Teachings on What to Allow and What to Stop by Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju

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

On the third day of May, 2024, during the third session of the Thrice Yearning Ceremony, Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju offered these vital teachings to the fourfold community of disciples.

Cultivating the Seeds of Virtue

What should you allow and encourage in your daily life? You must cultivate the following habits to ensure your practice remains steady and fruitful:

• Punctuality and Respect: Always arrive on time for the morning service, sutra lectures, and Dharma assemblies. Do not leave early unless you have a genuine and necessary reason to request leave.
• Diligent Practice: Engage in your practice without laziness. You must be diligent and sincere in your daily chanting of Namo Amituofo, your prostrations to the Buddha, and your recitation of the Sutras.
• Personal Transformation: Work actively to change your personality traits, overcome the hindrance of being drowsy, and advance into higher spiritual spaces.
• Joyful Service: Always wear a smile and serve the community with a joyful heart. This is how you grow your compassion, wisdom, tolerance, and mind-capacity.

Clearing the Path of Obstacles

What must you stop immediately? You must be vigilant against the following tendencies that obstruct your path:

• Excessive Thinking: You must stop over-analysing. Constantly questioning why things are the way they are or debating what you should do only creates ripples of intention and mental turbulence. It is far better to simply act and change your ways than to think a thousand thoughts without ever taking a single step forward.
• Emotional Instability: You must learn to stop the fluctuations of your emotions.
• Disregard for Rules: You must stop violating the rules of the temple. If you continue to act against the guidance provided by the Buddha, your Teacher, and Practitioner Su, how will you bear the weight of the resulting karmic conditions and the causes and effects?
• The Five Poisons and Five Desires: You must stop the influence of Greed, Anger, Ignorance, Arrogance, and Doubt. You must also cease the pursuit of wealth, lust, fame, food, and sleep.

Walking the Path of Selfless Deliverance

If you do not fear the laws of karma and cause and effect, and continue to act according to your own whims, you are truly not suited to be at Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre. Do not rely on your own subjective thoughts to guide your actions, for you will only create karma and suffer the consequences yourself. Violating the Precepts and temple regulations is never worth the price you will pay. If you remain drowsy and trapped in your own mental space, how can you ever hope to be free?

You must keep your feet firmly on the ground and advance step by step. Changing your ways is the supreme strategy for success. Life at Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre is precious and not easily attained; you must cherish this opportunity and respect yourself so that your practice can achieve true success. Let everything you do be for the sake of all beings, not for yourself. Engage in selfless acts to save others, and join the Buddha, your Teacher, and Practitioner Su in guiding beings to the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. This is what it means to be a person of the Western Pure Land living here in the human world.

Namo Amituofo