce errors unrelated to the original nature. Yet in concepts of good and evil, the Dao hall's precepts are deeply planted in the heart — compared with the conduct of those outside who do not cultivate, they are more able to accord with heavenly principle and conscience.
One's conduct also takes on an upright bearing; compared to the outside world, there truly arises a demeanor at once respectable, admirable, and approachable — giving unpracticing sentient beings a model to imitate and learn from. The Dao hall continues without interruption; because cultivation imposes many precepts and constraints, what was once done freely one dares no longer do recklessly — thus reducing greatly the occasions for creating karma.
Those newly entering the Dao hall, not yet understanding all of religion, often give rise to feelings of joy and wonder. If one can sustain this heart long and unbroken, achieving the Dao is more than sufficient. In the cultivator's initial aspiration, if it accords with Heaven and Earth's natural law, this first stirring of heart can also move immortals and buddhas to foster the growth of good conditions — thus elevating all favorable karmic affinities.
The initial heart's great effect varies from person to person. Some, through initial aspiration, achieve the Dao enterprise. Others, after that first stirring, cannot sustain it and fail at the last hurdle. After a time, as they gradually understand the Dao hall's activities, laziness and slackness creep in — and it becomes very difficult to recapture that original aspiration.
Some, upon holding important positions in the Dao hall, give rise to contempt, pride, and arrogance; flattered by later students, they betray the original intent of their first aspiration — and the aspiration is greatly diminished. Thus, after spending time in the Dao hall, it becomes clear: who has the talent for cultivation? Who is merely 'herding cows and grazing'? Who is accumulating evil? Herein lies the distinction!
Without steadfast will, vows falter,  
How then can any resolve succeed?
第五回 無為
The Ancient Buddha Daoji of Nanping
November 6, 1993, the 23rd day of the 9th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
Without intent, a willow shades the ground  
To benefit all generations, plant a forest profound
The Great Dao turns by nature’s course,  
All is wu-wei, sincere and pure.
If one violates Heaven and Earth's natural law, one's conduct is then contravened! The human world, from non-action, achieves active deeds; through active deeds one can benefit others. But in the environment of benefiting others, one must first possess one's own basic conditions. One must suffice oneself before sufficing others; one must benefit oneself before benefiting others. This is the fundamental condition of human life; otherwise, whence come the resources to accomplish the work of benefiting others!
Non-action, selfless, Heaven's work is done  
Such deeds are truly most excellent
Heaven and Earth turn by nature's own course,
Cosmic principles unfold in due time.
The sage’s rule is through non-action,  
The common folk act with intent.
Chapter 5: Non-Action (Wu-Wei)
Heaven and Earth operate naturally, through non-action; they nourish all things and give birth without cease. Heaven and Earth's operation follows wholly the natural Dao. This truth of operation is simply self-so — natural and unforced, undifferentiated by the actions of all things. It creates the primal driving force for all things to grow and flourish; for humanity and sentient beings, it is the very necessity of existence.
Human life receives Heaven and Earth's nourishment; good and evil karmic conditions are created through the Great Dao's natural, uncontradicted operation. Through countless lives, human actions cannot be compared with Heaven and Earth's Great Dao. Heaven and Earth make no distinctions based on human deeds; all things share the same substance and receive the same portion of care. Therefore, Heaven and Earth's benevolence toward all things lies precisely herein.
The sage governs through non-action; the common person acts through striving. These conduct patterns all relate to worldly accomplishments, forming the causes of different karmic affinities from birth. Moreover, humanity's circumstances and era differ from life to life. The ancient ideal of 'non-action' is very difficult for modern minds to accept — all because we explore only through action and seeking.
Once human life has formed the habit of 'having action,' it is then difficult to achieve 'non-action.' Yet within action, one can from one's own self-interest 'raise the private toward the public' — herein lies Heaven's Great Virtue. Though it begins in self-interest, because it serves the Great Public, this private becomes the function of non-action. To use this function to elevate toward the Great Public without selfishness is to add to the Great Dao's natural driving force.
Humanity and sentient beings, within an active environment, accomplish non-action enterprises — thus causing the Dao hall's transmission to continue without interruption. This is a kind of upward growth. Therefore the universe's creation lies in natural law; Heaven and Earth's creation also operates within natural law. Human life, too, within natural law exercises this natural non-action's Dao. Within nature, there is nothing to add.
In human life, all actions and the body's movement accord with Heaven and Earth's natural law. What thing escapes nature's governance? Plants and animals all possess nature's unchanging law, also wrought by karmic conditions. The natural world takes humanity as chief of all things; humanity has wisdom to think and can distinguish right from wrong.
The supremely wise seek blessings for sentient beings without seeking anything; their aim is to benefit others without thought of self-benefit. For in benefiting others, one already possesses the function of self-benefit. Not seeking merit, yet merit naturally arrives. Therefore it is non-action and without seeking — for oneself, good growth is possible, and one can provide for oneself and sentient beings alike, like Heaven and Earth's operation, the same virtue and grace.
The moderately wise, using their own wisdom, first benefit themselves then benefit others. This is active conduct — first benefiting self, then after self-attainment, attaining others; after self-sufficiency, sufficing others. This is the mentality of Dao hall cultivators; it is not unacceptable. First benefiting self, then benefiting others without selfishness, one ascends from moderate wisdom to supreme wisdom, step by step, in order elevating one's practice.
The lower wise, after benefiting self, close off and reach outward no more to benefit others. This private cannot achieve the public. In the discourse of public and private, it violates natural law; when things reach their extreme, they reverse. Private benefit without public good — in public and private, there is inversion. Even if one enjoys abundance, in the end one's excess of private interest must be used to supplement the public. This is the basic condition that natural law demands.
The supremely wise, because of the public, are without selfishness; what the Azure Heaven supplies is the non-action dharma principle — not subject to private desire's seeking. Only non-action within nature is recognized by truth. Heaven and Earth's non-action does not change natural law in response to sentient beings' prayers. Human life is merely a sojourner within natural law — what more to seek? And if one seeks, can one obtain? Not necessarily!
Amend what humans do
In non-action, true non-action lies
第六回 創造
The World-Honored One, Teacher of Humans and Gods, Śākyamuni Buddha
November 13, 1993 — the 30th day of the 9th month, Year of the Water Rooster (Guiyou), Saturday
The creation of the universe is Nature's own doing; the Yin and Yang of Heaven and Earth have known no fear from the start.
Human creation climbs toward Heaven's secret; the Great Dao and Heavenly Virtue recount the heart's inner door.
The Way of Creation benefits all beings; the Evolution of Heaven and Earth is the fullness of Virtue.
What human life demands is warmth and sustenance, and the establishment of currency for exchange.
From nothingness being arises, inherently present from the start; the Latent Cause within was already thus.
The future awaits only karmic conditions to arise; change and growth — this alone is truth.
The creation of the universe was the arising of being from nothingness, and yet within that nothingness, the causes were already contained. Though being was formed from nothingness, the seeds of causation had already been planted. Thus, within the latent causes, encountering the karmic conditions of time and space, activation began — and the stars proliferated, fulfilling the cause of motion. This lies within the stars themselves, which have already formed the conditions required by the Original Conditions.
When the time had come, the creation of Heaven and Earth, the formation of the universe — all stirred into motion at once. Gradually, from within that motion, the Original Conditions awaited their season, needing only the arrival of the appointed hour to fulfill the origin of the cosmic void. All things between Heaven and Earth are transformations of the universe; between Heaven and Earth, being arose from nothingness. Within the creation of nothingness, it was not that nothing was merely nothing — within nothingness itself, the Latent Causes were already present.
The Latent Causes held within them all the Original Conditions. At that time, all things were still and without motion; only when the time arrived did the cause of movement emerge. This is the arising of being from the nothingness of nothingness — the entire process of creation lies within these conditions. Between Heaven and Earth, this process from nothingness to being accumulated over hundreds of millions of years, awaiting conditions to finally arrive. Even the creation of Heaven and Earth, when the time came, was fully prepared in all respects.
Awaiting the karmic conditions, waiting for movement to arise and unfold — this is the origin of Heaven and Earth's creation. And the origin of human existence likewise came about through awaiting the conditions of Heaven, Earth, and all things. In remote antiquity, there were no garments to cover the body; they consumed flesh and drank raw — this was the life of ancient humanity. In time, wisdom gradually opened, and slowly they came to understand what actions to take, discovering the path of human survival.
Even the creation of remote antiquity arose from nothingness into being, and from being returned to nothingness. Spring, summer, autumn, winter — the seasons succeed one another. So too is human life like the grass and trees in their single spring; a human lifetime is merely several dozen summers and winters linked together. If we compare one human life to spring's birth, summer's growth, autumn's harvest, and winter's storing, we may illustrate the whole of a person's journey.
This may serve as an admonition to all sentient beings: if a human life were but a single year, which among the multitudes would dare do evil and refrain from good? Human existence is composed of countless years strung together into a lifetime — when this year passes, there is still the next. But if, after this life, there were no life to come, then who among them would dare to do evil?
All the creations of humankind arise from nothingness into being. Yet this nothingness is not mere emptiness — it is the unfolding of ten thousand conditions within human life, awaiting karmic conditions to stir, and when causes and conditions ripen, everything falls into place in perfect accord. Such karmic conditions already contain the opportunity for life's creation; yet one's attachment is often fixed upon what one creates, and the heart finds no rest.
The heart forever clings to the thought: 'This is what I have created and built!' And thus one is bound by attachment. Yet consider — the creation of Heaven and Earth, the creation of the universe, these are natural and without artifice. The creation of human life lies merely within the process of seeking the welfare of all beings. O the Ignorance of tiny humankind — why not learn from the universe, from Heaven and Earth, and create a life of natural non-action?
Humanity is as grass and chaff — when shall one's time come? How can one ever know? But no — a human life seeks survival within karmic conditions. If one lives only for oneself, one loses the Way of natural non-action. In truth, a person's entire life is spent in service to others. Thus it is said: 'The purpose of life is service.' One simply does not understand it oneself.
The process of creation wishes all beings to understand: a human life is merely several dozen summers and winters linked together. Can one not look far ahead? That is, birth gives way to death, and death to birth again — human life is truly brief, and there is nothing to be done about it. Consider well whether your own life is not the same. One who can see clearly the nature of the world is truly a person of great wisdom.
Alas — why not set aside one's pride and seek the welfare of all beings under Heaven and Earth, thereby creating boundless blessings for oneself? The process of creation lies within non-action; yet precisely within that non-action, by transforming one's own action back into non-action, one can fulfill true creation. It benefits others and benefits oneself — can you grasp this profound mystery? One must strive with all one's heart!
第七回 開創（創造二）
The Great Accomplished Most Holy Ancient Teacher, Master Confucius
November 20, 1993, the 7th day of the 10th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
The Great Dao's heavenly virtue shows auspicious signs,  
Its creation's affinity springs from the commonplace.
In the Dao temple, transformation springs from the heart,  
Thus this occasion is not the same as before.
Such talent, within a single lifetime devoted to research and creation, pursues inquiry again and again. Through failure, lessons are sought; through failure, causes examined and reforms made — achieving the truth that 'where there is will, there is success.' Thus humanity's creative power drives comfortable living forward. Herein one can see that humanity's creation is no small thing.
To open and create, essence made whole,  
A path in the world, once obscure, now clear.
Necessary to study and invent,
Exquisite tools are truly unique.
From the void, creation springs forth,  
Transforming the nonexistent into the real.
Chapter 7: Creation (Part Two)
Heaven and Earth's myriad creatures that endure — as for human creation, all unfold within the process of natural non-action, their causes achieved through the Dao's spontaneity. Humanity's standing between Heaven and Earth has its originating cause: in giving birth without cease, humanity's continuation is accomplished. Moreover, within each human lifetime lies a special mission; Heaven has bestowed talent — surely there is a purpose.
Thus in one lifetime, some sail smoothly; some endure suffering and hardship to survive; some pass through ordinary, uneventful days. Whatever role one plays, none can escape the responsibilities and missions one bears. When in life can one fulfill one's tasks and complete one's mission? Only after the mission's accomplishment lies life's greatest meaning.
A family's founding begins when Yin and Yang, the two sexes, unite. Yin's mission lies in guiding the transmission of human life and posterity. Yang's mission lies in protecting the family, enabling it to be without worry — reaching a state of harmony and fulfillment. Through this bond of life-transmission, the family's lifeline endures.
Humanity devotes its heart's blood to the family throughout a lifetime — a truly remarkable sacrifice. The transmission of Yin and Yang's two sexes also drives society's union. Heaven and Earth's operation is wholly the Dao of natural non-action — this too is humanity's creation in miniature. From humanity's union, nations and societies flourish. Through creation, humanity's evolution gradually advances.
Humans can form communities — herein lies the great merit of the two sexes. That humanity is ranked alongside Heaven and Earth as the Three Powers springs from this. Humanity, through creation, forms social organizations; within these lies creative power. In humanity's ancient purity, creative ability was comparatively slight, and Heaven's evolution proceeded slowly. Humanity's creative power drives Heaven's evolution to accelerate.
Following the steps with care, we refine  
With grace and precision, all commend the climb.
Humanity's lifetime of suffering and torment exceeds others' share. Though bitter, one can through adversity achieve oneself and also achieve sentient beings. One's own family's benefit may extend to benefit the whole world. Yet if one cannot extend to the public, many private traditions decline, and good customs, burdened by self-interest, cannot endure.
第八回 演化（創造三）
The Holy Emperor Wenheng of the Southern Heaven
November 27, 1993 — the 14th day of the 10th month, Year of the Water Rooster (Guiyou), Saturday
Opening the Great Dao in the southern lands, crossing the lost and deluded; the writings of Heavenly Virtue stir the pool of the heart.
Through brush and pen, all that is passed to the world is teaching; to weigh one's merit is to truly hold virtue.
The sage's revelation cultivates the mind through evolution; the Emperor comes to aid all beings, making sincerity the guiding will.
Descending into the hall, universally teaching, dwelling together in heart; the verse says: all karmic conditions arise from the beginningless.
If one cannot bring about an increase in the resources of living souls, then there will be no long-term advancement. How, then, can the teachings of immortals and Buddhas be truly implemented in daily life? The living souls (students) must gain actual insight to foster a diligent heart, enduring and continuous. Otherwise, if it becomes disconnected from daily life, how can it last? Reflect upon this, and the answer will be clear!
Evolution must be refined,
All creation benefits living souls.
Bearing the past, initiating the future, generation to generation it is passed,
In growth and elevation, the legacy endures.
Birth, dwelling, change, and death are the process;  
All evolution thus is true.
The evolution of the Heavenly Dao brings forth existence from non-existence; within nothingness, the latent causes are already complete. Though all things arise from nothingness bearing their latent causes, they await only the karmic conditions to come to fulfillment. Thus does the evolution of the human world likewise proceed — from nothingness arises existence, from existence arises growth, from growth arises greatness, from greatness comes aging, from aging comes gradual decline, and in decline comes dissolution. This is the process of human evolution.
In the vast and ethereal void — unseen, untouchable, imperceptible — yet within this nothingness, causes are formed. It is not that nothingness holds nothing; it is simply that within nothingness, one awaits conditions. When karmic conditions stir, all things come to be. The evolution of the human world must pass through these stages: Birth, Abiding, Change, Cessation — Formation, Abiding, Destruction, Emptiness.
All karmic conditions cannot be mastered by humanity, nor are they controlled by Heaven above. In the natural and non-action, they await conditions to arise and grow. Though Heaven itself can govern the way of natural growth, according to human conduct — whether good or evil — it bestows blessings or sends down calamities, shaping the future fortune of humankind.
Though these are within the governance of Heaven, they also shift according to human deeds. The evolution of Heaven fulfills the future of all beings within this very environment. Whether one is held in esteem by Heaven during the process of evolution depends on whether the religious Dao Field's conduct accords with the virtuous grace of the Celestial Heart — therein lies the latent cause.
Sentient beings — the students — enter the religious Dao hall through ignorance and the unknown. Within ignorance and the unknown, long-term achievement is difficult. Thus, encountering obstacles, they lose their chance to advance — is this not lamentable? Therefore, entering religion requires the guidance of saints, immortals, and buddhas to illuminate blind spots.
The religious Dao Field is fundamentally a vessel for proclaiming Heaven's intent in its stead. Heaven speaks no words; it is through the cultivation and practice within the human Dao Field that the lifeline of the sacred hall is sustained. When the Dao Field advocates the教化 of life's original karmic conditions and provides benefit to all beings who cultivate and practice goodness, it surely accumulates boundless merit throughout the process of evolution.
Yet the ability to change through one's own effort is paramount. Otherwise, though immortals, buddhas, and wise friends offer guidance, if one does not seek to change, no one can shake one's own resolve. Then, despite guidance, elevation remains out of reach. Sentient beings must understand: this is the most critical point.
Because it benefits all beings, it is pleasing to Heaven. Those who serve all beings and accumulate merit through cultivation walk alongside the Deities and Immortals — this too is the conduct of a Bodhisattva. From this we understand that the process of proclaiming Heaven's will carries its own necessity. One can perceive the signs within human conduct: to save all beings through all beings is itself a vital link in the chain of evolution.
Within this link of evolution, only with the heart of the Deities and Immortals and the conduct of a Bodhisattva can the Dao Field be fulfilled and its teaching advanced. The Dao Field and religion cannot be separated from the web of human relationships. The flourishing of the Dao Field concerns both its leaders and students; yet within the proclamation of Heaven's will, many students remain clouded by ignorance and lack of understanding.
The leaders of religion bear the responsibility of transmitting the teachings of the past and illuminating the future. On the path of cultivation for those who follow, they dissolve the setbacks and adversities encountered in the human world, dispel the ignorance that obstructs the diligent heart's advance, and bestow steadfast faith. If blind spots remain unbroken, they will cast a shadow of disappointment upon the learners, and in so doing, hinder the cultivation of talent.
Sentient beings — the students — enter the religious Dao Field burdened by ignorance and the unknown; within ignorance and the unknown, it is exceedingly difficult to achieve lasting fulfillment. To lose the opportunity for growth when confronted by obstacles — how deeply regrettable! Therefore, upon entering religion, one must rely upon the guidance of the Holy Deities and Immortals to illuminate blind spots, and at times, the uplifting support of wise and virtuous teachers.
If one can grasp the truth within,  
Transcendence leads back to the Heavenly Way.
第九回 進化
Ancient Buddha of the Southern Sea
December 4, 1993 — the 21st day of the 10th month, Year of the Water Rooster (Guiyou), Saturday
In the south, transforming and writing the volume of the Great Dao; galloping across the seas, recounting Heavenly Virtue.
Elegantly appreciating ancient verses, sharing the heart's awareness; through the teaching of Buddhist truth, penetrating to the upright heart.
The Dao of creation is non-action; the essence of origination is to benefit humankind.
The process of evolution accords with all things; the purpose of evolution is to return to the original position.
The essence of evolution demands elevation; only then can humanity achieve great fulfillment.
Through repeated and repeated refinement, exquisite quality is enhanced.
All things in the human world are thus; rigid and unchanging, it is hard to advance.
Before long, one faces elimination, unable to keep pace with the finest karmic essence.
Evolution's purpose is to elevate sentient beings' welfare. Within elevation, one explores the heart's original source. This exploration necessarily gives rise to many confusions and bewilderment, creating many obstacles of ignorance. Sentient beings must light the heart's inner lamp, return to the pure and peaceful original nature, and then connect with Heaven and Earth...
