Stop Thinking: The Wisdom of Letting Go

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

During the Noon Offering on the 15th of November, 2024, Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju provided profound guidance on the nature of the mind and the importance of letting go.

The Peril of Dwelling on the Past

When Buddhist practitioners undergo purification, they may gain insights into their past lives. However, it is essential to understand that until one has attained deep meditative concentration and reached the state of an awakened being, the past is already gone. If you do not dwell on these memories, the corresponding karma may remain dormant. However, if you allow your mind to wander back into the past, that karma will immediately manifest. Therefore, I urge you not to look back or repeatedly contemplate past events. Every time you revisit these memories, you create ripples in your mind. These ripples act as a beacon, attracting karma to manifest and inviting your karmic creditors to appear before you. If your karma does manifest, you must quickly repent, change your ways, and resolve the suffering of your karmic creditors. Once you have performed the necessary rituals to resolve the conflict and invite spirits to listen to the Dharma, you must let it all go completely.

The Vital Necessity of Changing Personality Traits

Changing your personality traits is a matter of the utmost importance. A rigid or volatile personality is the primary reason that karma is attracted to manifest in your life. When your personality flares up, you create the very conditions that allow negative karma to take root. You must recognise that your spiritual life is without beginning or end. Since time immemorial, you have traversed countless realms and experienced the full spectrum of existence:

• You have committed grave sins and endured the intense suffering of the hells.
• You have performed great acts of goodness and enjoyed the heavenly blessings of the celestial realms.
• You have existed as small insects, birds, beasts, or livestock, suffering and repaying debts.
• You have spent centuries in the ghost realm, living in darkness without a single ray of light.
• You have been part of the demon crowds, harming others with a hardened and unyielding heart.
• You have been an asura, easily angered despite having cultivated great blessings.

All these experiences from your past lives are stored within your consciousness.

The Supreme Path of Continuous Chanting

If your thoughts fluctuate and touch upon these stored memories, the beings associated with that karma will awaken, and the karma will manifest. Once the forces of good and evil karma are set in motion, good karma brings temporary relief, but negative karma brings immense suffer greatly. This is why chanting Namo Amituofo is the most excellent practice. By maintaining continuous chanting without interruption, you can suppress your delusions and messy thoughts, and eventually, you will be able to sever your afflictions entirely. To chant Namo Amituofo while refusing to dwell on the past is the mark of a truly wise practitioner. Do not let your mind be a playground for the past; instead, let it be a vessel for the name of Namo Amituofo.

Namo Amituofo