The Heart's Guidance: Encouraging the Self

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

November 10, 2023

Teachings from Namo Amituofo:

You may often find that you are your own greatest enemy. However, if you are able to transform your perspective, you can encourage yourself to become your own most important assistant. Everything depends entirely upon your own heart.

The Echoes of Beginningless Time

This physical body is filled with your spirit and the heavy weight of karma accumulated through the cycle of rebirth since beginningless time. Within your consciousness, every event you have ever experienced is stored. Every detail of your current life is also being recorded with absolute clarity.

If you can shift your focus, you can encourage yourself to diligently practise the purification of your Body, Speech, and Mind. By doing so, you allow yourself to transform consciousness into wisdom in this very lifetime, bringing you closer to the moment of Awakening.

The Crossroads of Wholesome Intent

You must constantly remind yourself to act in accordance with the Truth. Consider the consequences of your choices:

• If you think, act, or speak in ways that are harmful:
• You become your own greatest enemy. You create negative causes that will inevitably lead to evil consequences.If you think, act, or speak in ways that are wholesome: You give rise to all roots of goodness and achieve the fruit of Bodhi. You become your own greatest assistant, creating good causes that will lead to good fruits.

Whether you choose the path of goodness or the path of harm is entirely up to you; it is not determined by others. Everything is created by the heart.

The Alchemy of the Heart

To truly change, you must put in the work at the level of the heart. You must be willing to:

• Transform your thoughts and change your personality traits.See through the illusions of the world and learn to let go.Avoid creating the negative causes associated with the Five Desires: wealth, lust, fame, food, and sleep.Sever the negative roots of the Five Poisons: Greed, Anger, Ignorance, Arrogance, and Doubt.

Your heart must be willing to encourage itself, and it must notify and urge your body and spirit to follow suit. When your body and spirit are willing to cooperate, you have the opportunity to successfully regulate the mind, which in turn allows the body and spirit to be transformed.

The Radiance of Infinite Mercy

Before you have transformed your karma and reached Awakening, this body carries the weight of past and present karma, including karmic creditors, attached spirits, and even demon crowds. Your heart must possess sufficient compassion and Wisdom to subdue and harmonise the countless cells within your body.

To resolve the conflicts with the karmic creditors, attached spirits, and demon crowds that are currently seeking retribution, you must have sufficient merit to satisfy their requirements and needs. Only then can you regulate the body, transform your karma, and gain the opportunity for Awakening.

This is why Practitioner Su possesses sufficient merit and the ability to manifest the Dharma Body to meet the needs and requests of all beings. It is through this power that he is able to resolve conflicts, invite spirits, and perform Chao Du for infinite suffering beings, helping them leave suffering behind and find happiness.

Namo Amituofo