Understanding the Language of the Buddha

The Compassionate Guidance of the Buddha

Namo Amituofo addresses the students of the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre. Whether you are listening to the sutras, hearing the Dharma, or participating in the process of resolving conflicts and inviting spirits to hear the Dharma, you are always able to hear the teachings of the Buddha. This is especially true during the moments when we work to resolve karmic conflicts. The words spoken by the Buddha at these times are direct teachings intended for the spirits being invited, as well as for the beings currently residing within your own bodies.

My dear children, have you truly understood the language of the Buddha? When we engage in the work of resolution, it is done with the specific intention of observing the conditions of the beings involved. We speak to resolve their deep-seated grievances and to alleviate their suffering. By revealing the causes that have manifested in the present, we allow the spirits who have awakened to seek revenge to understand the situation. This enables them to accept the resolution, leave your physical bodies, and receive the benefits of Chao Du, ultimately finding their way to a better destination.

Resolving the Roots of Suffering

You must clearly understand that before you have successfully transformed your karma, this physical body remains in a state of impermanence. When the beings within you awaken and your past karma manifests, the resulting karmic debt can cause immense suffering. If you can maintain a heart that is calm, stable, and without ripples, you will be protected. Furthermore, the observance of the Precepts by the monastic community serves as a foundational cause for this stability.

By upholding the Precepts, you prevent the suffering that arises when karmic debts manifest. This allows your practice to proceed without interference, enabling you to move forward steadily until your purification is complete. The Buddha’s words also provide teachings on the Universal Principle, the Truth, and the Right Way, as well as the true reality of all phenomena. Within this very body, you can observe the laws by which the universe operates.

The Universe Within the Heart

If your heart is pure and your capacity to encompass all things is vast, your cells will remain stable. The beings residing within your body will not easily become restless or resistant, and your body will be less prone to the aging process, illness, and pain. However, if your heart deviates from the path—if you are driven by selfishness or attachment to the self—the cells in your body that resonate with these negative states will be disturbed. They will be shaken awake as if by an earthquake, manifesting the deep hatred and grievances from past harms, which in turn causes the body to suffer.

Unless you are chanting the name of Namo Amituofo, the power of the Buddha-name is required to subdue these beings and prevent them from manifesting their distress. If the three thousand great thousand worlds exist within this heart, then this heart contains the entire universe. The Buddha will always tell the assembly that the world of your true nature is the ultimate reality. The lands of all Buddhas are simply the worlds of the true nature.

Building the Pure Land Within

The Buddha-vow is the cause, and the Buddha-land is the result. For instance, the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss is a Buddha-land of the true nature, a world constructed by Namo Amituofo in accordance with His Forty-eight Great Vows. How can you follow Namo Amituofo to build your own Buddha-land of the true nature? It is achieved by having faith in, accepting, and practising the teachings found in the Infinite Life Sutra (The Buddha Speaks the Mahayana, Infinite Life, Adornment, Purity, Impartiality, and Enlightenment Sutra). Just as Practitioner Su uses his human body to save endless and boundless suffering beings, giving these spirits a place to return to and enabling them to enter the Western Land of Dharma Nature, so too will they be invited to enter the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss when Practitioner Su returns to the West.

The Path of Diligent Practice

Students of the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre, you must make the rediscovery of your true nature your primary goal. The challenges you currently face—such as negative or unwholesome sensations in the body, falling into a state of drowsiness, or the suffering of aging and illness—are all signs that your process of seeking the Dharma has not been entirely in accordance with the teachings. These states arise because of the thoughts of the beings within you and their actions in seeking repayment for past debts, which makes it difficult for your body to remain under your own control.

The Buddha’s words also offer guidance on how to act to break through these states of drowsiness and interference. You must take one of these methods and practise it thoroughly. Do not stop after only a few days, for if you do, you will find it difficult to see the results. There is no such thing as gaining something for nothing in your practice. It is accumulated bit by bit, second by second, without letting a single moment pass in vain. You are responsible for the causes you create, whether good or evil, and you will receive the corresponding fruits. No one can replace you; the evil consequences are yours to bear, and the good fruits are yours to enjoy. You must understand this, and you must cherish it.

Namo Amituofo