Success and Failure: A Teaching from the Heart of the Buddha

Teachings from Namo Amituofo: Recorded by Venerable HaiZe during the noon offering on March 2, 2024.

The Illusion of External Validation

The human heart naturally gravitates toward success and fears failure. This is because people believe that success is a validation of their personal efforts, bringing them fame and profit. Conversely, they view failure as a denial of their worth, leading to the loss of these worldly gains. When you define success and failure through the lens of the external environment, you allow your mind to be dominated and controlled by these fleeting conditions.

You must realise that all external things—the opinions of others, the environment, fame, and profit—are impermanent. They are all part of the laws of karma and cause and effect, manifesting through your own heart and actions. If you live your life based on these impermanent external conditions, your mind will always be in a state of turmoil, constantly chasing the satisfaction of desires and physical sensations. In such a state, you will never find true peace, and you will never attain the Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom.

The Path of True Practice

Practice is a journey without end. There is no such thing as success or failure in the ultimate sense; there are only differences in one's Dharma affinity and the level of one's diligent practice. You must look within, constantly correcting your mistakes, purifying your heart, and refining your actions until you reach Awakening and attain Buddhahood.

To assess your progress, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• Have your Six Roots
• —the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—been purified, or are they still easily stained?When you see with your eyes or hear with your ears, do you allow these inputs to enter your consciousness as negativity?When you smell with your nose or taste with your tongue, are you still attached to scents and flavours?When your body experiences sensations or your mind generates thoughts, do you still create discriminations that lead to impurity?

Cultivating the Heart

Furthermore, consider the state of your heart and its capacity to expand:

• Is your heart capable of infinite expansion, manifesting the Four Immeasurables: Loving-kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity
• ?Do you possess boundless compassion, boundless joy, and the ability to give selflessly?Has your mind-capacity grown wide enough to tolerate the faults and shortcomings of others?Have you put away your anger and used compassion to extinguish the fires of resentment?Have you removed all doubt, allowing yourself to have full faith in the Buddha and in your own true nature?

Stability and Vows

Finally, reflect on the stability of your spirit and the strength of your commitment:

• Are your three hun souls and seven po souls
• complete and stable within your body? Is your spirit calm and free from worry, rather than scattered and lacking a master?In your practice of chanting the name of Namo Amituofo, have you truly generated the Bodhi mind and maintained a single-minded focus?Is your Faith, Vows, and Practice
• firm enough to ensure your success?Is your sincere vow to be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, rather than continuing to wander in the six realms of rebirth?

Where, then, does success lie? Where does failure lie? Or is it possible that there is neither success nor failure? The answer lies entirely within your own heart.

Namo Amituofo