The Settled Heart: A Path to Stillness

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

On 5 April 2025, during the second session of the Thrice Yearning Ceremony, Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju offered these profound teachings on the nature of a settled heart.

The Essence of a Settled Heart

What does it mean to have a settled heart? It means that no matter what circumstances you encounter, your heart remains completely unmoved. Even when you are faced with the most significant matter of life and death, you remain steady and calm. This stillness is the foundation that allows you to chant Namo Amituofo with a focused mind, ensuring your successful rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

This is possible because you understand that life and death are ultimately illusory. Within this illusion, every action we take is also illusory. These illusions possess the characteristics of arising and ceasing. If your heart follows these fluctuations, it is merely a mortal heart, constantly in motion. This is not the settled heart of a true practitioner.

Transcending the Illusory World

A settled heart is one that does not follow the external environment; instead, it possesses the power to transform that environment. You must clearly understand that all phenomena are illusory, born from the void. The six realms of existence are all illusory landscapes. A practitioner with a settled heart walks through these realms without being swayed. They maintain their focus, chanting Namo Amituofo, and secure their path to rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Those who are reincarnated find their hearts constantly fluctuating in response to these illusory environments. However, a practitioner with a settled heart remains still even within these illusions. The illusory environment can manifest in many ways:

• Through the people you meet in your daily life.
• Through the events that unfold around you.
• Through the material objects that surround you.

Your body may move in response to these things, but your heart remains unmoved. In this way, the illusions of the world do not stain your heart. You are like a person walking through a garden of a hundred flowers, yet not a single petal clings to your robes. This is the ultimate test of your practice in the human world: to see if you can remain steady, to see if you can remain unmoved.

Transforming Karma and Beings

If your practice of chanting Namo Amituofo is effective, you will develop this settled heart. You will clearly distinguish between the illusory and the real. Because your heart is settled, you are no longer controlled by the illusions of karma. Instead, you gain the power to transform them:

• Transforming unwholesome environments into wholesome ones.
• Transforming illusory states into states of liberation.

Furthermore, a settled heart can transform the minds of other beings. These beings include:

• The cells within your own body.
• Your karmic creditors.
• Attached spirits.
• The demon crowds.
• The people, events, and environments you encounter.

Through this stillness, you can achieve profound transformations:

• Transforming a stained heart into a pure heart.
• Transforming an evil heart into a righteous heart.
• Transforming a convoluted heart into a direct, sincere heart.
• Transforming an unwholesome heart into a heart of goodness.

Those who can achieve this are those who have reached Awakening, performing Buddha-actions. Namo Amituofo.