To elevate the true essence,  
Mankind may achieve great success.
Each time, with every revision made,
Refinement and quality are gained.
All in the human realm thus stands,  
Fixed and unyielding, hard to advance.
All things between Heaven and Earth are within the process of evolution. Through the transformation of time and space, it is called impermanence; within impermanence, changes occur in due course, forming a cycle across countless lifetimes. Humanity, long immersed in this environment of evolution, knows not the purpose of birth — not wishing to be born, yet already born; knowing not death, yet already dead. These are matters beyond human prayer, self-control, or mastery.
Therefore, humanity cannot attain its wishes in hope; the heart forever feels obstruction and discontent. If the aspirations of humanity could be self-directed and self-governed, then the purpose of evolution would be returning to one's original station. The origin of humanity lies in the Wuji and the Void — whether one can return to that original place depends upon the deeds of countless lifetimes and this present life before it can be achieved.
The purpose of evolution is to return to one's original station. In this present life, through the process of evolution, by transformation and diligent practice, one can reach the first stage of evolution. When humanity, through transformation and diligent practice, forms within the heart a stage of 'Utter Clarity,' this is merely the threshold of returning to one's original station — there remains yet a long journey before true return is achieved.
How to conduct oneself in the present world — this is the urgent task at hand. Only when humanity evolves does the primal force of creative advance arise. The essence and purpose of creative advance is to augment the welfare of all beings. Viewed from the perspective of the universe's non-action, only through human evolution can the purpose of bestowing blessings be fulfilled. And the founding of a Dao Field guides all beings in accordance with the times to their needed spiritual refuge.
Ere long they face the cull,  
Unable to keep pace with good karma.
Establishing doctrines and precepts as the foundation for cultivation, for the virtuous beings of the Dao Field — not taking one's own cultivation as the ultimate aim, but sharing the consensus of uplifting all beings. Through cultivation one attains oneself, and further, one can attain others. One person uplifting many, forming the accomplishment of many — this conduct transcends human endeavor and reaches the Bodhisattva's practice, the heart of Deities and Immortals.
Thereby, personal accomplishment is free from the bondage of cause and effect, able to perfect oneself and benefit others. Yet even if not bound by karmic retribution, in cultivation within the human world, one is easily swayed by circumstances and prone to fall into karmic entanglement. Only by sustaining the Bodhisattva's heart and the conduct of Deities and Immortals over the long course can one be free from karmic bondage and attain liberation.
The Dao Field and the present-world environment — through the hands of its founders — at times become clung to as personal possession, regarding this worldly environment as 'my creation.' Constantly grasping without letting go, one becomes rigid in acts of benefiting others. Even if the karmic conditions for the Dao Field are fulfilled, they cannot endure. So long as there is private ownership, there can be no public bestowal — how then can wholesome blessings be bestowed?
Within the act of founding, to accomplish virtuous work requires creating without clinging to possession. Otherwise, how can one endure without contradiction? To cling to one's creation as personal property is but a fleeting illusion, 'a flower blooming for a single moment in the clouds.' Surveying the Dao Fields of past dynasties, those that endure have all been those that created without grasping, founded without possessing — this is the way of lasting permanence.
The purpose of evolution lies in the aspiration to elevate the welfare of all beings. In the process of elevation, when one seeks the original heart within, many confusions and perplexities will arise, and countless obstacles of ignorance will emerge. Sentient beings must kindle the light within their own hearts, restore their pure and tranquil original nature, and thereby commune with Heaven and Earth — thus fulfilling the purpose of return.
第十回 無常
The True Lord of the Nine Heavens, Master of Destiny
December 11, 1993 — the 28th day of the 10th month, Year of the Water Rooster (Guiyou), Saturday
The nine-fold heavens and earth open boundless and infinite; the Great Dao of Heavenly Virtue is suffused with righteous qi.
Overseeing the affairs of the human world, giving rise to the fires of life; when the time comes not in one's fate, seek not to lean upon false supports.
The true Dao is selfless, the foundation of learning and principle; through the governance of the noble one, the world's delusions are transformed.
Descending into the sacred hall, expounding the discourse on impermanence; through verses, delivering the multitudes and laying bare the truth.
Impermanence's changes sweep the human world; all karmic conditions are never ordinary.
The impermanent changes in this world,
All karmic affinities are not trivial.
Ever changing yet ever the same,
Who can discern the true doctrine's name?
When humanity evolves, then can human beings truly live, and only thus may they attain flourishing prosperity. Among all creation, were there no evolution in the human world, no karmic conditions could bring about advancement. If within a person there is no evolution, one will surely regress — clinging to the old and conserving what is past. To remain conservative makes evolution all but impossible. Yet throughout one's lifetime, evolution is an absolute necessity.
The process of evolution relies upon the process of impermanence. From the moment a person emerges from the mother's womb, one must pass through stages of evolution. Within evolution, impermanence is ever present; every phase and every moment exists within impermanence. Thus it is impermanence that enables evolution to unfold — the two coexist and depend upon each other, together shaping the direction of human existence.
After leaving the mother's womb, one must pass through nursing and nurturing, learning to babble and speak; growing up, one comes through education to understand the way of living and being human, and gradually enters each stage of society through learning. This is a process of transformation, and within this process, every period is different. Thus human life is like a play upon the stage, performed anew each and every day.
No single phase is ever the same; even to approximate similarity would be exceedingly difficult. Therefore in life, impermanence perpetually surrounds us on every side. Consider this example: the flow of traffic upon the great road — each moment in time constitutes a distinct phase, and as the traffic signals shift ahead, yet another phase and space await us.
A play sometimes divided into several acts performed. Reflecting carefully: which moment can be the same? Only if the original tape is replayed can it match. Otherwise, to be similar is already rare. The hour of performance differs; people, matters, things are all changed; time and space...
Traveling along a single road, can any of the people, events, or things one encounters truly be alike? In truth, they are all different. Thus in life, circumstances continually appear before us, shifting with each change of time and space. Even if one departs at eight in the morning, planning to arrive at ten, though the road remains the same, the people, events, things, and landscapes encountered along the way are never the same.
Impermanence passes. In a human lifetime, one constantly schemes and plans for oneself. Humanity's conduct is just so — can one say people are selfish? Not so! Within self-interest lies the public. If truly too selfish, Heaven's principle can transform it into the Great Public. This is humanity's...
Truly, life is like a performance upon the stage; to reach one's destination depends solely upon how well one plays one's own role. Consider also the food of each morning — after preparation, the flavors each person seeks are different: some prefer vegetarian fare, others favor meat. Within these differences lie the distinctions of individual preference.
Some delight in light and bland fare, while others cannot do without their meat. Among the meals of a day, if one's morning meal is relatively light, it can bring a fresh and clear mind throughout the day, sharpening one's powers of thought. If one consumes heavy meats, one's thinking will be dull from morning until the following day. In matters of diet, a light morning meal grants the mind fresh and lucid thought.
Fresh and clear thinking brings boundless blessings to oneself. Amid impermanence, people often lose many fine opportunities; yet with a mind of fresh and tranquil thought, one can bring great benefit and ease to oneself. In the human world of impermanence, as surroundings continually shift and transform, it is like a play being performed — each person is the lead, and each person is also a supporting player.
Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, Chou — the roles each person plays may bring joy and harmony to the multitude, or sorrow and displeasure. All of it is simply the gift of an opportunity to perform. The roles that sentient beings play upon the luminous screen of life are ever changing, different at every moment, distinct at every instant — each person performing their own unique part.
In the void of the void, causes ever abide,
Upon contact with conditions, fruits of karma arrive.
Good and ill are self-made, can be changed  
Recompense comes on its own, blessing or curse follows.
第十一回 變化
Patriarch Qingshui (Master of Clear Water)
December 18, 1993, the 6th day of the 11th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
A tranquil heart, like water, finds peace,
In water’s purity, the spirit is cleansed.
The Ancestor’s teachings nurture virtue’s root  
The Master’s words transform and clarify anew
The truth of change is common,  
The cosmic law is ever constant.
Chapter 11: Transformation
Human life's survival in this world is formed from time and space's mutual interweaving. Humanity, because of time's flow, can create the space in which to exist. If time were not to arrive for human life, then no convergence of karmic conditions could create. Therefore...
Because time and space mutually combine to achieve accomplishment, one must within time-space ceaselessly change — otherwise, all standing still, nothing can be created. This law of karmic conditions must be fulfilled through time joined with space; herein...
Without time-space's creation, karmic convergence cannot be achieved. Consider this example: in one's lifetime there are appointments — year, month, day, and hour — meeting people at a specified time, date, month, year, and place. This appointment...
These two factors combined require time plus space to accomplish. Within the appointment, transportation must also facilitate the journey, only then can one reach the destination. Otherwise, the appointed meeting of people, matters, and things is surely difficult to achieve...
Take this hall's writing and salvaging work: it too has its appointed year, month, day, and hour. The place is Xingshan Hall's first floor, the Main Hall. Or the second floor, the Wuji Hall? Both are acceptable! This is space combined with...
Thus people, matters, things, and immortals and buddhas together form the union of universal transformation. Without time and space, without all worthy students and immortals and buddhas gathered as one — can one accomplish the sacred work of saving the world and composing scripture? Most difficult it is! Because...
Time and space together can achieve what is desired and appointed. Humanity's survival thus continues generation after generation. Within this time-space, from seven-thirty in the evening, time passes minute by minute. This is...
Though people, matters, things, and place are all the same, time has already passed and is different. This accomplishment within the same time and space is no longer the first passage. When the entire composition is completed, once again it is...
Again, the previous writing's time and space — space the same, time the same, yet another week has passed. And the immortals and buddhas differ as well. Until next time, time and space again coincide, but already another week has passed...
All people pass through impermanence's transformation of time and space. In life, each encounters different circumstances. The ancients say: 'Blame not Heaven for a hard fate.' When fortune is difficult, one frequently meets frustration and dissatisfaction — this period because people...
Though called dissatisfaction, within it one can use the past as mirror, vowing not to repeat mistakes. Before the next time-space and circumstances arrive, one first makes correction — naturally one will not tread the same path again. Even if adverse conditions come...
If one blindly pursues favorable circumstances, within humanity's baser nature one will from time to time lose oneself. Favorable conditions too easily give sentient beings occasion to create sin. Therefore when adversity arrives, from a cultivator's standpoint...
Time, fate, and fortune — these the world commonly hears. The three's relationship truly cannot be severed. Because time plus space combined can achieve karmic accomplishment — if time, fate, and fortune do not all cooperate, it is surely difficult...
Humanity's thought, driven by a good heart, urges oneself to practice in vigilance. Through accumulated experience, one understands how to act. Walking thus the Right Way, one opens life's bright and broad road. May sentient beings realize: 'The Great Dao...'
Perceive the heavens and earth in constant change,
Each day unique, yet ever the same.
Mankind changes day by day,  
Who can remain unchanged?
From small to great, not the same,  
Impermanence comes, early change.
第十二回 流程
The Imperial Lord of the Northern Pole, Xuantian Shangdi
December 25, 1993 — the 13th day of the 11th month, Year of the Water Rooster (Guiyou), Saturday
From the North Pole, spreading transformation and rescuing the lost in delusion; the sacred teaching of the Profound Heaven carries righteous qi within it.
The Celestial Emperor composes the discourse of the Great Dao; descending in verse, He expounds the era of Heavenly Virtue.
Within the flowing process of impermanent change, the opposing forces of yin and yang maintain their balance.
Karmic conditions in harmony serve as the medium; time and space revolve without pause or rest.
The course of human life,  
All karmic affinities are truly real.
Joy, anger, grief, and mirth, Heaven’s constant play,
Sorrow, joy, parting, meeting, life’s own way.
The past flows on, hard to reclaim,  
Once trodden paths, now seen again.
The changes of impermanence: as humanity lives in this world, the revolution of time and space never ceases for a moment. Within this flow, manifold changes arise. At each turning of the phases, all people stand within the mutual opposition of yin and yang — only thus can all things be brought to fulfillment. It is within this opposition that one accomplishes karmic conditions and discerns the good or ill of the future.
If there were only the revolution of time and space without the bringing forth of karmic conditions, surely no undertaking could be accomplished. In one's lifetime, the harmonious meeting of karmic conditions is the most crucial link. If karmic conditions afford no opportunity, then there can be no settled verdict of cause and effect. Throughout a person's life, it is the harmony of karmic conditions that gives rise to the full spectrum of experience — sweetness, bitterness, sourness, pleasantness, saltiness, and astringency.
Karmic obstacles arrive and trials serve as harbingers — yet this is merely the beginning of harmonious karmic conditions. The beginning of karmic conditions is itself the key cause; thereafter lie the conditions for the ripening of karmic retribution. Even when retribution ripens, whether the process of fulfillment proves good or ill — that verdict remains yet to be pronounced. This is the relationship of karmic conditions and their fruit.
At times, when a matter presents itself, it may appear as an evil or ill fruit. Yet within human action, if one can carry it out with a heart of virtuous goodness and bring it to completion with gratitude, then what seemed an ill fruit may yield in the end a contrary blessing of good karmic conditions. And sometimes, what appears as a good cause may undergo great transformation through human conduct.
Thus the trials multiply, the pain cuts deeper than for others. Continually creating new transgressions without awareness—such are the pitiable sentient beings. The current of time never halts for a moment. Amid trials, one may grow distrustful of immortals and Buddhas; one may abandon resolve under the weight of testing.
All too often, people act in ignorance, harboring mutual suspicion and conducting themselves with malicious hearts. Sometimes even a good fruit — a good cause — may transform into evil cause and evil fruit. Thus, good things and bad things, good causes and bad causes must all be assessed according to human conduct and response. What is good is not necessarily good; what is bad is not necessarily bad. Why does such differentiation arise?
Especially for practitioners in the sacred precincts who neither understand affairs nor overcome their stubbornness: during trials they remain uncomprehending, lacking virtuous conditions to cultivate. Thus the passage of time and space grows ever more prolonged; the testing extends, the tribulation lingers. In the fleeting span of a human life, innumerable links in the chain of fate pass by.
Good causes become good conditions, bad causes become bad conditions; good causes may become bad conditions, and bad causes may become good conditions — these various distinctions come to pass through fulfillment. Among human actions, how ought one to accomplish and cultivate karmic conditions of virtuous goodness? The method lies in drawing near to temples and sacred halls, approaching wise and virtuous teachers and past sages, receiving their guidance, and being blessed with the universal illumination of the celestial Deities and Immortals.
Throughout trials, one feels that sweet and favorable seasons are all too brief, lamenting that life is mostly spent in suffering and tribulation. In the present existence, escape seems elusive. In this life, humanity compresses the distances of time and space, hastening the approach of present-life karmic retribution. How long, then, does one truly dwell in the flavors of sour, sweet, pleasant, salty, and astringent?
All people of the world possess the instinct to pursue fortune and avoid calamity. To delight in auspiciousness, to reject evil and shun misfortune — this is because human instinct and experience have already instilled such convictions, and indeed these convictions run deep and are firmly rooted. When ill fortune or calamity arrives, one inevitably goes to temples and sacred halls to seek methods of deliverance. Those who have accumulated merit and virtuous fruit in ordinary days can swiftly escape from suffering and tribulation.
Everything depends upon the mindset one brings to face the world and navigate one's responses! Because of impermanent change, no two moments are alike. In the flow of existence, each minute differs from the last. Consider how car accidents in this world arise from a single instant's lapse. If one can receive the salvation and guidance of immortals and Buddhas, great matters shrink to small, small matters dissolve to nothing, and misfortune transforms into fortune—this is the essential truth.
If one lacks the karmic conditions of virtuous goodness, and is furthermore ignorant of principle and reason, one will surely be lost and bewildered, knowing not what to do. This leads to the phenomenon of desperately grasping at any remedy in one's panic, which in turn triggers a succession of sufferings and tribulations that wear upon body and spirit. One trial follows another — and at times, it is precisely one's own stubborn rigidity and固化 that makes enlightenment difficult and brings about such consequences.
Through the process of trials, one endures more tribulations than others, and they come with greater pain. One frequently creates new karmic faults without even realizing it — how truly pitiable are sentient beings! The flow of time spares not a single moment. And within the crucible of trials, one may at times grow distrustful of the Deities and Immortals, and at times, overwhelmed by the ordeal, one's resolve may waver and retreat.
Recalling memories, time doth pass  
In human realms, karma rises fast
The passage of time accomplishes causes and conditions within a single fleeting instant. A human life is nothing more than the turning of time and space. If causes and conditions remain unmet, can anything arise? Indeed not! One must seize the direction of one's life so the present moment may ripen. All processes are, in truth, merely transformations of the human mind.
第十三回 相對（陰陽一）
The Ancient Buddha Jigong of Nanping, the Living Buddha Jigong
January 1, 1994, the 10th day of the 11th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
With public heart to save the world, through cosmos it extends,  
Virtue shared, Heaven's mind with no sorrow blends.
In the lively world, all things are paired  
With Buddha's heart, virtue is inwardly nurtured
Relative Yin and Yang achieve their poise;  Within the human world, relativity is truth's own voice.
In the balance of yin and yang, truth lies  
In the human realm, reality stands clear.
Sentient beings, who can know them?  
Leaping bounds, transcending, they achieve.
Yin and Yang, sun and moon, good and evil rise,
Blessings and woes, take heed, for they are self-designed.
Chapter 13: Relativity (Yin and Yang One)
All things between Heaven and Earth are established within the polarity of Yin and Yang, existing in mutual relation and achieving equilibrium through that very relativity. Every species of living thing embodies the interplay of Yin and Yang; only thus can reproduction continue unceasingly. Without this complementary polarity, the endless cycle of generation and regeneration would be impossible. Through reproduction, the cycle of saṃsāra is sustained—a necessity for existence in the human realm.
Our Earth, within the stellar system, is blessed by the Sun and Moon, whose radiant warmth illuminates and sustains life. The great earth flourishes with vitality; by day the Sun's light fosters growth. Without the Sun's radiance, all things between Heaven and Earth would lie shrouded in darkness and gloom, bereft of the opportunity to thrive.
All creation depends upon the Sun's illumination to unlock its potential for growth. This gift of sunlight is indispensable to humanity and all living things. Were human life deprived of sunlight, it would sink into despondency, devoid of vitality and brightness. Because all things receive the Sun's radiance, the human world is endowed with boundless room for growth and advancement.
The Sun's illumination is called the luminous world; the Moon's illumination is called the flourishing realm of Yin. If only the Sun shone forth, all things would be locked in perpetual motion—never still, never resting—unable to sustain constancy or achieve balance. The Sun represents radiant Yang-energy at its zenith; the Moon, the flourishing of Yin in darkness. Together they complement one another, and only thus does 'ceaseless vitality' endure.
Consider the Sun: daytime rotation is the extreme of motion—Yang at its peak. At the extreme of motion, it reverses and yields to Yin, gradually deepening to Yin's extreme—the time of stillness for humanity and all creation. In stillness, though no movement is apparent, all things in the cosmos are nonetheless passing through this phase. Thus Yin flourishes in stillness—not absolute motionlessness, but a different quality of activity.
It is merely that the human eye perceives yet cannot feel it. Yin's flourishing marks the point where humanity and all things, having moved to the extreme, find repose. In human life, ceaseless labor without rest is unsustainable; therefore the season of Yin's flourishing grants humanity and all creation the space to rest.
