The Pitiful Ones: A Warning to Practitioners

The True Meaning of Compassion

Teachings from Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju: recorded and transcribed by Namo Amituofo’s disciple, Venerable HaiZe.

If you are a practitioner, you must ask yourself if you truly understand the nature of suffering. If you do not know what suffering is, and if you do not know how to save countless suffering beings, then you are truly one of the pitiful ones. Practice is intended for purification, so that you may eventually see your true self. However, if you find it difficult to change your personality traits and habits, you will inevitably be led astray by them. You may find yourself controlled by your own ego, or worse, by external forces.

The Dangers of the Unchecked Ego

When you are unable to take charge of your own mind, you become vulnerable to various negative influences. You may be manipulated by:

• Karmic creditors: Those who come to seek balance for past harms.
• Attached spirits: Beings who cling to your energy and influence your decisions.
• Demon crowds: Negative forces that seek to distract you from the path of the Truth.

If you allow these influences to take hold, you may create negative karma even within the bodhimanda. If you do not repent for these actions, the resulting suffering will be immense. You may even create the causes for the hells. This is a tragic outcome for anyone who has set out on the path of practice, and it is why such a person is truly to be pitied. Therefore, you must be cautious in your speech and actions, and you must make a sincere effort to change your personality traits and habits.

The Constant Flow of the Buddha-Name

In your Pure Land practice, you must be diligent. You should raise the Buddha-name at all times, allowing it to flow continuously, orbiting your heart, your mouth, and your ears. This practice is the foundation of your success:

• Heart: Keep the Buddha in your heart at all times.
• Mouth: Let the Buddha-name be on your lips.
• Ears: Listen intently to the sound of the Buddha-name as you chant.

When you chant until your practice becomes a single, unbroken stream, you will reach a state of one-mindedness. When you chant until you achieve the Buddha-Recitation Samadhi, your meditative concentration will be firmly established. This is what it means to have success in your practice.

The Path to the Western Pure Land

If you forget the Buddha, if you stop chanting, and if your heart, mouth, and ears are empty of the Buddha-name, you will inevitably fall back into delusions and messy thoughts. If you are not chanting, you are not truly a practitioner, and you are, once again, one of the pitiful ones. You must understand that in the Pure Land path, the purity of your heart determines the purity of the land you will inhabit. Chanting Namo Amituofo is a vital link in your spiritual journey; it is the essential skill required for rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. All of you must be diligent, sincere, and focused in your chanting. Only then will you have a genuine hope of being reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, and only then can you truly be called a Pure Land practitioner. Namo Amituofo.