What is the difference between a Buddha and sentient beings? The Buddha always serves all sentient beings, and in the end he achieves himself; Sentient beings, on the other hand, serve only themselves, but in the end they degrade themselves and suffer for the rest of their lives. So, don't worry about not getting something in return after you give, just like the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, who give so much compassion and eventually become Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. And what about sentient beings? When the Buddha was alive, we didn't follow the Buddha's compassion and wisdom to practice, so now we are still in samsara, and we continue to be bound by afflictions and karma.

What is it to study Buddhism? It is the spirit of learning Buddhism. The Buddha's teachings tell us not to harm sentient beings, and to give selflessly and compassionately so that all sentient beings can become Buddhas, and in the end we will achieve it ourselves. The essence of the Buddha's education is the bodhisattva's bodhichitta, and we have to think and do more about bodhichitta. In the process of practicing the bodhisattva path, we should always reflect on our own body, mouth, and mind to see whether we are doing the Buddha's teachings in accordance with the Dharma, whether we have really given up the mentality of benefiting ourselves, and whether we are truly thinking about others in everything we do.

Think about it: if you only have 100 dollars today, if you can give 50 dollars selflessly and share it with others without expecting to give it back, the joy of being unburdened is indescribable. However, if you think that you only have such a little money, and giving 100 yuan to someone else is a kind of giving, so you have the mentality of hoping that others will give back, so you will feel pressure, and you will only feel hard, and it is not easy to be happy.

If you can regard all this hard work and dedication as a kind of happy dedication, thinking that this is the blessing that all sentient beings deserve, and that you can do these things is also your own innate blessing, and when you mature in this life, you will be very happy! A lot of people ask me if I'm going to be troubled or stressed. I feel that there is no pressure, I can do it for as long as I can, and one day I can't do it, and when I stretch my feet, there will still be someone behind me who will take over this responsibility. Like I have never been poor, the reason is that I have no possessions in the first place, and all the wealth I have gained in my life comes in from my left hand and soon goes out from my right hand, but I feel rich and satisfied all the time, because I am mentally prepared to have a lot of material at any time, and I can also become nothing at any time. This is not to tell you how great I am, but to hope that if you practice your good thoughts in a way that you do not want, then your good fortune will increase more and more. If you are mentally prepared for this kind of detachment, then there is nothing to worry about.

In short, we should learn from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to have a generous and compassionate mind. Bodhisattvas benefit sentient beings, and the last thing they get is themselves. Amitabha Buddha and Shakyamuni Buddha said, "All sentient beings in the six realms must be exhausted", Jizo Bodhisattva said, "Hell is not empty, and you will not become a Buddha", and Avalokiteshvara also made a vow, and in the end, some of them became Buddhas and some became bodhisattvas. We're still suffering here, it's not their fault, it's not that they don't want to save us, it's that we have our own karma. If we are inspired by the wishes and deeds of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and know that "it is ourselves who benefit sentient beings in the end," and then follow in their footsteps, we too can soon achieve something.

So, don't take a small loss for the time being and think that you are being taken advantage of by others. At that time, the Buddha said that he wanted to benefit sentient beings, but in the end he benefited himself and became a Buddha, and we still need to rely on him to live slowly. In the same way, as long as you open your heart, it is not necessarily a bad thing to suffer a small loss, because in the end, it is yourself who lives peacefully and happily, not others. Because you are open-minded, have a good mood, have no hatred, no jealousy, and no greed, and if you are content, you will be able to be "happy" and will not create karma. In this life, we are happy without karma, but in the next life we will continue to be happier with the blessings of this life. Moreover, in the next life, you may also be reborn in the Pure Land of the Buddha Kingdom. Even if we don't have that much good fortune, we may be able to be born as a human being in a future life, and we may have the opportunity to hear about the Dharma and have very good karma to continue our good fortune in this life.

All the teachings handed down by the Buddha seem to be in opposition to the worldly Dharma, but if we analyze them carefully, we will find that if we can apply the Dharma to our body, mouth, and mind, it will be of great help to us in our short lives in this life, let alone in the next life. Therefore, it is usually said that Buddhism is a special method that can obtain the blessings of heaven in a short life, and can actually obtain the Buddhahood status.

The correct direction of studying the Dharma should be to improve our attitude towards survival and our sensitivity to a new understanding of the worldly Dharma. To put it more bluntly, through the study of the Dharma, the height of our minds is raised, the width is expanded, the purity is purified, the tightness of attachment is adjusted, and so on. Because through the cognition of the Dharma, we understand cause and effect, impermanence, and the convergence and extinction of fate...... This will give us a certain breadth in our lives from the level of wisdom. This kind of width is not created by the law of the world, but is to use the heart of the world to enter the world, and when the heart is wide, all the care will be simplified. If, after accumulating a certain amount of time in study, we find that our troubles and habits are heavier and our attachments are increasing unabated, then we should be wary that we may go astray.