If humanity and all living things pursued only ceaseless activity without repose, the world would become a battleground of strife and inequality. Thus Yin's flourishing affords all beings the space to recharge, to rest, and to reflect—preparing them to meet tomorrow's challenges anew. Simply put: when Yin flourishes, it grants sentient beings the 'vital opportunity' to begin again.
All things exist in polarity: male (Yang) and female (Yin) form the lifeline of reproduction. Without complementary Yin and Yang—whether solitary Yang or isolated Yin—growth is impossible. But when Yin and Yang mutually generate and sustain each other, bestowing benefit upon all creation and granting sentient beings a richer space for flourishing—this is the most fundamental reality, and an absolute necessity.
Without nourishing all things with the nutrients of survival and progress, creation would stagnate, unable to evolve. Thus human life is a continuous chain of unceasing creation and circulation. Surveying humanity's history: because there are Yin-females and Yang-males, growth is fostered, and generations of descendants inherit an ever more comfortable world.
Especially in our present age, human life enjoys comforts unknown to the ancients. What high antiquity could not imagine now stands before our eyes—the manifestation of modern technological civilization. The sentient beings of today are truly richly blessed. They must therefore treasure this gift from Heaven; this is the Way of being human.
Sentient beings are richly blessed in this world. Yet some still lack sufficient merit, bearing small afflictions—including, grievously, the fallacy of 'suicide and taking one's life lightly.' If one fails to create blessings for oneself and instead leaves a harmful example for others: a human body is rare and precious, born into this world—one must cherish every year of life. Yet all too often there are those who suffer greatly and face the deepest trials.
Only by oneself are the good and the wicked summoned,
Future recompense shall surely come to light.
Consider: in many nations, countless people still lack food and clothing. Reflect: sentient beings born upon this blessed island enjoy far greater fortune than those in other lands. How can one lightly contemplate 'ending one's life'? Know this: after death, if one's allotted lifespan remains unfulfilled, one must be confined to the City of Unjust Deaths, enduring suffering until one's natural term is spent!
第十四回 平衡（陰陽二）
The Master of the Void — Namo the Ancient Buddha of Supreme Void Virtue, Teacher of Humans and Gods
January 8, 1994, the 27th day of the 11th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
The void and the real in life span the cosmos,
The void turns the world, cultivating the fields of the heart.
Virtue high is self's own task,  
In human works, balance is found.
The essential meaning of Holding the Center: sentient beings must first 'attain Enlightenment' and then 'Awaken to Sentient Beings'—this is the Bodhisattva's practice. One must manifest one's original nature (the Buddha within). Through cultivation grounded in understanding and practice, one becomes an Awakener of Sentient Beings, advancing into the realm of Buddha-nature. Such beings are no longer mere sentient beings; they have become the body of a Bodhisattva and the body of a Buddha—though humanity finds this hard to perceive.
The path of balance serves to guide all souls,  
Revealing that all things are shaped by human roles.
Relative bounds divide high and low  
Elevation and downfall push each other.
The world's duality must be seen clear
Not for long is it a dwelling here
Chapter 14: Balance (Yin and Yang)
The formation of the universe required the vast expanse of the Great Void, creating the conditions and environment for causation. Compared to the cosmos, the space of Earth where humanity dwells is but a single drop in the ocean. The realm in which humanity exists is constituted by the mutual arising of all things through Yin and Yang. Within this sphere of life, there exists an absolute truth: 'relative Yin and Yang.'
Only through this polarity can the world of human existence be realized. Within the two poles of Yin and Yang, without relativity there can be no balance. The world's reference point, therefore, lies solely in Holding the Center. Should balance be insufficient, one inevitably tilts to one side. Arguing from a biased position, one cannot achieve the natural waxing and waning of Yin and Yang. This dynamic of relativity pertains only to the human world.
Beyond this realm, relative balance is difficult to find. The cosmos at large is not bound by such relational constraints. In other worlds of the universe, lacking this relativity, they transcend the Three Realms entirely. Those within the Three Realms remain subject to the two poles of Yin and Yang—a condition necessary for human existence.
Yet the two poles of Yin and Yang mutually generate and sustain each other; they also mutually overcome and complete one another. The human world and the netherworld stand in precisely this relationship. The human world receives the Sun's illumination and the Moon's arrival; the two must complement each other, and only thus is the present world formed—far surpassing the shadowed netherworld.
As for the netherworld: though it too has a division of daylight, where the Sun's light does not reach becomes the dark realm. The 'Yang world and Yin realm' operate on a principle of relativity. The ultimate purpose is 'to accomplish the Yang world and transform the Yin realm'—hence the doctrine of Universal Salvation across the Three Realms. The master key to the 'Universal Salvation of the Three Levels' lies precisely here.
The point of balance between relative Yin and Yang is found in Holding the Center. The essential teaching of Holding the Center is simply this: do not deviate to any side. Through this process of mutual waxing and waning, one avoids the fate that all extremes reverse. The original meaning of Holding the Center is this: may sentient beings take the principle of reversal at extremes as their criterion for cultivation, holding it as their guiding standard—only thus can the true meaning of Holding the Center be realized.
This means escaping the three-dimensional space by making a fundamental severance within it. Through this severance, one can surely break free from the cycle of rebirth's bitter trials. Yet in their daily lives, sentient beings cannot escape relativity and find balance difficult—they fail to recognize contentment, fail to give thanks, and fail to see that their karmic obstacles are precisely forged by their own daily conduct.
Thus they cannot escape the grinding of tribulation and the obstruction of adversity. Unable to break free from the shackles of karmic obstacles, they tumble endlessly through saṃsāra. This principle of balance demands understanding that extremes reverse. In daily life, each day's cycle of arising and ceasing serves as the standard for human existence.
Who can escape even a single day's cycle of arising and ceasing? It is most difficult! If one can quiet the heart-mind, beyond awareness of day and night, of Yin and Yang, of mutual opposition—yet all sentient beings exist within Yin and Yang's polarity. Few possess a springboard for escape; all remain trapped in relativity, unable to stand at life's Center. Therefore, whether one cultivates or not, one must anchor one's mind to the point of Holding the Center!
One must not deviate to any side—only thus can one transcend the three-dimensional space and attain accomplishment in another realm. Regarding the standard of balance: one must not lean to any extreme. In balanced living, humanity must be both content and ever-advancing. Contentment alone, without progress, cannot reach the Center—this is truly harder than climbing to Heaven!
The essence of balance is contentment plus advancement, so that in this world one may find the opportunity for accomplishment. Contentment without progress clings to the old and fails to Hold the Center; Holding the Center demands advancement. The highest realm of cultivation is 'Enlightenment'—the process of awakening requires comprehending principle and attaining realization. 'The Bodhisattva is called Awakener of Sentient Beings—one awakened to the world of feeling.'
All obstacles may be surpassed,      Thus the return is essential.
If this process is not undertaken through the practice of Awakening to Sentient Beings—growing and developing toward the manifestation of Buddha-nature—it is mere empty talk. Humanity must take heed: people are often deceived without knowing it. After long years of practice, they realize something is amiss—but by then it is too late. In the human world, Awakening to Sentient Beings (the Bodhisattva path) wishing to reach the realm of Buddha-nature must proceed step by step, ascending one level at a time.
第十五回 眼色（第一識）
The Sovereign Lord Fuyou of the Southern Palace
January 15, 1994, the 4th day of the 12th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
The Southern Palace inscribes the Heavenly Book,  
Bestowing virtue on the earth’s great lord.
The Lord descends to speak of eyes and hue,  
His verse to spur the virtuous soul anew.
The eye beholds form's dust first in the line;  In the human world, this blessing must be thine.
Eyes behold the dust of form as first,
All beings seek completeness in their time.
If not for this grace, Heaven would be dark,  
All colors would fail to lay their foundation.
The root of all human souls,  
The first consciousness beholds the dust.
Chapter 15: Eye Consciousness (First Consciousness)
The first action at the start of each day is to open one's eyes and behold the world. All conduct is inextricably linked to 'what the eye perceives.' Yet within the scope of what the eyes can see, the day's course is shaped by what one has set in motion. Before the day's first stirrings, all beginnings are determined by what the eyes can apprehend.
What the eyes cannot perceive as conditions only takes form as that day's causes after the day has passed. At the forming and first stirring of causes and conditions, without what the eyes have witnessed, the purpose of converging causes and conditions cannot be fulfilled. Thus, in the opening conditions of each day, if they are not apprehended by the eyes, it is difficult for those conditions to come to fruition.
Humanity's first consciousness: whether practitioner or layperson, all share this primary consciousness of survival—precisely what the eyes behold. Only thus can the primal force of 'the convergence of causes and conditions' arise. All people favor the beautiful and brilliant, and recoil from the ugly and disordered—this tendency is shared by every sentient being.
Yet whether one's inclinations are wholesome or not, one cannot depart from the process of human existence. All of life lies in 'the division of like and dislike'—a relativity where balanced equilibrium is elusive, never departing from the standard of relative Yin and Yang. The eye's perception of form is the original motive force of human life. Without what the eyes behold, the distinction of good and evil could not arise.
Therefore, all causes and conditions must first pass through the eyes before further action can follow. Otherwise, they cannot take hold. For the blind who cannot see—the visually impaired—the world of sight does not exist. Their opportunity to create negative karma is correspondingly reduced. Yet one does not, because of one person's blindness, deprive all sentient beings of sight.
Without such conditions of causes and conditions, how could human life advance? Only through the eye's power of perception can the world be rendered beautiful and whole. The eyes delight in beauty and splendor; within such beauty, human preference accelerates the motives of action. The essence of beauty and splendor is realized only through the eye's gaze.
People's preferences differ. Within the function of 'eye perceiving form,' each person creates according to their own taste. Ultimately, the ugly and dull are cast aside, giving rise to creative transformation—becoming the hues that please the eye. Yet the eye's function in vision is always humanity's foremost scout of perception.
As vanguard, the eye need not charge into battle, yet within the body it stands as the foremost requirement for survival. Therefore the eye is called the window of the soul. Its function is the primordial requisite of human existence—a necessary condition of this world, shaping humanity's daily experience.
Eye perceiving form is the first consciousness. Thereafter, visual data is transmitted to the brain, which through deliberation directs other organs. Throughout one's life, 'eye vision' generates the causes and conditions between people. The role of sight—ancient wisdom counsels 'Do not look upon what is improper'—determines whether fortune or misfortune shall follow.
In ancient teachings: the eye's perception should be directed toward the proper, and the eyes should not gaze upon unwholesome sights. Thus, in the first arising of human motives, all is shaped by what the eyes behold. Among the six consciousnesses, sight must transmit to thought and intention, distinguishing good from evil and beauty from ugliness. If one skillfully employs the eye's vision, one lays the foundation for a life of happiness.
In the ancient teachings: to direct the gaze towards what is right, and let the eyes not behold wrongful hues, shall, from the very outset of one's original nature, through the eyes, bring forth all achievements. Yet, among the six consciousnesses, it is through the eyes that perceptions are conveyed to the mind, to discern between good and evil, beauty and ugliness in the human realm. If in life one can wisely utilize the gaze, it shall foster the beginning of happiness.
In the great world of myriad forms,  
Karmic deeds arise and herein are born.
The eye's function: the role it bears within the human body is of paramount importance. Without eyes, the world would be plunged into darkness, with no light to be seen. The eye's function is the herald of illumination. If within the human body it is not carefully cherished, it brings endless affliction upon oneself.
第十六回 耳聲（第二識）
The Immortal Elder Zhongli Han
January 22, 1994, the 11th day of the 12th lunar month, Guiyou (Year of the Water Rooster), Saturday
The Han dynasty's realm through virtue thrives  
In mountains, forests, and fresh pools, life thrives
Beyond the realm of illusion, a voice whispers clear,  
The Great Dao's heavenly virtue dispels delusion's blur.
Today, the deaf have far fewer opportunities to create transgression. If one refuses to receive unwholesome words—or lets them enter one ear and exit the other, like wind passing through—it reduces the chance of wrongdoing. Wholesome and beneficial words should be skillfully embraced, transforming the degree of reception to benefit both self and others, becoming a wise and useful faculty.
Heavenly music enchants the ear,  
In this world, sounds are sweet and clear.
The second consciousness hears sounds,  
And thus good fortune and virtue arise.
Chapter 16: The Auditory Sense (the Second Consciousness)
The conditions for human existence require the eye to perceive form and the ear to hear sound; only thus can one take one's place in the human world. Otherwise, one forfeits two blessings and becomes a being with 'bodily leakage'—a deficiency brought about by prior causes. If a person lacks the faculty of hearing, one's store of blessings is diminished by one portion—one cannot fully possess the blessing of 'the ear hearing sound.'
In the human world, one cannot hear beautiful music. Yet one is also spared the hearing of unpleasant words. If in life one lacks the full blessing of hearing, with a pure ear-root one also has fewer occasions for disputes. It is the eye's perception of form that creates the world's rich tapestry of color—a brilliant, variegated realm.
Humanity's existence, shaped by color, mirrors the rainbow's primal spectrum. Because of color, the human world teems with endless variety and innovation. The eye perceives only color and objects; its function constitutes one of the six consciousnesses. Therefore, humanity needs two ears to complete the primal force of auditory perception.
The ear's capacity to hear sound serves as a kind of alertness for the self. Sound volumes that humans can endure have their limits—sound is not boundless. It must fall within the range humans can tolerate. When thunder or explosions strike nearby, the volume exceeds what the human frame can bear.
If sounds come from afar, the experience differs entirely. The volume humans can sustain has definite limits. Excessively loud sounds will rupture the eardrum beyond repair. Humanity adjusts its adaptive capacity according to volume, refining the ear's function to serve life's purposes.
Ear consciousness: within the body it performs a vital role. When a person speaks from a distance directly ahead, one can only see 'the mouth moving, lips and teeth opening and closing'—the full volume cannot be transmitted. The ear's function is to receive sound waves; the waves radiate in all directions, enabling the listener to receive them.
Human speech serves as the channel of communication, encompassing both the capacity to receive and to respond. If the ear's function fails, serious ear disease is the cause. In the present age, thanks to technological civilization, hearing aids and other devices can restore the ear's function for those afflicted.
Throughout one's life, to possess healthy hearing in both ears is truly a blessing. This is a blessing humanity must have. If one cannot fully possess it, modern technology can compensate for the deficiency—a great boon and a deep fortune for humankind. Such conditions are determined by one's store of blessings.
Ear hearing sound: among the six consciousnesses, the eye's perception of form and the ear's reception of sound mutually enable one another. The body must possess this receiving efficacy. If sentient beings see with the eye but do not transmit to the ear, the body's functions operate in isolation—devoid of the impulse of conscious transmission.
The body must transmit what the eye perceives to consciousness (the brain). If other bodily functions cannot manifest or coordinate, one's life will lack wholeness and happiness. The organs operate independently—unable to harmonize—causing existence to suffer the pain and torment of deficiency.
Moreover, the ear's capacity to hear sound enables normal human life. Generally, people prefer pleasant sounds and enjoy praise and kind words. People gravitate toward flattery. 'Sound' in human life takes on manifold forms—especially words of praise and sweet discourse.
One favors beneficial words and dislikes criticism. The division of like and dislike is shaped by sound, determining the degree of reception in one's conditions of existence—forming the second origin of karmic causes, whether wholesome or unwholesome. The body requires all its functions to coordinate closely to achieve its aims.
Humanity's second consciousness—the ear hearing sound—possesses the receiving function. Without the brain's judgment, it merely receives passively, without bidirectional transmission. The body's various functions require sound from the ear to reach consciousness.
The brain can distinguish whether what is received is beneficial. When others' words reach the ear, one's thoughts judge whether to accept or reject them. If the ear frequently hears wholesome sounds throughout life, one naturally rejects unwholesome temptations. Hearing wholesome sounds transforms unwholesome latent causes.
The ear's function, shaped by one's choices, determines the quality of this life. Hearing sound is the origin of one's causal endowment. If one possesses unwholesome 'latent causes,' the ear's transmission can reject them and refuse reception—reducing one's lifetime of errors and karmic transgressions.
Hearing sounds, one discerns good and ill,  
Sentient beings, their blessings clear and still.
Good and ill transformations, heard by the ear, reach the heart,
Stirring the karmic fruit to form of its own accord.
第十七回 鼻香（第三識）
Zhang Guolao, the Venerable Immortal
January 29, 1994 — the 18th day of the 12th month, Year of the Water Rooster (Guiyou), Saturday
Lanterns raised and garlands tied, the spirit of the season is renewed; accumulate hidden virtue, and blessings shall come of their own accord. The Master's teaching speaks of the fragrance of the nose; through moral renewal, the heart becomes pure of its own nature.
Since ancient times the nose has discerned fragrance and foulness; the nerves of perception delve deep into the affairs of this world.
Clearly perceive that the human world is filled with suffering; to ascend and transcend is surely the path of cultivation.
Life demands breath; day after day it is needed, nothing extraordinary—yet within this ordinary lies the profound.
The third consciousness smells through the nose; without it, the body shall swell with stagnant air.
Otherwise, committing sins in ignorance makes it even harder to elevate and transcend. On the surface, they appear as practitioners, with a semblance of the Dao, yet in the end, they stray from the path, turning those who could have ascended to Heaven into seeds of hell. When the breath through the nostrils ceases, and the feet give one final kick, impermanence arrives, and thus life comes to an end.
Nose discerns scents foul and fair,  
Sensory nerves delve into earthly affairs.
Perceive the many trials of the human realm,
Elevate and transcend through cultivation sure.
In life’s span, to breathe we must  
Each day’s need, no marvel, just.
Each organ of the human body serves a vital function in the sustaining of life. Without the support of the physical form, the harmonious convergence of karmic conditions could never be accomplished. Among human faces, no two are truly alike — some are blessed with auspicious features, some with inauspicious; some with noble countenances, some with base. At a glance, many faces appear similar — yet what deeper cause accounts for such differences?
Yet upon careful observation, every person's features are distinctly different. The human face possesses eyes, ears, nose, and mouth — together these form the countenance of humankind. In facial features we find the handsome, the solid, the dignified, the sinister, the fierce — manifold varieties of aspect. It is because humans possess seven orifices that their physical appearance takes such diverse form.
One's physical features, though inherited from birth and seemingly unchangeable, can indeed be transformed through virtuous deeds and cultivated wisdom in this life. Whether one chooses to change or not rests upon the workings of one's own mind. Indeed, many have had their countenances transformed — such distinction is determined by one's conduct, reflecting the divergence between good and evil, between fortune and misfortune.
The nose's primary function also prevents bacterial infection and maintains clear passage. If congested, one must breathe through the mouth, causing many difficulties. Though not acutely painful, it indirectly clouds one's thinking and mental clarity. A clear nasal passage is therefore the most essential function for human well-being.
The nose occupies the very center of one's features, fulfilling a function of paramount importance. It is through the nose that one discerns fragrance from foulness in this world — a capacity unique among all the organs. The quality of one's nose foretells the course of an entire life: a well-formed nose promises a splendid future, while a nose lacking proper form betokens cause for concern.
If one breathes through the mouth instead of the nose, bacteria and foreign matter enter freely, inviting illness. The nose's function is therefore vital and must not be slighted. If the breath from the nose ceases, breathing stops immediately. As the proverb says: 'One who is lazy about breathing—that is a corpse.' Humanity lives by breathing!
