The Path of Diligent Practice: Teachings of Master Shang Xuan Xia Zang

In the secular world, people often equate diligent practice with burying one's head in books, striving for fame and success, or seeking a foothold in society to stand out above others. However, for Buddhist practitioners, the definition of diligent practice is quite different. Many believe it simply means being more diligent than others in chanting the name of Namo Amituofo, performing prostrations, reciting the Sutras, or studying the teachings. While this is the surface-level understanding of diligent practice—and one that can certainly yield results if truly put into action—the deeper meaning goes much further.

The True Essence of Diligent Practice

At its core, diligent practice is the process of dedicating your time, spirit, and physical energy toward the ultimate goal of purification and becoming an awakened being, so that you may effectively save infinite sentient beings. Diligent practice must begin by putting in the work within your own heart. Any change in your Body, Speech, and Mind is a direct result of this effort. To ensure that your practice leads to visible results in the shortest possible time, you must possess awareness. It is vital to constantly raise your level of awareness and clearly understand the exact situation you are in at any given moment.

Those with higher levels of awareness are better able to achieve transformation through their practice. Once you begin to change, you must persist without slackening. If you do not maintain this momentum, the old problems you have already corrected may easily resurface. Diligent practice is the vehicle for achieving purification and becoming an awakened being. Whether you are chanting the Buddha's name, performing prostrations, reciting the Sutras, studying the Dharma, or engaging in manual labour at the temple, these are all methods of diligent practice.

Achieving the Buddha-Recitation Samadhi

When you chant the name of Namo Amituofo, your goal is to reach Buddha-Recitation Samadhi, where you remove defilements and attain purity. You should strive to never let the Buddha-name leave your heart for even a second. Maintain the Buddha-heart and Buddha-thoughts 24/7. This is a state of chanting while not chanting, and not chanting while chanting. This is true diligent practice and the achievement of meditative concentration. Through this, you receive the blessing of the Buddha-name's energy and become filled with Dharma joy. Even a short rest will provide you with sufficient energy. Because your thought power is focused and concentrated, you will not experience drowsiness or distraction, which is one of the most important conditions for ensuring rebirth in the Western Land.

When performing prostrations, you must listen intently to the Buddha-name with your ears, never letting it be interrupted. Keep your eyes fixed on the Buddha statue, and perform every movement with sincerity and focus. Do not allow yourself to become drowsy; this is what it means to be diligent.

Overcoming Obstacles and Drowsiness

Drowsiness during prostrations or Sutra recitation often occurs when your attention is scattered. You must have the awareness to detect this the moment it happens. Once you notice it, you must immediately choose a method to wake yourself up. You might drink some water, splash your face, or kneel while reciting. If you simply give up and walk away the moment you feel drowsy, failing to persist to the end, then your prostrations and recitations have been interrupted, and this cannot be called diligent practice. Practising the Buddha's path requires perseverance. Even when you encounter difficult obstacles, you must strive to overcome and improve. Do not stop until you reach your goal; this is the true spirit of diligent practice.

This applies to all aspects of your practice. Even when listening to lectures or studying the teachings, if you feel drowsy, you must choose a method to overcome it. Do not let the drowsiness continue.

Transforming Habits and Ego

The students of the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre are truly blessed. Under the care of Practitioner Su, you are constantly reminded to change your personality traits and habits. Those who truly have the heart to change and are willing to listen will be able to suppress their ego or raise the Buddha-name the moment their negative habits manifest. Remind yourself to practise Patience (Endurance) and maintain a compassion to help others, rather than creating negative karma. The moment your ego and habits arise is the very moment you begin to create karma. If you can reach a point where you stop these habits from interfering, or if you work hard to overcome and eventually eradicate them, such a transformation is true diligent practice.

If you are accustomed to looking at people's faults, speaking ill of them, or thinking negatively, then learning to see their strengths, speaking kind words, and encouraging yourself and others to think positively is a form of diligent practice. If you are used to wearing a stern face, changing to a compassionate expression when interacting with others is also diligent practice.

Growth Through Spiritual Communication

Under the guidance of Practitioner Su, the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre has opened up space for communication with the ancestral masters and Dharma protectors of the Western Land. Through these interviews, we can achieve purification, learning, and growth. The communication of thoughts during these sessions helps to heighten your sensitivity, awareness, and ability to convey messages. Maintaining your own purity and improving the quality and depth of these sessions are also results of diligent practice.

The Path to Awakening

If you find that your thoughts are easily stirred, leading to delusions and messy thoughts, you should elevate your Precepts (Discipline), Concentration and Wisdom. Through the self-restraint of the Precepts, you must ensure that you do what should be done and refrain from what should not be done. Do not allow yourself to think about things that are improper. Raise your awareness; the moment a ripple of thought arises, stop it. Eventually, there will be no more ripples, no more stirring of thoughts. In this way, meditative concentration can be achieved. Once purified, your great awakened wisdom will manifest, and that is the moment of realising your true nature.

Chanting the Buddha's name is the best method to suppress delusions and messy thoughts. Constantly raise the Buddha-name so that your thoughts have no opportunity to stir. If they do arise, use the Buddha-name to extinguish them the moment you become aware. All students should be diligent in chanting the Buddha's name to attain Buddha-Recitation Samadhi. Achieving this meditative concentration means your diligent practice has been successful, and you have taken a great step forward on your path. However, you must not lose your guard. Until you have realised your true nature and attained great concentration, there are always variables.

Even those who have realised their true nature must face the ever-changing people, events, and environments when delivering sentient beings. They must be able to adjust at any time to respond to reality. Diligent practice has no end. There is always someone better; there is always a higher authority. Even if you have achieved success in your practice, you must never become arrogant or complacent. Arrogance leads to regression; one must be extremely cautious.

Whether you are working in the gardens, the kitchen, or cleaning, if you perform your duties with sincerity and find insights within them, that is also diligent practice. Throughout history, many ancestral masters and practitioners achieved Awakening through service, maintaining a pure heart without defilement in all their daily activities. Therefore, do not compete or compare. There is no high or low in tasks, and no good or bad in people. If you face the present moment with a heart of non-attachment, you will surely gain something. Those who are truly without attachment do not even have the thought of making progress; they simply do what needs to be done. This is a different level of attainment.

On the path of learning from the Buddha, there is no end to diligent practice! Before realising your true nature, you practise to reach that goal. After realising your true nature, you practise without slackening, striving to save infinite suffering beings.

This message was recorded by the Buddha's disciple, Venerable HaiZe.

Namo Amituofo