Having Confidence in Your True Self

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

July 13, 2025

To the fourfold assembly of disciples,

In these times, many of you find yourselves frequently slipping into states of drowsiness, where your consciousness drifts into other spaces. You may believe that you have made significant progress in changing your personality traits, yet when faced with challenging circumstances, you find your old habits resurfacing with ease. You follow the path of Greed, Anger, Ignorance, Arrogance, and Doubt, and you are swayed by the desires for wealth, lust, fame, food, and sleep. By doing so, you plant negative causes that inevitably lead to evil consequences. The most immediate of these consequences is the recurrence of this spiritual drowsiness, which leaves you unable to master your own mind.

The Persistent Echoes of Old Habits

When your old personality traits manifest and lead to such consequences, the underlying reasons are clear. You lack sufficient boldness and awareness, and your meditative concentration is too weak to resist the urge to plant negative causes. You are not active enough in your efforts to transform your personality, which leaves the door open for these old tendencies to reappear. Perhaps you do not truly understand the depth of suffering experienced by all beings, or even by yourself; perhaps you have not yet suffered enough to truly awaken.

The strong, unyielding personality traits you have carried through accumulated lifetimes have become deeply ingrained habits. They manifest in your daily life without your knowledge, and often, you fail to even notice them. You find yourselves controlled by the forces of karma, by your karmic creditors, by attached spirits, and even by demon crowds. Because you are not in control, you continue to plant negative causes: you remain selfish, you think only of your own interests, you are quick to forgive yourself while finding it difficult to forgive others, and you harm others in your desperate attempt to protect yourself from perceived injury. When your practice becomes lax, you do not move forward; instead, you regress. This state of drowsiness is one of the many negative fruits born from these negative causes.

The Radiant Purity of the True Self

Even when you find yourselves in such a state, I ask the fourfold assembly to have confidence in yourselves. Why must you have this confidence? It is because the true self within every one of you remains completely unblemished. It has not been damaged, nor has it been diminished in any way. It remains perfectly intact, dwelling eternally in the state of no birth and no death. It is merely covered by the layers of pollution and dust that have accumulated over countless lifetimes of reincarnation.

These layers of pollution are what we call our afflictions, delusions, discriminations, and attachments. Your current diligent practice is the process of washing away these thick, heavy layers of dust, one by one. As you continue to practise, you will eventually remove all these defilements. When your heart is purified, your true self will manifest, and the light of your heart will shine brilliantly.

Awakening the Light of the Heart

Once this occurs, your body and mind will be governed by your true self. You will then be able to follow Namo Amituofo, your Teacher, and Practitioner Su in your practical actions to save the countless suffering beings in the human world and throughout the Ten Directions of the Dharma Realm. Do not lose heart; keep your focus on the path, and let your confidence in your true nature guide you home to the Western Pure Land.

Namo Amituofo