Upon the nose rests the power to guide one's fortune and misfortune throughout life. Throughout a person's years, the blessings of the nose bring brightness and joy. These blessings are not earned in this life alone, but accumulated through deeds of former existences. Through virtuous conduct, one may be blessed with a straight and full nose, capable of gathering wealth and providing a beneficent space for human life.
The nose's inhaling and exhaling—survival cannot lack it for even a moment. The nose's discernment of fragrance and stench varies by individual perception: some, like entering a salted fish market, grow accustomed to the stench and no longer notice it; others, in a room of orchids, grow accustomed to the fragrance and no longer perceive it. All are immersed and transformed without awareness!
Though modern science can reshape a nose born ill-formed, it cannot alter the enduring contours of one's spiritual radiance and facial bearing. These are gifts bestowed by Heaven at birth, and no technology can transfer or transform them. Both the innate and the cultivated must work in harmony. If an inauspicious countenance is further clouded by dimmed vitality, one may read therein the signs of hardship and adversity.
This is akin to religion's教化: upon first entering the sacred gate, one's heart brims with joy and ardent warmth. After a time, as one gradually grasps the religion's surface meaning, laziness creeps in. The original aspiration and enthusiasm fade. Simply put: after a period in religion, one's true nature is exposed!
Such matters need no further elaboration — a single glance at one's vital radiance suffices to reveal the truth. The straightness of the nose and the quality of one's bearing cannot be altered by any modern technology. Moreover, the nose stands as the very pivot of human destiny, governing fortune, prosperity, longevity, wealth, and honor — thus one can clearly perceive the conditions of one's material fortune through the nose.
It becomes difficult to sustain a diligent heart. The original aspiration has long vanished. If one further neglects thoughtful reflection, one merely parrots what others say, creating unwholesome speech-karma and obstructing oneself. Because the religion's教化 has been insufficient, it is hard to transform and recover one's original aspiration and enthusiasm.
One's countenance is linked to innate endowment, yet within the function of the nose lies the power to discern fragrance from foulness, enabling the choice between what is wholesome and what is not. The scent of fragrance and the stench of foulness — between these two lies a vast gulf. The nose serves to channel the breath; should the nose become obstructed, one's power of thought shall surely be impaired.
The nose governs one's entire life. In religion, transgressions committed through ignorance are somewhat excusable and can be transformed. But if one knowingly commits offenses, the evil result is compounded. I urge present-day religious cultivators to remember this well: upon entering religion, one must transform ignorance into wisdom—this is the very purpose of entering religion.
The principal functions of the nose include guarding against the invasion of harmful elements and ensuring the free flow of breath. Should the nose become blocked, one must rely upon the mouth as aid, thereby inviting manifold inconveniences. Though this may not cause great physical pain in daily life, it indirectly clouds one's thinking and diminishes the clarity of mind. Thus, the unobstructed breath of the nose stands as the most essential function for human existence.
The third consciousness, nose discerns fragrance,
Lacking, bloating arises.
Human breath is the gift of air. Each person must carefully treasure the body to accomplish a meaningful life. Humanity must maintain the nose's clear passage, preserving a fresh mind and keen thought. At this year's end, as the new spring approaches, I pray that all people may have a bright and splendid future.
第十八回 舌味（第四識）
The Immortal Elder Lan Caihe
February 26, 1994, the 17th day of the 1st lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
Blue deeds bear fruit from the heart,
Pure offerings meet the heart’s incense.
In harmony we cross for all to transform,  
The Immortal Sage writes, his words a sweet charm.
The tongue tastes myriad flavors, food enters the mouth,
Necessarily, there is the need for fullness.
Sentient beings require the food chain,
To sustain warmth and life's continuance.
All people regard food as the heavenly secret,  
The foundation for all sentient beings.
Chapter 18: The Taste of the Tongue (the Fourth Consciousness)
Humans living in this world: body, hair, and skin are gifts from one's parents—one dare not harm them but should cherish them with care. Especially the mouth's gift of speech demands caution; one must value verbal virtue. Only through the mouth's capacities for speech and nourishment can the body's health be sustained. As a vessel of usefulness, the body must be nurtured at its root. If the body is not carefully treasured and maintained, comfort eludes one.
Such a body cannot maintain a healthy frame through life's journey. People dwelling in the Five Turbidities of the evil world, if they do not choose food wisely and eat indiscriminately, will bring themselves from health into illness. Regarding the increase and decrease and selection of food, taste—through the sense of flavor—occupies a critically important role.
The mouth's capacity for speech is guided by the tongue's movement. Were the tongue removed, speech could not begin. All fortune and misfortune are distinguished by the tongue's initiation and cessation. The tongue can taste ten thousand flavors and can also create the source of self-benefit. In truth, the tongue's purpose is for humanity to use wholesome words to teach and transform sentient beings.
The tongue's movement can speak words of goodness and can also speak words of evil. Thus, within a single thought's differentiation, one can be guided straight or led astray. Before straight and crooked arise, this is humanity's primordial state of unchanging stillness. Yet within each thought, one can create the fruits of virtue or the seeds of evil—precisely the distinction between fortune and misfortune in human existence.
Only when the tongue (mouth) initiates movement can causes and conditions of good and evil be formed. Humanity is shaped by one's own causes and conditions, combined with external conditions, forging the chains of all social affairs. The tongue can taste ten thousand flavors. All food enters through mouth and tongue, is ground by teeth into elements, sent through the esophagus to the stomach for digestion, transformed into nutrients that nourish the entire body.
What is unsuitable for the body and all impure waste are then excreted. This is accomplished through the tongue's initiation. Without the mouth, the teeth cannot move, and food cannot enter. But if the mouth moves while the tongue is still, it is even more impossible to perceive the flavors of sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy—the foundation of careful mastication.
Thus, what the tongue prefers is distinguished through eating. Skillful cooking of various delicacies surely stirs in people a desire to eat—achieving the perfection of color, fragrance, and flavor. At this dharma assembly, though the cuisine may not be supreme, in color, fragrance, and taste, it has reached a level of excellence.
The vegetarian feast is managed through the collective efforts of all worthy disciples, giving the virtuous faithful a lingering sense of satisfaction. Through the disciples' dedicated preparation, today's dharma assembly's merit is fulfilled. The tasting of vegetarian meals has become increasingly common in the present age.
Observe: vegetarian restaurants proliferate everywhere, and vegetarian ingredients are remarkably diverse—arguably even richer than meat dishes. In this age of transformation, with advanced technology, humanity's demands for flavor, color, and presentation are exacting. Delicacies emerge ceaselessly, each surpassing the last—truly, sentient beings' culinary blessings are a gift of this age.
Surveying modern cuisine: vegetarian food can imitate meat dishes in shape and be further refined. The taste is first-rate, merely reducing the gamey flavors. Present-day sentient beings enjoy immense blessings! Yet among those on the path of cultivation, those who enter religion remain pitifully few. Why is this?
Heaven above wishes to ferry the original spirits home. Manifesting all things for sentient beings to eat, it lets them reduce the creation of speech-karma. Providing vegetarian meals, the primary purpose is to reduce killing, replacing it with vegetarian nourishment. If such rich delicacies are not properly utilized, it truly makes Heaven sigh!
May sentient beings reduce killing and embrace vegetarian meals—this is Heaven's wish. When the mouth moves, the tongue-root follows; with the teeth's interaction, these become life's elements. In the mouth's movement, if the tongue does not follow, karmic causes cannot be formed. Therefore, sentient beings must not wield the sharpness of tongue to indulge momentary pleasure, thereby harming others.
In truth: speech-karma is created in a single thought; good and evil are distinguished by this. Throughout one's life, if one uses the tongue's sharpness to benefit self and others, one creates the opportunity for accomplishment. Conversely, if one merely indulges in cutting words that harm others (sentient beings), such conduct is intolerable to Heaven and Earth. Future karma will surely be self-repaid.
If one can reduce speech-karma and transgression, one gains the opportunity for accomplishment. If throughout life one does not restrain mouth and tongue, one multiplies the occasions for wrongdoing, leaving a dark future ahead. The mouth speaks, the tongue moves—sentient beings must skillfully employ their virtuous nature, benefiting both self and others.
Modern religious teachers and lecturers can cultivate verbal virtue, using wholesome speech to broadly save sentient beings—this is the original purpose of mouth, tongue, and verbal virtue. Sentient beings must use words that benefit self and others to ferry beings back to the source—this is the original purpose of human life, underscoring the necessity of beneficial speech.
Mouth and tongue are among the five organs; none can be dispensed with. If skillfully employed—not for selfish pleasure—the body becomes a useful vessel. Otherwise, letting the body create transgression condemns this life to a dark future. Mouth and tongue represent the division of wholesome and unwholesome; for oneself, the difference between fortune and misfortune.
In this age, times change and methods change with them. If one can use one's useful body within the span of several decades, dedicating one's life as capital for proclaiming Heaven's teaching—first to ferry oneself, then to ferry others, shaped by mouth, tongue, and verbal virtue. Otherwise, the evil of mouth and tongue (misfortune issues from the mouth) will cast one into a fathomless abyss—alas!
The tongue tastes ten thousand flavors; food enters the mouth;  There must be the need for a full and satisfying feast.
Mankind cooks food to be eaten,  
The fourth element stirs taste and will.
第十九回 身觸（第五識）
The Immortal Elder Li Tieguai
March 5, 1994, the 24th day of the 1st lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
Plum seeds scatter where peach blossoms spread,
Iron trees, silver-like, let the years pass.
The staff guides through the Heavenly Dao, sensed by the body  
The sage descends to speak the truth
Body-touch's essential nature: using this useful body, within several decades to create life's complete conditions. Taking the body as life's foundation, using the false to cultivate the true, returning to the original nature—this is the implementation of human nature. Whether one can be human again in the next life depends on one's causes and conditions of good and evil! Otherwise, reborn as livestock to repay karmic debts—the loss far outweighs the gain!
Body moves, touch sensed, awareness arises;  
Five senses in the world, wisdom and insight grow.
Drawn by the outer world's allure,  
Transformed into the ways of man.
The fifth consciousness comes to protect,
External nerves make the connection.
Chapter 19: The Sense of Touch (The Fifth Consciousness)
The human body, possessing face and head, allows the five organs to be clearly distinguished. Among these, the face and head are paramount. If a person had only a head without a body, could one survive? Indeed not! The face must be supported by the body to form the foundation of survival—meaning one must possess mobility.
At the foundation of humanity, head and body must be joined, only then can the body's original substance be formed. The face and head guide the body's function; through the body there is opportunity to forge causes and conditions. Without the body's activation, mutual conditions cannot arise. A human body with well-formed organs and healthy limbs is truly a blessed being.
In the present world, if one has even a minor ailment or deficiency, one cannot possess a complete body and becomes a person with disabilities. Those with incomplete bodies, or missing organs compared to others, must expend far greater effort in daily survival than those who are physically whole.
The origin lies in deficits from a previous life, forming this life's incomplete body. Yet today's disabled persons enjoy more blessings than in former times. In the past, the disabled hid in dark corners, subjected to cold taunts and cruel sarcasm. In mind and social relations, they lacked optimism and openness. In the present age, technology and civilization can bring transformation.
Life can be directed toward a bright future, no longer hiding in shadows from scorn and mockery. For those with present disabilities, advanced technology can transform disability into ability. Sometimes they can surpass even the able-bodied—all through the transformation of mind. Yet the effort required is also proportionally greater and more arduous.
In this life, one does not know what one did before, why some organs are missing compared to others? If one does not become discouraged by disability but resolves firmly to strive upward, one can achieve a richer, more fulfilling life than others. The present age offers the disabled the possibility of being 'disabled but not useless'—a truly precious gift.
This is surpassing oneself—unmoved by external taunts and pointing fingers, uninfluenced by the outside world, striving to create life's bright side. The human body must act through the first five consciousnesses—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body—only then can accomplishment be achieved. From form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, the present world's conditions are forged.
Humans: the eye perceives form, the ear hears sound, the nose smells fragrance, the tongue tastes flavor, the body touches—these lead the way, transmitting into the mind's fundamental consciousness, only then can causes and conditions of good and evil be activated. If the five organs each operated independently, they could not coordinate, and humanity's guiding consciousness could not create the world's conditions.
Body-touch: without the guidance of the first four consciousnesses, can it accomplish anything? Precisely not! Though the four organs govern their own domains, body-touch must transmit to the thought-consciousness to initiate life's creative process. Though each organ manages its own function, human instinct is activated by the mind's direction of the body.
Otherwise, the limbs and organs could not achieve the actions necessary for human survival. In the primal movement of causes and conditions, the five consciousnesses and five organs must act together, awakening this life's full sensory apparatus. Within the five organs' root-dust, through the union of organs and consciousnesses, the root-dust's guidance is realized.
Body-touch: it perceives heat and cold, pain and comfort. Through the four seasons' changes, the body senses its needs, prompting one to add or remove clothing. This is accomplished through bodily perception. Without body-touch, relying only on the first four consciousnesses, can one perceive climatic changes? That is impossible!
The human body: it is through the sense of touch that one can feel, and the sense of touch must be accompanied by the cooperation of the first four consciousnesses to constitute a complete body. Moreover, the human body is inherited from one's parents, and it is essential to cherish it, for the sense of touch is the fundamental element that governs all karmic affinities in human existence.
Transmit the inner light of sensation,  
Each thought and intention thus arises.
第二十回 意法（第六識）
The Immortal Elder Cao Guojiu
March 12, 1994, the 1st day of the 2nd lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
Cao Xin's uncle recites the Infinite,  
the state prospers, the people dwell in peace.
All nephews stay on the righteous path  
The immortal descends, the Dharma arises
Thought arises; ten thousand dharmas this life creates;  Past karma comes to settle all its debts.
Intent gives rise to myriad laws,  
Past karma comes to claim its due.
The outer five senses of mankind  
Meet the world and form perception.
Chapter 20: The Mind Function (Sixth Consciousness)
Humans living in this world: because there is a body, there arise the activations of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. External conditions are transmitted inward; within the inner realm, one must pass through the agency of thought-intention before outward transmission can follow. Without thought-intention's mediation, all creation of causes and conditions remains impossible.
Within the body, thought-intention is the master guide, enabling the inner realm to join with the outer world, initiating the primal movement of life's causes and conditions. Form, sound, fragrance, taste, and touch belong to the external conditions—initiated by the outer realm. If not filtered through emotion, reason, and principle, humanity's external conditions cannot be established. Moreover, humanity becomes stained by the five dust-realms.
These stains manifest the inner realm's 'consciousness seeds,' arising through thought-intention, stirring the external world in turn. Ultimately, consciousness seeds form the primal source of unceasing reproduction. In the doctrine of karma, without one's own thought-intention as guide, neither causes and conditions nor worldly affairs can be brought into being.
Humanity's essential nature operates through 'concepts of consciousness and thought' to generate karmic retribution through causes and conditions. Therefore, Bodhisattvas fear causes while sentient beings fear effects. Within cause and effect, if one does not transform at the level of cause, once fruit has ripened it is too late to change. To transform within 'latent causes,' at the very first stirring of cause—this is the most vital aspect of humanity's essential nature.
Humanity's essential nature: the body-nature is inherently still, the heart-mind kind and pure. Yet the stains of the dusty world alter this initial cause. Layer upon layer, defilements accumulate. If one cannot clear all accumulated defilements, one remains ignorant from beginning to end. But if after defilement one can recognize and cleanse it, one returns to the original pure essence—the kindly, original heart-mind.
If formed by accumulated defilement, clarity cannot return. Therefore, the human world struggles to receive life's original nature. Life after life, layer upon layer accumulates, unable to transform humanity's concepts and thoughts—thus one cycles endlessly within the doctrine of cause and effect. It is difficult to return to the original essence. Contemplating the law of consciousness and thought, one can understand this.
One must comprehend: 'What is humanity's original nature?' Only then can karmic obstacles be cleared and one's original position regained. The human body must pass through the five dust-realms' contact: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body. From form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, activation transmits to thought-intention, creating all behaviors and actions.
The process of 'comprehending dharma's principles' must be exercised through thought-intention. All creation of connection with the external realm—everything the outer world touches—is precisely the five dust-realms. Through the five consciousnesses as primary cause, and through the external dust-realm's guidance entering thought-intention's first movement, consciousness transmits to the heart-mind (brain) for judgment.
Thought stirs and transmits outward, forming the interaction between the human body and the external dust-realm. Yet once the body is activated through thought-intention, that intention becomes unpredictable—the 'restless heart and galloping mind' reaching outward. Why? Because thought-intention is the heart's outer perimeter, the body's own function.
Simultaneously, it connects with the external world, generating behavioral impulses. The heart-thought, if not transformed through education, can hardly withstand external temptation. Temptation's transmission: through 'heart-thought' one judges whether to receive or reject. The degree of the heart-thought's reception also shapes sentient beings' essential nature for growth.
'The law of heart-thought' is 'the law of thought-intention'—belonging to the heart-mind's original nature. The heart is composed of flesh and blood, yet thought-intention is invisible. From the heart's activation comes thought's movement. Heart and thought interweave: do they create conditions or not? Though the heart is flesh, within it lie manifold distinctions.
All guided by thought-intention's discernment of relationships, promoted by consciousness concepts (heart-thought), the body achieves union with the external realm. Regarding 'heart-thought' and 'thought-intention' themselves: they discern which affairs can form connections and which cannot. Sentient beings favor the beneficial and form connections accordingly; disliking the harmful, they reject and do not connect.
Humanity's likes and dislikes are difficult to fathom. Within 'the law of cause and effect' one must distinguish. The body, if not reaching out through the external dust-realms, cannot forge good and evil karma. In the inner dust-realm, the heart-nature transforms, enabling humanity's latent causes to change. Thus heart-thought and thought-intention alternate—this is humanity's 'heart-thought consciousness.'
If one can observe with care,
Karmic causes fade, wisdom and merit rise.
Receiving through eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body,
Transmitted to the sixth consciousness, it races on.
第廿一回 末那識（第七識）
The Immortal Elder Han Xiangzi
March 19, 1994, the 8th day of the 2nd lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
Han finds joy in the heart's mastery,  
Xiang's path of reason, do not neglect.
The Master said, the Manas Consciousness takes hold,  
The Immortal Elder guides the heart's return.
The human world's evolution: human life is like a drama, performed from dawn to dusk, from youth to death's approach, until the coffin lid closes and judgment is rendered on one's merit and karma—good and evil, a lifetime's account. Whether each person can, like a skilled actor: be one's own master, one's own director, one's own transformer—this depends on humanity's 'Manas consciousness' and its power of discrimination!
The seventh Manas Consciousness calls out,  
Eight consciousnesses meet through karmic routes.
Dividing and absorbing all things,
Conducting and conveying unique responses.
In the great brain, the seeds are sorted,
In the heart, realms of consciousness vary.
Chapter 21: The Manas Consciousness (the Seventh Consciousness)
Humanity in this world: within the six consciousnesses, the first five are outer conditions. Regarding the dusty world and humanity's contact, all conditioned external phenomena are subject to discernment. At the initial stirring and convergence of outer conditions, if not transmitted through the sixth consciousness (mind-consciousness), one cannot enter the heart-consciousness for judgment. The six consciousnesses transmit through mind-consciousness—which is humanity's inner heart.
