Bidding Farewell to the Past

The Illusion of Yesterday

Recorded and transcribed by Namo Amituofo’s disciple, Venerable HaiZe, on the nineteenth of December, 2025.

Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju offers this guidance: You must learn to bid farewell to the past. Whether your previous academic background, professional experience, family life, or emotional history was filled with brilliance, wealth, joy, or profound suffering, all of it has already become a part of the past. It no longer exists in the present moment. To truly enter the path of practice is to bid farewell to all that has come before and to begin again from the very start.

Regardless of whether your past was marked by great achievements, high social status, or conversely, by poverty, obscurity, or having been through the wringer of life, these labels hold no weight here. Within the bodhimanda, we are all equal. We do not look at who we were; we look only at who we are becoming. We must begin our journey with a humble and modest heart, serving the fourfold assembly with sincerity and devotion.

The Wisdom of Unwavering Practice

Bidding farewell to the past means starting over with a clean slate. No matter what your life was like before, or what your current situations may be, the most vital action you can take is to chant one Buddha's name to the end. This is the path of the truly wise. Even if you encounter the challenges of ageing, illness, or the manifestation of past karma, you must remain steadfast. Continue to chant one Buddha's name to the end, for this is the only way to find the opportunity to transform your karma.

As a practitioner, you must accumulate merit and virtue. Through the dual cultivation of blessings and Wisdom, you will remove defilements and attain purity. This is how you gather the necessary provisions for rebirth in the Western Pure Land and develop the merit required to resolve conflicts with all beings and eventually realise your true nature.

An Invitation to Awakening

We sincerely hope that the karmic creditors, attached spirits, and demon crowds residing within our bodies will also listen to sutras and hear the Dharma. We invite them to bid farewell to the past as well, and to cease their attachment to old grievances. It is crucial that, in this present moment, we all work together to resolve these sufferings, leave suffering behind, and move toward the land of light. By chanting the name of Namo Amituofo, we shall all be reborn in the Western Pure Land.

Bidding farewell to the past is the essence of the practice to see through and let go. It is the necessary process for the achievement of your vows and a fundamental condition for success in your spiritual practice. May all members of the fourfold assembly at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre walk this path with clarity and devotion.

Namo Amituofo