The Art of Transformation: Teachings from Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju

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

On the twenty-first of November, 2025, during the Thrice Yearning Ceremony, Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju offered these profound teachings on the art of transformation.

The Heavy Burden of Samsara

To transform your karma, you must first transform your heart and mind. If your heart and mind remain untransformed, your karma will remain stagnant, and you will continue to endure the endless cycle of suffering. We are all too familiar with the weight of birth, aging, sickness, and death. These are the persistent sorrows that follow us throughout our many lives. We drift from one existence to the next, trapped in a cycle that seems to have no end. You might ask yourself: when will I finally be able to break free from this path of suffering?

The Precious Key to Liberation

The answer arrives when you finally hear the sacred Buddha-name. This is the name of Namo Amituofo, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. When you hear this name, let it enter your heart. When you chant it with your mouth, let every sound serve to dissolve the deepest layers of your suffering. You must realise that the Buddha-name is a precious treasure. It possesses the unique power to transform your stained heart into a pure heart. It can clear away the dust of your past, dissolve your confusion, and turn your deepest sorrows into nothing more than mist that vanishes in the wind, leaving no trace behind. In this way, one by one, your burdens are lifted.

The Inner Work of Transformation

The skill of transformation begins within your own heart. When you turn your heart toward compassion and embrace all beings with tolerance, the light of Wisdom will naturally begin to shine. This light has always been within you; it has never truly left. It was only obscured by the shadows of your own making, which gave rise to your suffering. Now, because you have learned the art of transformation, that light can finally be revealed. If you can master this skill, especially if you begin to cultivate it from a young age, you will find that you can transform your life toward goodness and compassion, thereby reducing a great deal of unnecessary suffering.

Cultivating the Seeds of Enlightenment

To truly master this path, you must be diligent in your daily practice:

• Transform your evil thoughts into good thoughts.
• Transform your evil actions into good actions.
• Transform your harsh words into kind and gentle words.

This is the path of the wise; this is the practice of Wisdom. When these transformations become your natural character, you will enter the state of giving rise to all roots of goodness and achieve the fruit of Bodhi. You must water the seeds of Bodhi with diligence and care. If you do so, these seeds will eventually grow into the great tree of Bodhi, and you will surely harvest the fruit of Bodhi. Namo Amituofo.