The first stirring of causes and conditions: if not discriminated by the seventh Manas consciousness, they cannot reach thought's central pivot. The first five consciousnesses are 'outer dust-consciousnesses.' From the sixth consciousness onward is 'inner heart-consciousness.' The inner realm is not directly stained by outer dust—yet outer dust-staining transmits directly to the inner realm, defiling it nonetheless.
This inner-realm defilement cannot be cleansed by outer dust alone. Within the heart's inner realm, one must first comprehend the principles of human conduct and worldly affairs before inner defilement can be cleared. The inner realm's purification requires both understanding principle and right action, which then transmit outward to eliminate the dust-realm's staining. Sentient beings fundamentally do not comprehend this process.
Manas transforming consciousness: it possesses the power of discrimination. Humanity's original heart is the seed-consciousness of thought-intention. Humanity's 'two hearts' arise precisely from Manas's discriminative function. Manas transforming consciousness is the sentient being's heart-consciousness—the pivotal key to engaging with all affairs. Manas consciousness is the seventh consciousness in the human body; its function is to discriminate and to supervise.
The transforming consciousness's guiding function: outer dust-staining directly enters the sixth consciousness (the brain's central thought). If the sixth consciousness's thinking lacks the seventh Manas consciousness to discriminate, no conditions can be achieved. Manas consciousness is the root of human affliction. Were humans not afflicted by defilement, Bodhi could not manifest.
The root of affliction must pass through the seventh Manas transforming consciousness's discriminative function, giving rise to all causes and conditions of good and evil. The seventh Manas consciousness accompanies one's present life—every action, every encounter. Though the source of affliction seeds, Manas consciousness also holds the key to guiding one's engagement with the outer dust-realm.
Manas consciousness is also called the Ādāna consciousness (the grasping consciousness). Though the names differ, the fundamental consciousness is the same. The Ādāna consciousness serves as Manas's precursor, guiding entry into Manas's discriminative key. Humanity's 'three hearts': from thought-intention's single heart (the original heart), one enters the 'two hearts' of discrimination—what the world calls 'three hearts and two intentions' (indecisiveness).
The distinction of 'two hearts' arises from Manas consciousness, which is the Ādāna consciousness. After the two hearts' transmission enters the discriminative function, consciousness then enters the third heart: the Ālaya consciousness—the eighth consciousness's storehouse. Thus karma manifests—precisely what present sentient beings endure: bitter and sweet, evil and good, karmic retribution.
Bodhisattvas fear causes, transforming and severing them at their root. Sentient beings fear effects, yet cannot transform at the level of fruit—allowing the flower to bloom before the fruit appears. This is the distinction of present-life karmic conditions and retribution. Through karmic retribution, sentient beings may transform the grinding suffering of evil fruits. Simply put: sentient beings must understand what should be done and what should not!
Hope lies in transforming at the level of cause—not in altering the fruit, by which time it is already too late. If causes and conditions are virtuous, what sentient being would wish to change them? Reflect, and it becomes clear. One must understand: how to transform unwholesome 'latent causes'? Precisely from previous lives' unwholesome causes, preventing them from flowering so that evil fruits' suffering does not arise—this is the way!
If sentient beings do not understand how to prevent evil causes, wishing to transform unwholesome latent causes is harder than ascending to Heaven. The way of preventing evil causes: with a wholesome heart, add wholesome thought; with understanding principle, add right action; with gratitude, add compassion; with sincerity, add the original heart. Only thus can unwholesome karmic retribution be prevented from manifesting.
If humanity can constantly maintain these states of mind, consciousness steady and unchanging, certainly through understanding principle and practice—this is the way of preventing evil causes. When thought-intention's fundamental consciousness encounters the outer dust-realms and reaches the seventh consciousness, one must apply both discrimination and reflection, only then can there be wholesome action. Otherwise, when outer conditions arrive, one's original nature reacts directly, without thought or judgment.
Without thinking, without discriminating—this unexamined reaction is the very reason sentient beings create transgression. Through thinking and discrimination, humanity's actions vary according to different people, different places, different times and environments. Thus, in causes and conditions mutually arising and completing, unfolds the entire process of the human world's evolution.
Discern all contacts with skill,  
Equal nature wisdom, supreme in its role.
第廿二回 阿賴耶識（第八識）
The Immortal Maiden He Xiangu
March 26, 1994, the 15th day of the 2nd lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
Why ask if the heart is void?  
The Immortal Way, as it is, has no beginning.
The maiden treads the path to immortality,  
Revealing the Alaya Consciousness's role.
Cultivators: if one greedily seeks merit and draws in believers, one creates more opportunities for tribulation. Therefore within Heaven's 'Universal Salvation' function, one must first attain 'enlightenment' oneself before being able to 'enlighten' others. Otherwise one becomes a source of 'delusion' — misleading oneself and then misleading others. Though the sounds are identical, the meanings have diverged immeasurably!
The Alaya Consciousness all beings inherently possess,
Distinguishing the seven consciousnesses, it governs with reason.
All karmic ties of past lives      Piled up, sorted, and amassed
Chapter 22: The Alaya Consciousness (the Eighth Consciousness)
If human sentient beings traverse the first seven consciousnesses — amid external and internal realms — guided by the discriminative and transmitting function of the seventh Manas Consciousness, and within the five aggregates are influenced by form, sensation, conception, volition, and consciousness, with inner and outer connecting to govern human life, then precisely by entering the eighth consciousness, the Ālaya Consciousness, for storage, can cause and effect manifest across accumulated lifetimes.
Karmic cause and effect manifesting upon human beings — all things each possessing spiritual nature — if the fundamental consciousness lacked the eighth consciousness for storage, it would certainly be difficult to introduce the relationship of cause and effect mutually arising and completing, and thus unable to manifest all karmic retribution. Often at the convergence of causes and conditions, without the shaping force of time, space, and environment, it is very difficult to achieve the fruition of that cause.
If from karmic retribution one can employ the Way of preventing evil causes as transformation, then before evil fruit arrives as tribulation, one can reduce much karmic entanglement. As for the process by which external circumstances contact the person — if not received through the brain's sixth consciousness function, and further transmitted and discriminated by the seventh Manas Consciousness — it would again be difficult to store.
The storage function is similar to today's video recorder: when time, space, and environment combine, it can reproduce and re-manifest — this is the storage function of the Ālaya Consciousness. The human mind's second heart was previously discussed. The human mind's third heart: the fundamental Ālaya Consciousness. Although the Ālaya eighth consciousness has the function of storing, it also has the function of discriminating and receiving.
Regarding the human mind as the third mind: if one does not act upon this, then the eighth consciousness cannot form the function of storing discriminations. Therefore the three minds must all pass through the eighth consciousness of the human mind to manifest, only then will causes and conditions converge to bring about events, only then can sentient beings be given the opportunity for achievement and trial experience.
The human mind's fundamental consciousness, manifested through the Ālaya eighth fundamental consciousness: through any receiving key, within the manifestation of cause and effect, it reveals all one by one. This is the combination forged by human karmic causation. Without the fundamental consciousness of the three minds, there would be no process of worldly evolution, forming the storage function of the Ālaya Consciousness.
Because of the seventh consciousness's discriminating function, from the first five consciousnesses — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, the 'foundation of self-realm' — when combined with the five external objects of contact — form, sound, scent, taste, touch, the 'dust of external realms' — then through observation and reception of mental dharmas, these are transmitted onward to the seventh Manas for discrimination and guidance.
All occurs within attachment to external dust-realms. Without reception of internal dust-realms, the first five consciousnesses receive external causes transmitted into internal dust-realms, and must also transform the first five consciousnesses into the Wisdom of Accomplishing Activity; upon the sixth consciousness, transform into the Wisdom of Wonderful Observation. Only then can adverse external inducements be eliminated, before entering the seventh Manas Consciousness, further transforming into the Wisdom of Equality.
These three 'Wisdoms of Awakening' are rarely used by people in life. One must employ an equanimous mind — without discrimination — dwelling in 'maintaining the Center,' then transmit into the eighth Ālaya Consciousness for storage. Transforming these accumulated impurities, one evolves them into the Wisdom of the Great Perfect Mirror, which is the Mind King Tathāgata, the original mind unmoving as such, thus the precursor to the Tathāgatagarbha.
Then entering the ninth consciousness, the Amala Consciousness — the manifestation of fundamental Suchness and Buddha-nature. Through the attachment of internal and external dust-realms, one must reach the ninth consciousness — Buddha-nature and Suchness — transforming into the Wisdom of the Dharma Realm's Universal Nature. This requires a very long period of genuine cultivation, and extremely profound practice before it can be attained.
Otherwise sentient beings wander in the eighth consciousness without entering the ninth, thus it is difficult to break free from the bonds of saṃsāra. Regarding the Ālaya Consciousness, one likewise cannot escape the fetters of rebirth. If in human life one does not undergo thorough cultivation, merely discussing practice in words while the body does not act — this is knowing but not doing. To be able to end the bonds of rebirth is truly difficult!
Human cultivation: because of self-attachment, self-view, self-arrogance, self-ignorance, self-love... binding oneself. Furthermore, in both objective and subjective conditions, being able to step back one rod's length to observe sentient beings and one's own conduct — whether one can attain the conditions to break free from rebirth — one already possesses the capital! Otherwise, yielding to stubbornness, ignorance, and deluded views, then what?
It is absolutely impossible to escape saṃsāra. Today's cultivation differs from the past: one must first cross oneself over without losing the Way, only then can one extend outward to save sentient beings. Otherwise, if oneself is not enlightened, how can one enlighten others? The achievement of enlightening sentient beings is seeking supreme wisdom for self-benefit above, only then teaching and benefiting others below — this is the most important link in 'Universal Salvation.'
The Eight Consciousnesses, the Tathagata’s treasury,  
The Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, True Suchness bows.
The soul's abode, the root of being,  
Encounters affinity, fruit of karma swells.
第廿三回 菴摩羅識（第九識）
The Ancient Buddha Daoji of Nanping
April 2, 1994, the 22nd day of the 2nd lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
The Great Dao’s path is open wide,  
In saving the world, virtues spread far and wide.
Ancient sayings reveal the Amala Consciousness,
Buddha’s heart sows the seeds of Heavenly virtue.
This process merely plants the seed for rebirth in the next life. What can be done? Combining contentment with gratitude and practice will surely end the cycle of rebirth, so one need not return to endure tribulation. Otherwise, liberation remains elusive, entangled by life after life of saṃsāra. The human world is truly suffering — suffering upon suffering!
The ninth consciousness is but faintly clear  
The Amala Consciousness holds the primal will
Root consciousness, pure and transcendent,  
The great foundation for immortals and Buddhas.
The bodhisattva's foundation is now laid,
Aware of sentient beings, they must be raised.
Chapter 23: The Amala Consciousness (Ninth Consciousness)
The human physical being, upon the first eight consciousnesses, becomes stained by external realms and enters various internal states. Those who attain human birth must be shaped by the causes and conditions of the human world. If the staining of the first eight consciousnesses does not penetrate the ninth consciousness of fundamental Suchness, one precisely cannot escape rebirth. This condition requires understanding all its functions.
The Amala Consciousness — also called the Amala-vijñāna — is, in terms of Buddha-nature, the fundamental Suchness consciousness. This is the Consciousness Without Defilement, serving as precursor from the fundamental consciousness, manifesting from it. It can certainly enter the internal realm of the ninth consciousness. If one wishes to manifest the essential nature of Buddha-nature, one must certainly enter the ninth 'Amala Consciousness' — only this is correct!
The defilements accumulated by the first eight consciousnesses — how should they be cleansed? It depends entirely on whether each person has the dedication to study principles and penetrate the scriptural treasury. Thus within the cycle of rebirth, although all sentient beings have hearts oriented toward the Way and seek protection from Immortals and Buddhas, if one merely regards this as an experience on the path of cultivation, one cannot attain the conditions for manifesting Buddha-nature.
Such a person remains bound by the six realms of rebirth; this lifetime offers no opportunity for liberation. Why so? In human experience, each person first passes through the delusions of the five external consciousnesses, then receives through the sixth consciousness — the mind's first heart — then enters the seventh Manas Consciousness's second heart for discrimination, after which impressions are transmitted to the storehouse.
Thus upon the eighth consciousness, guided by the seventh, one enters the third heart — Ālaya Consciousness — for storage. Yet mere storage only awaits conditions; it can hardly manifest the fundamental Suchness of the ninth Amala Consciousness. This distinction within the eight consciousnesses' field is the seed-cause of the 'Vīra Sea.'
The human process is like the grasses and trees of a single spring. Why speak of the human cycle of rebirth as truly like grass and trees? From the initial growing environment — taking root, sprouting, emerging — then enduring sun and rain, gradually growing from seedling to thick branches, producing green leaves, flowering and providing shade, becoming a thick trunk bearing abundant fruit.
Finally leaves fall and branches wither, ultimately wilting and perishing — becoming a dead tree, further eroded by insects and ants, returning to roots in the ground. Throughout, assisted by the temporary combination of the four elements — earth, water, fire, wind — the growth proceeds: from sprout, to branch, to trunk, to withering, to dissolution. Is human life not the same — from birth through growth to maturity?
Human life proceeds from maturity to aging, to illness, to decline, and to death. Thus life in the world is truly like grass and trees. Throughout, one endures adversity, tribulation, sickness, dissatisfaction, frustration — all manner of torment — and in the end returns to the great earth. What humans can grasp is merely a brief span of decades.
How can one truly create opportunity for one's own future? It is both insignificant and brief — one is merely busy for others. Those who can pave the way for their own future find it truly not easy. Sentient beings delight in entering religious cultivation, but if one cultivates merely for cultivation's sake, one will surely fail to attain liberation in this life, and naturally cannot manifest the essential nature of Buddha-nature.
Therefore cultivators are as numerous as the hairs of an ox, yet those who attain awakening are as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns — exceedingly few. Human life is truly a 'play' being performed. When will the curtain fall? It depends entirely on how much heart one puts in, how much one strives! Only those who cultivate with dedicated diligence can manifest Buddha-nature.
At birth, human nature is originally good. In Buddha-nature there is neither good nor evil — merely unmoving Suchness, undefiled. It is not swayed by human good and evil, likes and dislikes. The manifestation of fundamental Suchness requires diligent application to the elevation of Prajñā great wisdom, only then can one reach the other shore. Whether one can enter the ninth 'Amala Consciousness' — that is not certain!
One must pass through myriad human trials and tribulations before causes and conditions can be fulfilled and one attains 'true awakening to the essential meaning.' Otherwise, in the human world, one is sometimes enlightened and sometimes deluded. Those who truly possess great wisdom are indeed few! Therefore the essential meaning of 'Prajñā Pāramitā' requires sentient beings to truly reach the other shore — only this is correct doctrine.
The human world is precisely the realm of latent-cause transformation. The deeds of previous lives cannot be known; one only receives retribution in this life. But the ignorance of former lives is now past — the dead need not be mourned. Can this present life seize the remaining years to sever and transform the不良 karma of before? Only thus can one pave the way for one's future in the next life!
The fundamental Suchness of Buddha-nature is without defilement — pure and non-action. When implemented in daily life, if one is not stained by external dust-realms, whence comes the essence of developing wisdom? The human world, through setbacks, suffering, hardship, and adversity — all dissatisfaction accumulated — this life is precisely the realm for transforming previous lives' latent causes, encountering all obstacles and tribulation.
Only thus can one elevate Bodhi wisdom. The Bodhi seed-cause is precisely the nourishment for transforming afflictions. Without afflictions, where would enlightenment arise? Where would the Bodhi seed take root and sprout? Therefore 'affliction,' relative to the human 'Bodhi seed-cause,' is merely two sides of one body. Can one view it with an equanimous mind? The entire pattern of the cycle of rebirth is revealed right here!
Human life is the place for transforming the latent causes of previous lives, accumulated from daily experience bit by bit. Further illuminated by 'Prajñā Pāramitā,' great wisdom and great Bodhi transform afflictions into the method of reaching the other shore. One must proceed step by step, ascending gradually. The entire process will assuredly feel quite arduous.
Yet the fruit earned in return will be all the more abundant and sweet. One must transform latent causes — in this life, severing all adverse manifestations of past karma. Humans in this world are deluded and find liberation difficult. One can observe others as a mirror, then reflect upon oneself. Even if one could possess all the world's wealth and possessions, what would it avail?
Sever the mundane's vexing cares      By the wisdom of the Dharma Realm's essence
第廿四回 四大
Namo Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha
April 9, 1994, the 29th day of the 2nd lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
Hell not emptied, Buddhahood not attained,  
Scriptures hidden, hearts not nourished.
Bodhi has no tree, yet turns all烦恼  
Sarva creates the Four Great Elements, alive and well
The four elements in the environment of survival are needed by humans and animals alike. 'Wind gentle, water smooth, earth vibrant, fire harmonious' — this is the blessing of humans and all things. Conversely, excess or deficiency is no blessing. The four elements' combination, from the human perspective, possesses genuine reality, not falsehood.
The Four Great Elements are but a false confluence,
Mankind and living souls find it hard to see clearly.
Each one must take as the base,  
Their body formed of the Four Great Elements.
Though earth, water, fire, and wind are external,  
They form the flesh and bones of this earthly frame.
Chapter 24: The Four Great Elements
The human world is composed of the four great elements — earth, water, fire, and wind. Within these four elements, human life and all things are formed. It is precisely through the conjunction of earth, water, fire, and wind that life and the growth of all things become possible. Were even one element lacking, continuity of action in the human world would be impossible. Each element must be fully present.
The formation of earth: within the cosmos, it is because of heaven's emptiness that between heaven and earth all things can find space to thrive. First there must be the solidity of earth, firmly supporting all sentient beings who stand upon it. Thus we can imagine earth's importance — in the human body, earth's solidity is represented by the skeleton supporting the entire frame.
Just as animals cannot move without skeletal support, so the skeleton embodies earth's solidity. This structural firmness bears the weight of human and animal bodies. When earth's solidity is assaulted by external force, the support is damaged. Thus earth's firmness also bears the weight of buildings and all other burdens.
Water within the human body: through its circulation, flesh and bone are held within the physical form. Without water's flow, health would be obstructed. Water's fluidity functions through the circulation of blood. Circulation enables flow; blockage brings disease and suffering. Thus water nourishes the entire body, keeping body and mind cool and pure.
Water upon the great earth is the vital force that nourishes all things. Without its universal sprinkling, nothing could grow. Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it — excess and deficiency alike are unfit for habitation. Water's importance lies in moderation. Too much water brings disaster; too little brings the anguish of drought.
Human life is the same: daily water intake is essential to expel excess body heat. One may survive without food, but absolutely cannot survive without water. Water's function governs the body's health. The human body is seventy percent water and thirty percent other substances.
Fire's primary function is to provide light in darkness. Without fire's illumination, one dwells in cold gloom, deprived of the sun's radiance. Therefore, having water, one also needs fire for regulation. When balancing water and fire, both must be moderate. Excessive fire inevitably brings illness.
One falls into unconsciousness, health deteriorates, and clear thinking is impaired. The human body tolerates heat only up to about forty degrees; beyond that is excessive fire, and the temperature must be lowered. Fire in the body maintains vital warmth; its heat must be moderate. If too low, water encroaches and survival likewise becomes precarious.
Human beings breathe through three inches of breath — this is fire's residual warmth. Fire upon the earth illuminates all things, aiding their growth. Human food must be cooked by fire, destroying harmful bacteria and preserving health. Fire's function is of great importance indeed.
