The Root of Suffering: Why Personality Must Change

Words of Namo Amituofo

My children,

True practice is a continuous process of self-reflection and transformation. It is the act of identifying problems as they arise and choosing to change your ways. Through this process of correction, you must strive to discard your erroneous behaviours and your misguided perceptions. This is the essential path of removing impurity to reveal the inherent purity within. You must continue this work until the light of Goodness shines forth, and then continue further, until not even a trace of impurity remains. Only then will you truly realise your original nature and reach the state of an awakened being.

The Three Traps of the Ego

Many practitioners find themselves hindered by specific patterns of behaviour. You must ask yourself if you are falling into these common traps:

• Laziness and Indulgence:
• When you are warned of your faults but refuse to listen to counseling or change your ways, you allow your karma to manifest, leading to unnecessary suffering. This refusal to heed advice is a clear sign that your personal ego and selfishness are still in control.The Fire of Anger:
• When you cannot control your personality and habits, you allow anger to ignite. This anger acts like a wildfire that consumes your entire forest of merit, leaving you feeling deeply frustrated and regretful. The tendency to easily flare up in anger is a manifestation of your personal ego and selfishness.Arrogance and Self-Importance: You may appear gentle and kind in your daily interactions, yet when someone offends you, treats you with disrespect, or holds an opinion different from your own, you become agitated and resentful. You may even consider retreating from your practice. This arrogance, which cannot tolerate being slighted, and this self-importance, which cannot accept differing views, are both deep-seated habits of the ego.

The Consequences of Unchecked Habits

Any one of these habits can cause your mind to become drowsy and clouded, allowing you to slip into a state of spiritual vulnerability. When you are in this state, you are no longer the master of your own mind. Therefore, when you listen to the sutras and hear the Dharma, you must ensure that your knowledge is not merely theoretical. You must possess the awareness to apply these teachings the very moment a problem arises.

If you fail to do so, you risk falling under the control of your karma, your karmic creditors, attached spirits, or even demon crowds. Under their influence, you may find yourself saying things you should not say and doing things you should not do. When your actions, words, and thoughts are unwholesome, you accumulate heavy sins. If you continue to commit small evils, how can you avoid the greater ones? And if you do not stop these actions, how can you hope to escape the cycle of rebirth and the suffering of the hells?

The Physical Manifestation of Karma

The primary reason you remain under the control of karmic creditors and attached spirits is that your personality and habits have not been transformed. This lack of change causes your mind to become dull, which in turn allows your Body-Mind-Spirit to suffer the consequences. This is why you experience the onset of Aging, sickness, and death, the recurrence of old illnesses, or the worsening and spreading of physical pain.

In truth, when an old illness returns or a new pain manifests, it is often because you have failed to change your habits. This failure attracts your karmic creditors, who awaken to seek balance, and invites spiritual attachment and demon crowds to enter your field of influence. Sometimes these forces lie dormant within your body, waiting for an opportunity. At other times, they manifest, but you choose to ignore them, remaining indifferent and refusing to change. Consequently, these karmic creditors, attached spirits, and demon crowds accumulate within you, layer upon layer.

When your uncorrected habits surface again, your body reacts by erupting into illness or displaying severe symptoms. The condition may become critical, reaching the area between the shoulder blades, or your pain may shift and intensify. You may even face the ultimate suffering when the elements separate at the time of death. You may ask: "Why, even though I am a practitioner, do I still suffer from Aging, sickness, and death?" The answer is simple: it is because your personality and habits have not yet been changed.

Namo Amituofo