The Essential Practice of Transforming Thoughts

Words of Namo Amituofo, recorded and transcribed by Namo Amituofo’s disciple, Venerable HaiZe

18 July 2025, Noon Offering

The Necessity of Transforming Thoughts

Transforming your thoughts is the most essential practice for any practitioner. When we speak of this, we are referring specifically to the need to transform your evil and unwholesome thoughts. For ordinary people who have not yet attained deep meditative concentration, the mind is constantly shifting, following the environment and being led by external circumstances. You must realise that these environments are twofold: the internal and the external.

The internal environment refers to the various states of your own body and mind. These include your Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations, and Consciousness, which are the fundamental components of our human experience. Furthermore, this includes the five poisons—greed, anger, delusion, arrogance, and doubt—as well as the five desires: wealth, lust, fame, food, and sleep. The external environment refers to the vast world around you and the constant changes in the circumstances of your life. Every single thought that arises in response to these environments carries with it the laws of karma and cause and effect. This is truly a terrifying reality to contemplate.

The Heavy Burden of Karmic Retribution

Ordinary people carry a heavy burden of karma. When a thought arises, if you are disturbed by the weight of your past actions, your practice will not progress; instead, it will regress. It is very difficult to move forward under such conditions. However, remember that your thoughts follow your heart. Therefore, you must take charge and transform your thoughts. If you can successfully transform your thoughts, your karma will no longer be able to manifest through those negative impulses. This provides you with the precious opportunity to transform your karma, and the environment itself will shift accordingly.

The Three Pillars of Spiritual Transformation

For those who are striving to fulfill their vows, the ability to transform thoughts and karma is of the utmost importance. If you fail to transform your karma, you remain an ordinary person bound by the laws of karma and cause and effect. You will be obstructed by your own karmic forces, your wisdom will be obscured, and you will find it impossible to reach the state of Awakening. To transform your thoughts, you must shift from the unwholesome to the good, and from the impure to the pure. You can achieve this through the three pillars of practice:

• Precepts: These allow you to transform your greed.
• Meditative Concentration: This allows you to transform your anger.
• Wisdom: This allows you to transform your delusion.

The Supreme Path to Buddhahood

When you chant Buddha's name with a sincere heart, you are engaging in the most supreme practice. Namo Amituofo is the ultimate goodness and the ultimate purity. If you can ensure that every thought is pure and every thought is good, you are embodying great compassion. This practice cultivates an infinite capacity of the heart and mind. As you continue, you will naturally give rise to all roots of goodness and achieve the fruit of Bodhi. Consequently, every thought that arises will be a thought of goodness and purity, and you will surely achieve the fruit of Buddhahood. Namo Amituofo.