Wind's movement: among all things — earth bearing, water circulating, fire illuminating — water and fire require wind's blowing to function. Without wind's free flow, the body's blood cannot reach every part. Thus the blowing of wind is of paramount significance.
Fire's burning, unassisted by wind, will surely be extinguished. Wind in the human body is the breath through the nose, transmitted throughout the body. If one cannot breathe for even one hour, can one survive? Most difficult indeed! Every organ must coordinate water and fire in balance, supplemented by wind — the breath — for transmission.
Then blood circulation is maintained in proper equilibrium. The human body, composed of earth (flesh and bone), supplemented by water's flow (blood), wind's movement (breath), and fire's warmth — together these create a healthy body. Lacking any one element brings decay, disease, and pain.
Thus the human body is composed of the four elements — such is the principle. Wind upon the earth requires fire's illumination and water's moderate circulation. Excess and deficiency are both unsuitable for the growth of humans and all things. In scorching deserts, excessive heat (fire) renders all life impossible.
At the polar ice caps, extreme cold (water) likewise leaves no room for habitation. Human survival depends on the harmonious combination of the four elements, which must remain in balance to provide a comfortable living space. Earth's burden-bearing capacity depends on its inherent solidity to fulfill its purpose.
Warm blood blends water and fire,  
Breath stirs the wind, life’s desire.
第廿五回 假合（四大之二）
Namo Bodhisattva Mahāsthāmaprāpta
April 16, 1994, the 6th day of the 3rd lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
The Great Dao widely transforms, guiding the lost and the blind,  
Upholding the right path, it governs the heart with rectitude.
The utmost virtue in non-action deems the false as real  
Bodhisattvas author their works, thus upholding themselves
As capital for future cultivation of the true — if one excessively dotes upon or wastes this body, one cannot use it as a useful vessel. A human life is truly but a very long dream. Once awakened, one finds oneself in another time and space. Can worldly people manifest this life's fundamental nature? It depends entirely on whether one applies oneself in this lifetime.
The Four Great Elements combine in transient form,  
Earth, water, fire, and wind give life to human realms.
Heaven and Earth have shaped this realm,  
Where wisdom’s light is Heaven’s helm.
Earth's firmness is the bones,  
Water's flow the blood.
Chapter 25: False Union (The Four Great Elements, Part Two)
The human world, through the combination of the four elements, can bring all things to fruition. Within heaven and earth, because all things grow, there is the convergence of causes and conditions. The combination of 'earth, water, fire, wind' — the four great elements — constitutes the true, not false, physical body. From the perspective of the phenomenal world, with this true physical body one can actualize the evolution of all future latent causes.
The four elements within the universe's (earth's) cyclical flow must possess this combination. The conditions of the four elements' combination necessarily have interconnecting continuity. If even one is lacking, the body's true existence cannot be achieved. For cultivators, or from a religious perspective, one merely borrows the body for cultivation and calls it a 'temporary combination.'
From the worldly perspective, it is a truly genuine, unchanging body. Each person must possess this body to engage with the external world and forge causes and conditions, creating a flourishing, richly colored human life. Without a body, there is no true physical form with which to combine with external phenomena — to speak of 'temporary combination' becomes inconceivable.
The body possesses: earth's flesh and bone, water's blood and sweat, fire's warmth, wind's movement (nasal breathing). Only thus can the whole person function as an integrated system. Without earth, water, fire, and wind, can one be called a person? No! Merely a soul without a body. If spirit alone does not enter a body, it cannot accomplish any human causes and conditions.
The human body is called truly real. If one does not regularly cherish it as a useful vessel for the future, but instead tramples upon it without care, letting it follow its own arising and ceasing — one walks the path of self-destruction. From the perspective of cultivation: one must cherish this body, yet must not excessively cling to it.
If one never engages with the external world, one is like a hothouse flower, unable to withstand frost and wind. Such a vessel can hardly be useful! Therefore, the more one protects the body, the more one must engage with the outside world. One must forge genuine kung fu to resist external tribulation and temptation — this is what religion teaches about bodily cultivation.
Using this body to 'borrow the false to cultivate the true' — this is the original intent. The four elements' temporary combination is precious only while useful in this life. Once the body has completed its duty, this life's journey is over. Can the body endure forever? Can it remain unblemished for all time? Impossible!
The human body endures only about a century. It is useful only for this lifetime and absolutely cannot be carried into the next. If it could, then all its parts would long be worn beyond use! The human body is merely a passing cloud before the eyes.
If one acts only for this lifetime without cultivating merit for future latent causes — whether one can be born human again is truly unknown and beyond imagination. This life borrows this body; 'borrowing the false to cultivate the true' — the original meaning lies here. Humanity's borrowing the false to cultivate the true means properly utilizing the four elements' temporary combination body.
Fire's warmth enlivens the whole body,  
Wind's breath clears the nostrils, free.
第廿六回 成住
Namo Samantabhadra Bodhisattva
April 23, 1994 — the 13th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Wood Dog (Jiaxu), Saturday
Upon the path of Universal Transformation, awakened beings arise; the wise advance in Dao, seeking the nature of truth. Bodhi transforms, and afflictions are extinguished; the Bodhisattva's mind, in Formation and Abiding, dwells in Practice.
Observe the transformations of Birth, Abiding, Change, and Cessation; gaze upon the flowers of heart and mind that have passed before.
If one clings to this world and is bound by its attachments, when the body perishes, to whom shall one speak?
Formation, Abiding, Destruction, and Emptiness — one must see through them all; to transform and elevate oneself is imperative.
Sentient beings know not their Buddha-nature; again and again they turn in Samsara, constructing futures yet to come.
Human survival within the concepts of 'birth, abiding, change, and extinction' — without vigilance as a guide, one will often become intoxicated with comfortable living, failing to establish blessings for oneself and sentient beings for the future. In other words: the concepts of formation, abiding, decay, and emptiness exist precisely so that the human process is not wasted. For instance: before disaster arrives, can one perceive it in advance? Most difficult!
In birth, dwelling, change, and death,  
View the blossoms of past hearts.
If for this life we are tethered,  
Where shall the vanished body be spoken of?
To penetrate the cycle of creation and dissolution,
Transformation and elevation must be pursued.
Within heaven and earth, human beings exist through causes that have been established. Thus, in the evolution of the universe, there is the immutable law of Formation, Abiding, Destruction, and Emptiness. A human life is spent within this very cycle of Formation, Abiding, Destruction, and Emptiness — such is the working of the cause of Formation. Yet without the convergence of time, space, and conditions, can the harmonious union of karmic affinities be accomplished? It is indeed difficult!
Formation — viewed from the perspective of human life, before birth one is connected to a Latent Cause, which ripens into fruition. One need only await the appointed time for the convergence of karmic conditions. Thus the cause of Formation dwells in the past, simply awaiting conditions to align — holding within it a latent seed, waiting for the proper moment. When the time arrives, all things come together in perfect accord.
Formation — is the awaiting of conditions before birth. In the process of forming, at the very first emergence, one must already engage with the external world and unite with it. Without the proper conditions, formation cannot take place. In the initial stage of formation, one must necessarily combine with external conditions, and only then can the phase of Abiding begin — growing upward and developing further.
The old saying goes: 'Heaven has born me with talents — surely I am useful.' This admonition encourages human sentient beings to exert their strength in this life, combining the power of the many to jointly bring benefit to people and all things. Regarding the growth of abiding, it must not cause disadvantage to sentient beings in the human process, enabling the function of 'abiding' to elevate the quality of human life.
Furthermore, tracing the process of Formation, one unites with the external world and is touched by the dust of outer realms. Facing the dust of external conditions, one must rely upon the five dusty realms of human existence, reaching outward to grasp at conditions, turning them into consciousness to receive. All that exists in external realms merely arises through mutual dependence on conditions. In the functioning of the cause of Formation, the harmonious convergence of karmic conditions is absolutely essential.
In ancient times, 'abiding' could not elevate quality of life; people frequently fell into the vortex of suffering. In contrast, today's sentient beings dwell on the Pearl Island, and in this world everyone possesses quite deep fortune. This fortune is a blessing brought by religious advocacy. Surveying all nations under heaven, those possessing such blessing are only the sentient beings of this Pearl Island.
Only through such conditions can all things and their manifestations be brought to completion. All outer realms must necessarily unite outwardly to receive the cause of Formation and enter into the phase of Abiding. When one's Abiding is stained by external conditions, wisdom-knowledge arises to make discernments. Yet this discernment of wisdom-knowledge consists merely in receiving — and thus one becomes led astray by external conditions.
Abiding — its essence lies within the process of growth. For human growth, the combination of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind is indispensable. Only thus can the flourishing of all life be achieved. Without enduring the assaults of wind, frost, snow, and rain, one can hardly develop resistance; yet the blazing of Fire and Sun, whether excessive or insufficient, is equally harmful to humankind and all living things.
The space in which humans and all things dwell must follow the Middle Way, so as to suit the existence of both humankind and all creatures. Humans sustain their vital force by partaking of the five grains and various foods; excess or deficiency leads to scorching or decay, impairing health and bringing calamity upon the body. When the essence of Abiding rests upon the Middle Way, one can adapt to the changes of environment and live without impediment to one's quality of life.
The growth of Abiding — the human body must pass from youth to maturity, from strength to old age, and finally into Cessation. During this abiding of the human form, one must carefully protect the useful vessel of the body and accomplish deeds that benefit all sentient beings in this life. Moreover, the elevation of the quality of Abiding demands that one bring benefit to the welfare and virtuous grace of the multitude, adding goodness to the lives of humankind and all creatures.
The ancient saying declares: 'Heaven has endowed me with talents surely meant to be used.' This exhortation urges all sentient beings to exert their strength in this present life, uniting the power of the multitude to bring blessing to humankind and all creatures. Furthermore, in the growth of Abiding, one who does no harm to sentient beings throughout life's journey can truly manifest the power of Abiding to elevate the quality of human existence.
Sentient beings, the Buddha-nature not clear,
Cycle through rebirth, entangled in earthly affairs.
Humans do not possess the five supernatural powers, and thus find it difficult to foresee future disasters. There is also no awareness of birth, abiding, change, and extinction. Humans inevitably think in this way, unguarded against the day disaster may strike. Human formation and abiding is merely borrowing — for this life's viewing and using. What does one truly possess? Only in this one lifetime!
第廿七回 壞空
Namo Manjushri Bodhisattva
April 30, 1994 — the 20th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Wood Dog (Jiaxu), Saturday
Cultivating the heart through culture and the righteous Way,
Boundless merit arises from no fixed place.
The seed of Bodhi returns to its root,
And the Bodhisattva's practice takes form within formation and emptiness.
The changes of destruction and emptiness are the principle of the world;
Clearly perceive the true meaning within them.
In the turning of Samsara, one must inevitably wait;
Reborn in the future, yet never as one wishes.
All things in the human world are just so,
The long and short of time and space are likewise real.
Clearly perceive the principle within this,
And hold fast to transcend and ascend.
Humans and all things are creations of evolution, also Heaven's transformation. Heaven's process of evolution is precisely the Great Way's evolutionary passage. The purpose of the 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue' treatise also lies here — to change one's own latent cause foundation, connecting with all sentient beings' latent causes, only then can one, in this world, end the bonds of human suffering.
The world's transformations, void and decay,  
Reveal the true meaning, clear as day.
Repeating cycles of rebirth,      Future lives hard to shape as desired.
All in this world is thus,  
Time and space likewise true.
All that exists in the present world of humanity lies within the process of Formation and Abiding. Because there is Formation and Abiding, Destruction and Emptiness must come. Human life fulfills its course precisely within the process of Destruction and Emptiness. In the passage of Formation and Abiding, only when heaven and earth took form did the space for human existence arise. In the space where humanity dwells, excess and deficiency alike deviate from the Middle Way.
Humanity must dwell in the Middle Way to fulfill all Latent Causes. These Latent Causes, measured by the intervals of years, months, days, and hours, must complete the karmic cycle of a human life. Therefore, within a single life, the succession of four seasons — spring, summer, autumn, winter — must repeat and cycle, only then composing one year of human existence. Each year is further divided into twelve months.
Each month sees roughly thirty days succeeding one another, and within each month's succession the days are duly distinguished. The first stirring of each day occurs at the extreme of Yin — in the deepest night when all is still. As space and time alternate, Yin stirs (conceiving the embryo) and Yang arrives. Dawn is like the birth of a person: everything begins anew. The morning hours are like childhood,
That is to say: within the process of formation, abiding, decay, emptiness and birth, abiding, change, extinction lies human survival's passage! In the present world, in the cycle where 'mountains and rivers are the host, humans are the guest' — mountains and rivers endure but humans change. Humans and all things are within the process of impermanent change, concluding their lifetime. Humans and all things are merely passing guests!
Noon is youth; the afternoon is prime of manhood. The twilight sunset resembles old age, and the coming of the dark night is like a person approaching death. Then in the deep night, it transforms once more into the change of Destruction and Emptiness. Human existence alternates thus with each passing day — this is the whole of a human life. Since years, months, days, and hours divide a lifetime, one must surely seize the present moment.
Mountains, rivers, and the great earth are the true hosts of this space. Yet mountains and rivers can bring disaster upon the human world. Encountering the assisting conditions of earth, water, fire, and wind, they thereby change the living space of humans and all things. Humans, within this repeated transformation, have attained the present comfortable life — this is called Heaven's virtuous grace of evolution.
Only then can one transform the Latent Causes of life. The succession of years, months, days, and hours is like the first stirring of a person — in an instant one reaches middle age, in a flash one arrives at old age. From the cause of Formation comes the existence of Abiding; toward Abiding there is always the preparation for Destruction; and from the preparation for Destruction, one returns once more to Emptiness.
Therefore humans can be ranked alongside heaven and earth as the Three Powers — the reason lies here. Humans ranked with heaven and earth as the Three Powers is precisely because humans possess the capacity to think and transform latent causes. In the past of formation and abiding, it was likewise so. If living conditions enter decay and emptiness, humans begin to age and perish. By then, it is difficult to recover health. Because old age arrives, destruction follows.
Therefore it is said: the passage of Formation-Abiding-Destruction-Emptiness in the human world is precisely a human lifetime. The point of alternation existing in humanity's living space reveals the impermanence of life. Moreover, within impermanence one must hold fast to the permanent; in brief: one should observe the permanent within the impermanent. Both the permanent and the impermanent are stages in the evolution of the human world.
Human survival is within destruction, returning to heaven and earth. Thus another stage of new life begins. In the alternation of time and space, who can escape? From ancient times to the present, no one can break free from this shackle. Therefore humans must let go in the present moment, drawing forth one's inherent Buddha-nature, growing upward — only then can the cycle of rebirth be ended.
The law of evolution is this: only when the self exists can the concept of no-self be made manifest in the depths of the heart. This alone is the bright lamp of the mind; only thus can the Buddha-nature within the human body be revealed. Formation, Abiding, Destruction, and Emptiness exist within all things — every link is the same. The cyclical law of heaven and earth remains unchanged through the ages.
The essential nature of decay and emptiness is to lead humans and all things into another stage of transformation. Because of the law of decay and emptiness, new life can begin. If from ancient times to the present there were no decay and emptiness, then upon the earth there would be no room for humans and all things to survive. One must make full use of this life — everything can be changed in the present moment.
What can be transformed is precisely the reform of one's own Latent Causes. That humans and all things have existed through countless lifetimes is the result of the process of space-time alternation. Therefore, in this life one is born here, and in the next life one is suddenly born elsewhere. Within this endless cycle of birth after birth, the Latent Causes accumulated over lifetimes must be reformed in this very world!
Nor should one say: 'there is still the next life.' Otherwise, year after year, life after life, one merely indulges all the body's faults and habitual tendencies. When can it end? Humans merely exist in this environment. I remind sentient beings: the concept of impermanence must be deeply planted in the heart, only then can one, in the present moment, perform virtuous deeds benefiting others and oneself.
That is to say, the process of Formation-Abiding-Destruction-Emptiness and Birth-Duration-Change-Cessation is precisely the passage of human existence. In the present world, mountains and rivers are the hosts while humans are the guests in this cycle; the mountains and rivers endure while humans change. Humans and all things alike are within the process of impermanent transformation. At the end of a human life and the life of all things, both humans and all things are merely sojourners passing through.
Formation, abiding, decay, emptiness: primarily transforms sentient beings' root. Entering this world, one must benefit oneself and also benefit the world. Humans in their living space are not merely individuals — there is also the vast world of sentient beings, and all living creatures, plants and animals. This is the definition of sentient beings' existence, not referring only to human beings.
Perceive the principles herein,
Transcend and elevate, steadfastly.
Because human sentient beings have not understood their own Buddha-nature, one must know: Buddhas need sentient beings to reveal the preciousness of Buddha-nature. Otherwise, from the perspective of equality, Buddhas are sentient beings and sentient beings are Buddhas. Sentient beings are Bodhisattvas, and Bodhisattvas are also sentient beings. If one implements the conduct of awakening to sentient beings in the present, over time, one need not wait until returning to emptiness to become a Bodhisattva.
第廿八回 覺有情（菩薩與眾生）
Ancient Buddha Daoji of Nanping
May 7, 1994 — the 27th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Wood Dog (Jiaxu), Saturday
Opening to the south, walking the Great Dao,
Through the merit of protection, blessings come of their own accord.
The restoration of morality lies only in the human world;
To save the world and benefit others is the nature of the sincere heart.
By earth, water, fire, and wind all things are formed;
Formation-Abiding-Destruction-Emptiness enact the flow of existence.
The Bodhisattva grounds Awakening in Sentiment,
In this very moment, severing delusion and increasing Buddha-nature.
Within awakened compassion dwell the multitude of beings;
Bodhisattva and sentient beings walk the very same path.
The levels and realms have already been transcended;
Otherwise one remains but an ordinary person.
Apart from sentient beings, one is no Bodhisattva;
Only through awakening within compassion can one arrive.
When the wisdom of hidden virtue is truly lofty,
The difference in fruit and station is vastly great.
In the realm of sentient beings, all aware,  
Bodhisattvas and beings tread the same path.
Having surpassed the realms of stages,
Else still a mortal would remain.
To leave the sentient beings is not a bodhisattva's way,
Awakening to compassion leads one to the true path.
Thus one can change adverse evil fruits, transforming them to achieve good karmic fruit. The essential nature of latent causes is not entangled by the five aggregates, nor does it fall into the traps preset by the five aggregates. The transformation of latent causes is precisely the latent cause transformation realm of the human present world. To achieve the goal, one must penetrate the scriptural treasury, regularly receive the universal illumination of Immortals and Buddhas, and increase new concepts for practice.
The Bodhisattva practice of embodying awakened compassion in the human world — the difference between humans and Bodhisattvas lies in transforming Latent Causes through instinctive human action, thereby fulfilling the Bodhisattva path in the present world. Awakened compassion must be put into actual practice, transforming the human world into a realm of awakened compassion. Sentient beings, through the deeds of awakened compassion in the human world, enter and fulfill the path of the Bodhisattva.
Further integrating into present life: today's sentient beings regularly practice awakening to sentient beings. In a family, two Bodhisattvas — husband and wife — are needed to implement awakening to sentient beings. These two Bodhisattvas must transform the family, bringing it to greater completeness, prosperity, and growth — precisely the foundation of non-action. Most sentient beings act without knowing, fundamentally not comprehending at all.
