Maintaining a Broad Heart and Constant Awareness

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

August 15, 2025.

The Vastness of an Unmoved Heart

To maintain a broad heart and constant awareness is to ensure that no external event can disturb your inner peace. When your heart is truly vast and open, it remains unaffected by external disturbances and does not move internally. Even if dust and impurities attempt to cloud your mind, you remain aware in that very moment. You let go immediately, refusing to allow these impurities to stain your heart. Through this constant vigilance, the layers of mental dust are gradually removed, allowing your inner light to shine forth.

The Shadows of the Five Turbidities

What exactly are these impurities? They arise because we possess this physical body, which brings forth the Five Aggregates: form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. These are the very source of our defilement. Living in this Five Turbidities and Evil World, we often strive to satisfy the needs of our karmic bodies. This pursuit manifests in many ways:

• Greed, Anger, Ignorance, Arrogance, and Doubt: The five poisons that cloud our judgement.
• Wealth, lust, fame, food, and sleep: The five desires that bind us to the material realm.

Because of these attachments, we tumble endlessly through the cycle of cause and effect (Karma) of good and evil, constantly interacting with karmic creditors, attached spirits, and even demon crowds. This constant entanglement is the definition of impurity.

The Beacon of Every Thought

Our minds are often trapped in the past, present, or future. Every single thought and intention, no matter how subtle, has the potential to stir up our karma. When we are not mindful, these thoughts act as a beacon, bringing karmic creditors to our doorstep. This is how we accumulate more dust and impurities.

The Path of Pure Awareness

You must always maintain a broad heart and constant awareness. By practising Discipline (Precepts) and purification, you will naturally gain meditative concentration. When you reach this state, you no longer stir up your karma or provoke your karmic creditors. Your heart remains undisturbed. As you continue this practice of Discipline (Precepts), concentration, and Wisdom, your heart becomes free from all impurities. In this state, your Wisdom manifests, and your original, pure true self is revealed.

The Supreme Practice of Namo Amituofo

Always keep your heart broad and aware. Do not create any negative causes, but instead, perform all acts of Goodness. Chanting the six-character name of Namo Amituofo is the highest form of Goodness and the purest of all purifications. It is the act of following the Universal Principle, the Truth, and the Right Way.

Through Buddha's blessings and the cultivation of Buddha-Recitation Samadhi, you can distance yourself from all impurities and eventually eradicate them entirely. By diligently practising the Three Learnings of Precepts, Samadhi, and Wisdom and perfecting the Six Perfections, you will surely realise your true nature and attain Buddhahood.

Namo Amituofo