The Profound Meaning of Leaving Home

The Sacred Vow of Renunciation

The term 'leaving home' is translated beautifully in Chinese. It signifies that once you have stepped out of your family home, you must leave behind the attachments of that life. From that moment forward, you will lead a life entirely different from the one you knew before. To leave home means to sever the ties of worldly care and affection that once defined your relationships. Instead, you must elevate yourself, placing your consciousness on a higher plane. Your primary duty is to cultivate your inner spirit, to break through your afflictions, and, having achieved your own liberation, to save immeasurable beings.

You must remember that you are also one of these beings. Because there are immeasurable and boundless beings, each with a different character and nature, the purpose of your monastic practice is to learn how to save yourself and, in doing so, save all others to reach the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. In the past, when you lived at home, you were cared for by your parents. Now that you have left home, you must care for yourself, practise self-discipline, change your personality, and sever your afflictions. More importantly, you must help all beings escape the bitter sea of birth, aging, sickness, and death, so they no longer fall into the cycle of rebirth.

Liberating the Multitudes Within

You are not alone in this body. Within you reside many beings who are also in need of salvation: your karmic creditors, attached spirits, and demon crowds. By saving these beings within your own body, you are effectively saving yourself. If you have received the precepts and wear the monastic robes, but your heart remains tethered to worldly desires, lacking the intention to save others and seeking only self-preservation, then you have only left home in body, not in heart. In such a state, you must still strictly observe the monastic precepts, at the very least ensuring that you do not create further negative karma. If you wear the robes but continue to follow your old personality and create negative karma without observing the precepts, how can you avoid the retribution of the hells or the Three Evil Realms?

The Purity of the Heart's Awakening

Conversely, one who has truly 'left home' in their heart may not have received the formal precepts or wear the monastic robes. If they harbour a sincere intention to save beings and act upon it, while maintaining self-discipline and practising as a lay practitioner, such a Pure Land practitioner can also achieve great success. The practice of the Pure Land school is rooted in the purity of the heart. You must always remember the teaching: 'When the heart is pure, the land is pure.' Purity means to be free from all defilement. If you can reach a state where not even a single trace of attachment remains, you will see your true nature. Whether your heart is defiled or pure does not depend on whether you have left home physically; it depends on the degree of your purification.

Leaving home is simply a lifestyle—a framework of temple rules, precepts, listening to the Dharma, and group cultivation that helps you practise more efficiently. It is a tool to help you achieve the goals of purifying your body, mind, and spirit, and ultimately finding liberation from the cycle of rebirth. During the process of purification, you must change your personality. You must avoid letting your thoughts and actions create negative karma, which would only invite suffering. Regardless of whether you have left home, your personality is the starting point of the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death. Once you act out of your personality, these sufferings manifest. Therefore, changing your personality is an urgent matter; without this change, it is difficult for your practice to progress.

The Urgent Call to Transform the Self

Another vital point is that monastic practice must be rooted in 'vow-power.' If you lack a strong vow, or if your vow is weak and unstable, you will easily be disturbed by the beings within your body—your karmic creditors, attached spirits, and demon crowds. These disturbances can cause you to change your original intention, leading your thoughts and actions astray into wrong paths. This creates the causes for the hells and the Three Evil Realms, leading to bitter fruits. In such a case, you have the appearance of a monastic, but you have not gained the benefits of practice; instead, you have invited suffering upon yourself. If you have made mistakes, you must quickly repent and change your ways! Do not repeat them. If you continue to commit transgressions, fail to repent, or if your actions endanger the harmony of the monastic community or harm others, you are not suitable to continue in the monastic life.

Walking the Path at Hsiang Kuang

To wear the robes is to take responsibility for yourself, to follow the temple rules, to repent, to demand more of yourself, and to adjust your heart and actions. Only when your body and heart have both left home can you truly gain the benefits of this path and begin to speak of transforming karma and seeing your true nature. At the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre, the place where Namo Amituofo truly dwells, those who have left home should take the heart and actions of Namo Amituofo and Practitioner Su as their goal and model. If you can listen to the Buddha's words, understand the Buddha's heart, comprehend the Buddha's vow, and put them into practice, you will also be able to help the beings within your body to do the same. By increasing the opportunities for these beings to accept resolution and Chao Du, you are truly walking the path of saving yourself and others, reaching the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Namo Amituofo