The essence of the Bodhisattva is aimed at fulfilling the purpose of non-action (Wu Wei). Therefore, what the Bodhisattva's essence achieves can provide sentient beings with an object of reverence and faith. In the karmic connection between Bodhisattva and sentient beings, when sentient beings are deluded by the scenes of the world, they are bound by the present world, unable to set their hearts at ease and act freely. All sentient beings possess the innate Buddha-nature, yet they become entangled and constrained by the Five Aggregates — form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness.
In the process of teaching below: children are influenced by awakening to sentient beings and become unselfish. This is because family members devote their hearts and labor without daring to speak of hardship. Within the process of joyfully giving and joyfully receiving, the family is achieved. With the vow-power of compassion, joy, and giving — finding it sweet, seeking no reward — this is the process of awakening to sentient beings.
Thus they lose themselves and cannot reveal their Buddha-nature, merely rushing about for the sake of human life. Humanity fundamentally cannot enter into selfless action, and therefore is difficult to receive through the Great Public. Entangled by the Five Aggregates in the human world, one cannot uplift humanity toward the instinct of the Bodhisattva path. There is no difference between the instinct of sentient beings and that of Bodhisattvas — it lies only between delusion and awakening.
The most basic conduct of the Bodhisattva Way: if children can feel gratitude for their two Bodhisattvas' toil, they can manifest the family's virtuous grace, and one can speak of 'filial sons and worthy grandchildren.' As for Bodhisattvas and the family, regarding Heaven's evolution — the family must prosper. All sentient beings pass through the Bodhisattva Way of awakening to sentient beings; no one can escape. Whether one does well depends entirely on one's own effort!
In the deeds of the human world, only with the existence of sentient beings and all things can the original nature of awakened compassion be revealed and the karmic conditions of the Bodhisattva path be fulfilled. All sentient beings must possess the key of thorough understanding, above all valuing the process of enlightenment. The sentient beings of the human world are all lost and blind; the Bodhisattva, having awakened, acts without self-interest — and thereby creates blessings and fulfills all things.
Speaking of sentient beings and Bodhisattvas: the Bodhisattva is sentient beings, and sentient beings are the Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva can practice non-action, and sentient beings too can practice non-action. The Bodhisattva is attained through human cultivation; sentient beings, taking the Bodhisattva as their model and goal, can likewise reach the realm of the Bodhisattva. The practice of the Bodhisattva is precisely to benefit all sentient beings under heaven.
Above, to seek self-benefit; below, to transform and benefit others — that is all. The essence of the Bodhisattva is formed by sentient beings; therefore, for sentient beings to achieve Buddhahood is indeed a most effortless matter. Awakened compassion does not serve private interest, but with the utmost fairness, utmost righteousness, and utmost reason, benefits all under heaven with great compassion. This kind of awakened compassion can lead sentient beings to practice deeds of non-action.
Humans are composed of earth, water, fire, and wind; all things are likewise so. As all things combine to form individual entities, Formation-Abiding-Destruction-Emptiness merely enact the process of the human world. If sentient beings can practice the Bodhisattva path and embody awakened compassion in the present world, they can certainly transform humanity's Latent Causes in this very life. The Bodhisattva fears the cause — that is, at the initial stirring of cause, one does not allow the fruit to ripen.
Necessarily, the wisdom of the yin must be high,  
Fruit positions vary, the differences are vast.
In transforming the Latent Causes, one does not enter into the alternation of the Five Aggregates; therefore one is not received by the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Nor does one enter into the discrimination by Manas of what is stored in the Ālaya. The Bodhisattva has already severed the Latent Causes, and therefore does not abide in the fruition of karmic retribution — truly one who can sever the cause.
Thereby one can transform unwholesome fruits of evil, turning them to achieve the karmic retribution of wholesome causes and conditions. The essence of Latent Causes is not entangled by the Five Aggregates, nor does it fall into the traps preset by them. The transformation of Latent Causes is precisely the realm in which humanity transforms its Latent Causes in the present world. To reach this goal, one must necessarily penetrate deeply into the scriptural treasury, constantly receive the universal illumination of the Deities and Immortals, and add new concepts to one's practice.
第廿九回 覺有情（六度萬行一）
Namo Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva
May 14, 1994 — the 4th day of the 4th month, Year of the Wood Dog (Jiaxu), Saturday
Behold the human realm, all is illusion; lost in delusion, the world knows not the way back. Called awake by the saving voice, through the Six Pāramitās the Bodhisattva at last returns.
foremost among the Six Pāramitās and Ten Thousand Practices—Dāna, Śīla, and Kṣānti are the true foundations.
Distinguishing all manner of dharmas, awakening the sentient beings filled with karmic bonds.
Giving of wealth, giving of Dharma, giving of fearlessness—uphold the precepts without hesitation or delay.
Patience for beings, patience for dharmas, patience for the unarisen—benefit the sentient ones and uphold them with compassion.
◎Third, Patience of No-Birth Dharma — Because sentient beings have the patience of sentient beings regarding body contacting objects, and Dharma Patience regarding the realm of mind, the Patience of No-Birth Dharma is for Mahāyāna cultivators: taking all realms — external and internal — contacted by the former two patiences, and not enduring at all. That is, 'the patience of no-patience' — precisely the standard of achieving the Way.
Six perfections and myriad deeds, the foremost rank,
Almsgiving, precept-keeping, patience, truly pure.
Distinguishing various Dharma paths,
Enlightening sentient beings with compassion.
Alms of wealth, of wisdom, of fearless aid,  
Keep the precepts, hesitate not, with steadfast faith.
The practice of the Bodhisattva is to awaken sentient beings. The Bodhisattva's compassion never departs from sentient beings; at times descending into the Sahā world to deliver them. By making the Six Pāramitās and Ten Thousand Practices the foundation of one's conduct in life, one can manifest the Buddha-nature, transcend Saṃsāra, and return to the original source. The Six Pāramitās and Ten Thousand Practices are precisely the fundamental conditions requisite for the Bodhisattva's path.
The first of the Six Pāramitās: Dāna Pāramitā—Giving transcends miserliness and greed.
First, Material Giving (Dāna): The essence of material giving lies in bestowing one's surplus blessings upon others. In the motivation for such giving, the aim is to deliver from urgent peril, not to provide perpetual relief—for that would breed dependency. Emergencies and hardship strike when least expected, and when impermanence arrives, one finds oneself at a loss, unable to act.
The second Pāramitā: the Pāramitā of Precept-keeping — Precept-keeping crosses over regret and anxiety.
To give material wealth is to use one's surplus blessings to deliver others, to assist them and resolve their difficulties. Long-term deliverance means teaching the way out of hardship, not merely providing alms of money and goods. As the Yì Jīng teaches: 'It is better to teach one to fish than to give one a fish.' Rather than giving food, teach farming; rather than giving money, teach the means to earn a livelihood. Material giving rescues from emergency, not from poverty.
◎First, Disciplinary Precepts — Using precepts as the standard of cultivation. Observing precepts to detect transgressions. These precepts are for sentient beings to observe, not exceeding bounds, always maintaining discipline as the criterion — providing regulations so that none transgress these guidelines.
Second, Dharma Giving (Dharma Dāna): The essence of Dharma giving is to transform others through what one has personally realized. This giving uses words and teachings to guide sentient beings—one may save others even through freshly learned truth. A single word can benefit another, yet it can also harm. In the practice of Dharma giving, one must enrich oneself, seek wisdom, and transform knowledge into spiritual provisions for the journey.
◎Second, Precepts of Gathering Good Dharma — Requiring sentient beings to 'cease all evil, practice all good.' Regularly performing merit, cultivating virtue, using precepts as the standard of bodily cultivation, protecting the root of true Dharma. Not acting from a desire for credit, but saving sentient beings — providing guidance for humanity and requiring elevation.
Third, Giving of Fearlessness (Abhaya Dāna): Both material giving and Dharma giving require surplus strength before one can transform others. But the giving of fearlessness centers on lowering oneself for the sake of sentient beings—acting with humility and devotion. No matter how high one's station, one must roll up one's sleeves and descend to uplift all beings, first perfecting oneself and then benefiting others. In this way, through material giving, Dharma giving, and the giving of fearlessness, one carries forth the work of transformation.
◎Third, Precepts of Benefiting Sentient Beings — With boundless great compassion and identical-substance great compassion as the standard of practice, benefiting self and others. Using this precept as the foundation of discipline, viewing all beings as one's own brothers and children. Benefiting sentient beings as the foundation, one reaches the realm of non-action — this is self-transcendence and also benefits others.
Furthermore, one takes as life's foundation the heart of 'boundless loving-kindness and great compassion of one body.' Thus practicing fearlessly with universal great compassion, one becomes a pillar of the Dao Field. In non-action, seeking neither fame nor profit, harboring no ambition to climb high, one becomes as a small screw. The higher one's conduct rises, the more readily one beholds the unwholesome side of things. The small screw is, in truth, the great foundational pillar.
The third Pāramitā: the Pāramitā of Patience — Patience crosses over anger and resentment.
That is to say, the more one lowers oneself in humility, the more clearly one perceives the ordinary mind and the Bodhisattva's conduct—possessing the very foundation of awakening sentient beings. To awaken sentient beings means to call them to practice with an ordinary mind; that is the heart of a Bodhisattva, the heart of a Buddha. Therefore, the giving of fearlessness means engaging with an ordinary mind. To warn against the common failing of those high in station who lack virtue, high in station who lack the Dao—this is the guiding principle of Abhaya Dāna.
◎First, Patience of Sentient Beings — In human life, all adversity and impermanence's obstruction. Using patience as the standard of daily cultivation. The patience of sentient beings: regularly encountering obstacles from all directions. The patience of the body — tangible and visible — means overcoming all adversity and tribulation as the cultivation of patience.
The second of the Six Pāramitās: Śīla Pāramitā—Observing the precepts transcends regret and remorse.
◎Second, Dharma Patience — All causes and conditions create, in intangible form, tribulation upon the heart. The suffering of the spirit cannot be expressed in words. Dharma Patience, though invisible, is deeply felt. It is enduring the suffering of the heart, transforming the suffering and dissolving it into nothingness.
Endurance in life, endurance in Dharma, endurance in non-arising,
Benefiting all sentient beings with compassion and wisdom.
To speak clearly: there is fundamentally no patience, and no thought of patience. Thus one has transcended the boundary of patience entirely. The world speaks of 'a hundred endurance' regarding external circumstances; internal patience concerns heart and body only. If one adopts the mindset of 'eating bitterness as nourishment,' the thought of no-patience can naturally arise.
The Six Pāramitās of Giving, Precept-keeping, and Patience — first, these three must serve as the first, second, and third foundations of the Bodhisattva Way. Below remain Diligence, Meditation, and Wisdom — three more. Therefore the Bodhisattva Way must possess all Six Pāramitās, built upon the present foundation, promoting human growth.
In the process of cultivation, the Mahāyāna Bodhisattva Way must first accumulate through Hīnayāna foundations. Therefore the essential nature of the Six Pāramitās can complete all Bodhisattva conduct of awakening to sentient beings. If one does not pass through the Six Pāramitās yet claims direct transcendence to the Bodhisattva fruit — such cases are exceedingly rare and fundamentally impossible.
第三十回 覺有情（六度萬行二）
Namo Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva
May 21, 1994 — the 11th day of the 4th month, Year of the Wood Dog (Jiaxu), Saturday
In the unreal life, awaken to the true nature; the dharma-nature of emptiness rests upon one's own spirit. The hidden treasure arises from within the heart—the Bodhisattva composes treatises to awaken the hearts of all.
Diligence, meditation, and wisdom grow; seek to elevate the diligence of transformation and guidance.
The heart is still, the speech is still, the mind is still—within the wisdom of life's emptiness, virtue is fulfilled.
The wisdom of life's emptiness, the wisdom of dharma's emptiness; the wisdom of all-wisdom, the wisdom of suchness.
Abundant in hidden virtue through the Six Pāramitās and Ten Thousand Practices—the great wisdom of awakening sentient beings.
Those who truly practice the Mahāyāna Bodhisattva Way seek supreme wisdom and compassion as resources for teaching below. The Mahāyāna concept is a Bodhisattva requirement. The Bodhisattva Way of awakening to sentient beings is the great compassionate vow to save them. Through guiding sentient beings, one awakens worldly beings and ends life in the Five Turbidities.
Strive in meditation, wisdom grows,
Seeking transformation, effort must rise.
Heart still, mouth still, mind is calm  
In the void of life, wisdom and virtue form
In the wisdom of emptiness of life, the wisdom of emptiness of dharma,
All wisdom, true and real, shines forth.
The Bodhisattva's practice of the Six Pāramitās and Ten Thousand Practices is called the Six Pāramitās. Whether one can reach the Other Shore through these Six Pāramitās depends upon putting them into actual practice in this present life. The Six Pāramitās and Ten Thousand Practices must be genuinely cultivated and lived—not pursued for the sake of reputation or gain.
The fourth of the Six Pāramitās: Vīrya Pāramitā—Diligence transcends laziness. In practicing diligence, one must:
First, the Diligence of Severing: This diligence means cutting off all unwholesome habitual tendencies. Within human nature, laziness runs deep; one must sever these tendencies without exception. With a diligent mind, one enters the stage of cultivation—yet human laziness so often obstructs the heart of diligence. To transform laziness is exceedingly difficult; this practice of severing may become an impediment to the very engine of diligence.
◎Third, Intent Settled — For intent to be settled, one must practice outwardly through body, mouth, and heart, only then entering the guidance of thought. For consciousness to be free and undefiled, one must first purify the spirit, then purify thought. Intent's movement is thought's movement, also heart's movement — the three are inseparable, merely divided into the 'nine consciousnesses.'
Second, the Diligence of Cultivation: To enter religious practice indicates that one possessed latent causes of cultivation in previous lives. To become a member of a religious Dao Field in this life requires the possession of seeds of goodness. From these karmic bonds of virtue, one extends outward to transform others, broadly delivering sentient beings and forming wholesome connections. Only by entering cultivation and practicing the diligence of self-cultivation—unceasingly striving—can one truly attain the goal.
The heart is the discrimination of internal realms. Regarding meditation's original nature: it is uniting heart, thought, and intent into one. Their discriminating functions can settle the heart into a realm of no-thought, becoming meditation's basic kung fu. Below are the conditions of 'consciousness-seeds' — humans rarely understand the function of consciousness.
Third, the Diligence of Seeking Transformation: This is to truly enter the realm of unceasing wisdom through the diligence of severing and the diligence of cultivation. One must possess the upper-seeking energy of wisdom and its spiritual provisions before one can enrich one's latent storehouse and then descend to transform sentient beings. Whether one can seek above and transform below depends upon how much provision, how much vow-power, and how much diligence one has within. With such energy and provisions in hand, and with unceasing diligence still, one shall surely reach the goal.
The sixth Pāramitā: Wisdom — Wisdom crosses over foolishness. As follows:
The fifth of the Six Pāramitās: Dhyāna Pāramitā—Meditation transcends scattering and negligence. It is expounded as follows:
◎First, Birth-Empty Wisdom — Cultivation experience enters the Wisdom Pāramitā. People differ in wisdom, cleverness, foolishness, and clumsiness. In life's contact with the world, those who truly cultivate with wisdom are rare! Most, in worldly contact, lead the blind while blind themselves, unable to enter the inner realm of cultivation.
First, Stillness of Heart: Only when the heart is still can one take one's own conduct as the foundation of practice. When the heart is not still, it leaps like a monkey and gallops like a horse—one cannot hold the power of concentration, nor can one unite the body with the outer realm. Yet one can maintain the 'purity of heart' unmoved by external circumstances. This stillness of heart is precisely the inner condition of meditation.
Most speak of cultivation only verbally. The heart constantly struggles unknowingly, encountering bottlenecks and blind spots that obstruct wisdom's diligence. Birth-Empty Wisdom: all is created by causes and conditions — all dharmas are mind-only and matter-only (self). The emptiness of this life is merely a passing guest of time.
Second, Stillness of Speech—(Stillness of Body): The body and speech, driven by the movements of the heart, accomplish the actions of all bodily parts. A person's deeds are judged entirely by the karma of speech; moreover, in this life, the karmic obstacles of body and speech obstruct karmic conditions. These outer conditions of karmic obstacle from body, speech, and mind are precisely what first stirs when one encounters external circumstances.
◎Second, Dharma-Empty Wisdom — All is created by causes and conditions. In dharma-nature, birth is also empty, dharma is also empty. Cultivating the conditioned to practice the unconditioned. All actions use the concept of Mahāyāna Bodhisattva practitioners as a view of emptiness regarding causes-and-conditions and dharma-nature. All causes and conditions are natural law. Can one let go? Seeing through is enough!
Third, Stillness of Mind: For the mind to become still, one must first act outwardly through body, speech, and heart, entering into the transmission of thought. For consciousness to be free and unblemished, one must first purify the spirit and cleanse one's thoughts. The movement of intention is the movement of thought, which is also the movement of heart—these three are intimately intertwined, differing only in that 'mind' is divided into the Nine Consciousnesses.
◎Third, All-Wisdom Wisdom — It is the fundamental Suchness of 'no-self Suchness' and 'dharma-nature Suchness,' the original nature of Buddha. All sentient beings possess Buddha-nature. Entering All-Wisdom-Wisdom Suchness Buddha-nature from Wisdom of All Seeds — pure, undefiled, free, and non-action — there unfolds the true Great-Wisdom-of-Wisdom.
The Six Pāramitās and Ten Thousand Practices: precisely the conditions for the Bodhisattva Way, achieving through the Six Pāramitās the original nature of Nirvana — reaching the other shore with great wisdom. Human life must pass through the law of causes and conditions, achieving oneself and others within that law, providing the Six Pāramitās' transcendence to the other shore.
The Bodhisattva Way for self-practice requires Giving, Precept-keeping, Patience, Diligence, Meditation, and Wisdom Pāramitās as the foundation of human cultivation. From Hīnayāna, gradually entering Śrāvaka and Pratyekabuddha, then Mahāyāna Bodhisattva concepts and rational thought.
Six perfections and myriad deeds abound,  
Awakening the wise heart of all beings.
One must use seeing, hearing, knowing, and perceiving to guide sentient beings back. Using wisdom: from sentient beings one achieves Śrāvaka and Pratyekabuddha, then enters the Bodhisattva realm. To manifest Buddha-nature, one must step by step ascend — not in a single leap. Few sentient beings possess the capacity for sudden awakening.
One must enter gradual awakening step by step. Through the Six Pāramitās, one reaches the actual fruit of the Bodhisattva Way. To manifest Suchness Buddha-nature, one must already possess the capital — not entering the illusion of sudden awakening from nothing. Therefore 'gradual' and 'sudden' are both differentiated by one's wisdom and latent causes.
第卅一回 覺有情（大乘菩薩行）
Namo Ānanda Bodhisattva
May 28, 1994 — the 18th day of the 4th month, Year of the Wood Dog (Jiaxu), Saturday
In the Ālaya-consciousness, the True Suchness is stored; no problem arises, for this is the extraordinary. Dhyāna enters into the original awakening; the Bodhisattva, in perfection, returns to the True Beginning.
Each Bodhisattva walks the path upright, guiding sentient beings to birth within the world.
Self-awakening and awakening others—both fulfilled in perfection; the True Suchness transcends, the Great Dao extends onward.
The Bodhisattva's path is awakening to sentient beings; the Mahāyāna practitioner cultivates merit and virtue.
Passing through self-awakening to attain perfection; in the perfection of awakening others, the Buddha-nature is made manifest.
If one does not treasure what one possesses, but blindly creates karma for wealth, one increases the opportunity for sin. All wealth should be used to benefit sentient beings. Wealth and vow-power are closely linked: the greater the vow-power, the more one can use Heaven's wealth and the world's wealth to benefit the world.
Each bodhisattva treads the path with grace,
Guiding the sentient through life's embrace.
Self-awakened, awakening others, all complete  
True Suchness transcends the Great Dao’s path.
Bodhisattva treads the path, awakening all beings,
Great Vehicle practitioner walks in virtue and merit.
The Bodhisattva's Practice: Upon entering the realm of perfection, one possesses the experience of awakening. Within that experience, the five aggregates come into contact with external conditions. 'Awakening to the Original' calls upon sentient beings, through the Bodhisattva's path, to cultivate through the Hīnayāna practice until reaching the awakening of others and arriving at the realm of perfection. In awakening: through self-realization one comprehends sentient beings, then enters once more into the realm of perfection.
Without passing through self-awakening in the Bodhisattva's path, one must cultivate the principles of the Mahāyāna. The Mahāyāna practice, through accumulated experience, truly descends into the human world. If there were no sentient beings, where would the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas be? In the concept of Mahāyāna practice, one transforms and accumulates one's latent causes through the cultivation of the Hīnayāna.
Latent Causes: Those of higher wisdom practice in the present moment; those of middling wisdom achieve real liberation in their lived experience; those of lower wisdom proceed step by step, gradually transforming themselves. Self-awakening must be realized through the accumulation of experience in this present life—not by fleeing the human world and sentient beings to practice in solitary isolation. Moreover, the path of a Mahāyāna practitioner inevitably passes through the experiences of sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy.
The process of awakening others: one must first awaken oneself, using one's own resources to transform the origins of latent causes. Awakening others requires sentient beings to change and elevate. One must address all their various problems — through 84,000 dharma gates, using 84,000 wisdoms to treat them.
Only thus can one truly comprehend the process of cultivating life in practice. The Great Vehicle Bodhisattva's path must pass through all the trials of survival in the human world. Only through genuinely accumulated experience does one possess real, authentic experience—not merely observing from the sutras, but truly: as one who drinks water knows its warmth and coolness for oneself, every single drop is one's own doing.
If 84,000 problems do not arise, where would 84,000 Bodhi achievements come from? Completeness of awakening-conduct requires wisdom's promulgation to dissolve problems into nothingness. Humans have physical bodies; Buddhas and Bodhisattvas do not — they transcend sentient beings through Suchness spiritual nature alone.
Life must pass through trials and tribulations. When all the sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy of experience are transformed into life's joy, anger, sorrow, and delight—that is the finest testimony of life's experience. One who has passed through self-awakening can engage in awakening others. Yet if the latent store of self-awakening experience is insufficient, one cannot pass through the accumulated bitter experience of sentient beings and will fall into the trap of merely echoing what others say.
Human sentient beings who know but do not act obstruct the Bodhisattva's great vow. Humans grow through present-world problems. One must have the Bodhisattva's saving heart cooperating with actual practice — otherwise the Bodhisattva's effort is wasted. Sentient beings, feeling不顺, constantly beg Bodhisattvas for salvation.
Merely echoing others means: lacking the process of personal experience and endurance. Without having endured hardship oneself, one's experience of awakening others is insufficient. When misfortune and adversity come to temper you—that is the proclamation of wisdom and bodhi. If one dwells only in favorable circumstances, how can one endure the bitter grinding of external conditions? Life must pass through the process of sweetness and bitterness before one can cherish the painful experiences.
If one does not understand the Bodhisattva's saving heart, one wastes its painstaking effort. One must seek wisdom, wanting all beings to learn the Bodhisattva's footsteps, walking step by step the Bodhisattva Path. If sentient beings do not understand the Bodhisattva's painstaking heart and willfully proceed alone — can they have the Bodhisattva Way? No!
When the next trial comes, one responds with the ease of flowing water—the heart untroubled by hardship. In the practical embodiment of the Great Vehicle Bodhisattva, even encountering adversity, affliction, and obstruction, one does not feel them as bitter grinding. Rather, one transforms them into seeds of bodhi, borrowing the wisdom of bitter seeds (bodhi) to practice genuinely within the human world.
Bodhisattvas and Buddhas are like one's own parents, hoping all beings can follow the Bodhisattva's footsteps — each step firm before the next. Accumulating day by day, one manifests the Bodhisattva Way of awakening to sentient beings. One must pass through self-awakening and awakening others, entering completeness: 'If one can give, one can relinquish, one can also receive' — in the heart seeking nothing, one receives even more.
In the accumulation of experience, the Great Vehicle Bodhisattva does not seek favorable circumstances—rather, one perfects oneself deliberately within adversity. Accumulating all the sufferings of the human world, one lowers oneself with humility and transforms them into the wisdom of bodhi. In the genuine embodiment of latent cause transformation within the human world, one ascends through elevation, return, transcendence, growth, and surpassing.
The Bodhisattva Way of awakening to sentient beings: humans in the world are composed of the five aggregates — form, sensation, conception, volition, consciousness. In every matter, one seeks completeness and harmony. If completeness is hard to reach, one must see through and let go — not be bound and troubled throughout this lifetime.
The process of awakening others: first, one must awaken oneself, and with one's own provisions, transform and change the origins of latent causes. Awakening others requires that sentient beings themselves undergo transformation and elevation. In the process of awakening others, one must address each and every problem that sentient beings encounter. Against the 84,000 dharma gates, one applies the 84,000 wisdoms as the remedy.
One must understand: all worldly possessions are merely borrowed. While alive, one can hold them — close both eyes, and what is truly one's own? Spouse, children, wealth, land — none of it belongs to oneself. One merely carries the blessings, misfortunes, merits, and transgressions of this mortal shell!
Self-aware, one attains perfection;  
Aware of others, perfection reveals Buddha-nature.
Whether the awakening-conduct of awakening others can be complete depends on whether worldly people can release everything their hearts cling to. Completeness begins with giving, letting go, and seeing through — reducing opportunities for creating karma, using wealth to benefit beings. In this completeness, one passes a test.
第卅二回 覺有情（真如與佛性）
Namo Bodhisattva Maitreya
June 4, 1994, the 25th day of the 4th lunar month, Jiaxu (Year of the Wood Dog), Saturday
The heart of Amitabha Buddha is True Suchness,  
Guiding the world’s scenes back to their primal purity.
Bodhi attained, the Buddha-nature shines  
Sarva then transforms into True Enlightenment
True Suchness expands: through actual attainment here and now,
Not by hoping for future lives or post-mortem revelation to show.
The True Suchness and Buddha-nature must be made manifest,  
Through deeds of merit and virtue, great aspirations are founded.
Comprehend the fruit of one life’s journey,  
All affinities fulfilled, blessings increase.
Ethics and norms should be practiced,  
A life of deeds bears new good fruit.
The Primordial Sovereign, through the Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden, transmits this revelation:
The Primordial Mother Goddess's imperial decree descends to the
Southern Heaven's directly governed Dao Hall, the Taoyuan Practice Goodness Hall,
In the year of Jiaxu, fifth month, tenth day, at the hour of Xu.
The Taoyuan Practice Goodness Hall, through the unfolding of karmic conditions,
Was henceforth renamed: the Taoyuan Hall of Bright Light.
Chapter 32: Awakening to Sentience (True Suchness and Buddha-nature)
Human sentient beings, through the actual realm of awakening to sentient beings, can reach true awakening and manifest Buddha-nature and Suchness. This must be practically attained in the present world, not after returning to emptiness. A present-world Bodhisattva is a Bodhisattva right now — not only after death. Manifesting Buddha-nature is also achievable in the present moment.
Suchness is also called Buddha-nature: Bodhisattvas must pass through the Ten Practices, Ten Abodes, Ten Grounds, Ten Vows, and Ten Wisdoms. Within these ten stages, Bodhisattvas must possess great vow-power, great wisdom, great compassion, great loving-kindness, and great fortune-virtue. Through the development of great vow-power and great compassion — only then can one, through the Ten Grounds, reach the other shore.
The Six Pāramitās' ten thousand practices are the actual process of implementing all dharmas and connecting all conditions, as resources for seeking above and teaching below. The true no-self Suchness and dharma-nature Suchness do not contradict each other. Buddha-nature necessarily depends on Buddha-nature and Suchness being two sides of one body — both are true.
Suchness: precisely what all sentient beings originally possess — already present without needing manifestation. Sentient beings are obscured by present circumstances, unable to manifest Buddha-nature. Entering religion means tracing one's nature back, returning to the original nature. Sentient beings are hindered by the five aggregates, yet the five aggregates are also the requirements for manifesting Buddha-nature and Suchness.
Without passing through this accumulation of experience, where would actual feeling come from? Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are precisely forged through actual experiential trials, using experience to educate the world. Achieving in the human world means using all present actions as capital — one must have genuine growth and transcendence.
Without passing through present-world trials, one cannot personally embody achievement. Therefore one must use present-world conditions for future achievement. The distinction between sentient beings and Buddhas lies only in whether Suchness Buddha-nature can be expressed. In awakening, there are varying depths — great, middle, and small awakening.
Great awakening penetrates great wisdom; middle, middle wisdom; small, small wisdom. Sentient beings awaken daily without knowing it. How can one actually embody and accumulate wisdom? Manifesting Buddha-nature and Suchness requires actual conduct — not mere hearsay or knowledge from books.
These are insufficient for practical present-world application. It is said: 'Annotating the Diamond Sūtra, lecturing on it, hearing it, practicing it' — which makes one a Buddha? To speak truly: only the practitioner can become Buddha!
Without passing through annotating, then lecturing and hearing the Diamond Sūtra — where would the wisdom come from to judge a true practitioner? Writing, lecturing, hearing, and practicing must form a continuous chain, only then can scriptures serve as the basis for actual cultivation.
Humans accumulate experience to form wisdom's discrimination. Though unable to presently enter Suchness, one must hold to the center point — neutral, fair, impartial. In the human world there is yin and yang. Biased toward one side, one cannot escape the Three Realms.
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, through causes and conditions converging, accumulate the essence of maintaining the Center. Without a discriminating mind, one escapes the Three Realms' entanglement. Whether sentient beings can attain liberation lies in one's own conduct — through wisdom and fortune-virtue, dual cultivation of both, only then enduring.
From initial-ground awakening, entering the realm of long-enduring without deviation — not entangled by the mundane, not obscured in one's own Buddha-nature. Therefore Bodhisattvas have the delusion of entering the womb. Though previously a Buddha or Bodhisattva, without present-world practice and training, how can one manifest fundamental Suchness?
The expansion of Suchness Buddha-nature is in practical attainment, not hoping for the future or after death. Through practical experience, one manifests Buddha-nature in the present, entering awakening to sentient beings, manifesting Buddha-nature, and revealing Suchness. Those who apply their heart will achieve — the distinction between Buddha and Bodhisattva lies here.
Understanding all foundations; the initial ground Buddha-nature's transformative response.
The Great Way Heavenly Virtue has entered its final sections. I pray all sentient beings cultivate and encourage each other through true practice. At the Dragon Flower Assembly, may all join hands in return — also feeling the hope of Heaven and Mother's compassionate expectation. The Great Way is the natural law in operation! Returning is Buddha-nature and Suchness manifested through actual practice!
◆ Postfaces & Praises ◆
Nanping Daoji Ancient Buddha — Jigong Living Buddha
June 11, 1994, the third day of the fifth month of Jiaxu (Saturday)
Saving the world with public heart, reaching non-action; Public virtue from oneself, returning to true steadfastness.
Vividly viewing worldly scenes — all is illusion; The Buddha-heart, Suchness, originally without self-interest.
Postface
Great Way Heavenly Virtue has completed its writing. In the present age, another lamp of light is added. Especially for true cultivators and genuine practitioners, by this lamp's guidance, in the Five Turbidities' evil world, one's cultivation serves as capital for return. Sentient beings must also, through the five aggregates' contact, practically implement experience accumulation in the present world, using this life's actual experience as investment in cultivation's testimony.
'Great Way Heavenly Virtue' manifests Heaven and Earth's selflessness, the natural operation's law. Sentient beings, because of present-world dusty conditions, obscure their fundamental nature, and also thereby obscure the standards of practice, thus having many disasters and obstacles. One should furthermore in the present world, through the convergence of causes and conditions, achieve the essence of human life — otherwise there is only endless rebirth, life after life of cyclical saṃsāra!
Surveying these causes and conditions: all because sentient beings cannot calm their thoughts, reaching a pure realm. Therefore one must pass through life's trials, step by step approaching the realm of awakening to sentient beings. The Bodhisattva Way's goal: strive to advance upward, from Hīnayāna gradually entering the Middle Vehicle, then entering the Supreme Vehicle's elevation, regarding Mahāyāna Bodhisattvas' compassionate vows and tragic conduct.
In practice norms, gradually reaching the manifestation of Buddha-nature and Suchness' essential nature. Yet why have human sentient beings been slow to awaken? Precisely because deep delusion obstructs, and thoughts cannot achieve non-action, thus often hindering forward steps. If one wishes to manifest Buddha-nature, it seems only lacking the final push.
The Great Way: is the standard followed by humans and all things. The path of 'returning to the Great Way' requires physical practice, only then can Bodhisattvas manifest.
Heavenly Virtue: is nurturing all things' endless growth. Regarding all causes-and-effects and deluded obstacles in the human world, one truly understands and benefits from the method of dissolution.
Great Way Heavenly Virtue: entering the manifestation of Heavenly Virtue — the principle is here. In other words: Heavenly Virtue means all sentient beings and all things each have strengths, returning to natural, non-action, pure original nature.
All sentient beings possess Suchness Buddha-nature. In the present world, regardless of any religion, if one can practice 'non-action' and 'selflessness' as the original nature, one can actually practice the Bodhisattva Way. Therefore a true Bodhisattva practitioner is without religious distinction or division of faith — nor does it refer only to a single religion or Buddhism.
In the present age, times change and dharma also changes. If one can manifest Buddha-nature and Suchness, in the present moment one is a living Buddha, a living Bodhisattva — not called Bodhisattva only after returning to emptiness. After actually passing through all conduct, one can change society, reaching a realm of purity and harmony, also achieving the future human Pure Land world, and crossing over into the Lotus Buddha Land.
Therefore it is said: Three Teachings share one source, Five Teachings share one origin — precisely without division of self and other. How to reach Suchness Buddha-nature? Simply return together to the Great Way! From this we know: regarding the writing of 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue,' one must calm the heart to think in detail, constantly reflect upon oneself, every moment trace back to the original face.
Only then can one gradually manifest Suchness, undertake the great task of universally transforming on Heaven's behalf, take up the responsibility of saving sentient beings, and simultaneously guide all to find again the 'heart-lamp's' bright illumination, breaking through saṃsāra's bonds, escaping the Three Realms in elevation and transcendence.
Nanping Daoji Ancient Buddha descends the postface at
Nantian Direct-Governing Sacred Hall, Taoyuan Xingshan Hall
Heaven's運 year of Jiaxu, fifth month, third day, Xu hour
Nantian Wenxing Shengdi (Guan Di)
Great Way Heavenly Virtue is completed; Gods and humans wrote, doubling toil and bitterness.
Universal salvation adds fresh reinforcements; Xingshan's worthies, virtue shines brighter.
General Rules
Tonight descending to the hall, writing the General Rules for the book Great Way Heavenly Virtue:
First: All hall students writing 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue' feel greatly the toil. Before the Mother bestows merit rewards, if there are any setbacks or adversity, one may first submit a memorial,酌情 reducing one's karmic sins.
Second: During this book's writing period, the articles descended by Immortals and Buddhas — one hopes to deeply comprehend and physically practice them. Using one's own cultivated virtue as future resources, as capital for universally proclaiming Heaven's transformation.
Third: All who assist in printing 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue' and distribute, proclaim, and explain it — their virtuous merit is recognized, reducing karmic obstacles, increasing fortune and emolument.
Fourth: This book's writing period is the crystallization of the Three Realms' High Truths' heart's blood and tears, thus becoming a present-world cultivation guide. Hoping worldly people can practically comprehend in each chapter and section —
This will surely bring gain.
Fifth: This book is about to be published. Hoping many will assist in printing, facilitating wide distribution and circulation, as resources for Xingshan's universal transformation, bringing greater harvest to all students.
Sixth: The writing period's output, as a fine gift for the Xingshan sacred hall to repay Heaven's grace, and furthermore to kowtow in thanks for the Mother's loving care.
Nantian Wenxing Shengdi descends and shows the General Rules at
Nantian Direct-Governing Sacred Hall, Taoyuan Xingshan Hall
Heaven's運 year of Jiaxu, fifth month, third day, Xu hour
Before the Throne of Wuji, the Fairy Maiden of the Nine Heavens
June 18, 1994, the tenth day of the fifth month of Jiaxu (Saturday)
Xingshan's Great Way is now written; Heavenly Virtue, Chan-nature, true heart sincere.
The completed book is presented, merits rewarded; Continue efforts, the bitter journey.
Completing the Book, Reporting the Decree
Joyfully Presenting
The Great Heavenly Empress of Wuji issues her Empress's Decree:
Xingshan's 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue' has now completed its writing. This book is an innovative undertaking in present-day religious sacred halls. Especially as this book was brought about through the accumulated practical experience of many Immortals and Buddhas, it has the power to break through present-day cultivators' bottlenecks and resolve them.
This can promote true Buddha-cultivators' confidence on the Path, helping them in the present world through actual experience to achieve this life's entry into the Bodhisattva Way of awakening to sentient beings for elevation, manifesting Buddha-nature as a guideline for cultivators' practice — truly a rare and precious heavenly book.
The Mother observes Xingshan's gods and humans, during the writing period united in effort, together working for universal salvation. Now 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue' is entirely complete, the Mother's heart is greatly pleased. Specially commending all children and all gods and Buddhas for their painstaking effort in writing — specially granting Xingshan's children each 200 merits, to commend them.
Also, Xingshan's gods each receive three grades of merit added, to console the testimony of universal salvation's Great Way. The Mother is also joyful that Xingshan has now achieved considerable effectiveness in salvation. Hoping all children can comprehend the Mother's heart and early return to the Heavenly Homeland.
After Xingshan completes writing 'Great Way Heavenly Virtue,' it is commanded that on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of Jiaxu, at Xu hour, they shall again receive the heavenly decree to write. This is the testimony of Xingshan's Dao hall's universal transformation, also receiving another great responsibility.
Hoping all heavenly gods and Buddhas, all children, can quietly await the heavenly decree's arrival, to benefit the perfect completion of Xingshan's sacred work of universal transformation. In the interval before, besides strengthening quiet contemplation in Heavenly Sound Transmitting Truth, all children should still prepare and cooperate.
The Primordial Sovereign, the Fairy Maiden of the Nine Heavens, transmits and reveals the Empress of Wuji's Decree, descending to proclaim at
Nantian Direct-Governing Dao Hall, Taoyuan Xingshan Hall
Heaven's運 year of Jiaxu, fifth month, tenth day, Xu hour
2015, 0226, 2028 ◎＃※ OK＃
Second volume, fifth final draft correction