What are sentient beings? Sentient beings are thoughts in the mind, and in Buddhism, it refers to living things. This layer of truth is the Mahayana Dharma level.

So, if you make a vow, you have to cling to your vows, as long as you don't cling to them, you are enlightening the Buddha's knowledge, and you are able to first realize the side of "delusional emptiness", and then you can get up and cultivate the side of "winning righteousness", after all, there is, not empty.

However, this existence is a wonderful existence, not a false existence of ordinary people's attachment. Without the power of true will, one cannot attain the true Buddha land. For example, if a person is doing knowledge and career, he must be really sincere and work hard day and night to achieve success. Even if you don't practice calligraphy, if you don't practice calligraphy for decades, you will never become a calligrapher.

Therefore, if you want to become a Buddha, you have to make a vow, and it is a wish to benefit others, otherwise it will not be fulfilled, so remember it.

"So what? Bodhisattvas are taken from the pure realm, all for the benefit of all sentient beings. For example, if someone wants to build a palace in an open space, he will not be hindered at will, but if he is in the void, he will not be able to do it. Bodhisattvas are like this, in order to achieve sentient beings, those who are not empty. This is the essence of Mahayana Buddhism.

All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are born for the sake of a major event, that is, for the benefit of all sentient beings, manifesting their freedom from their own life and death, which is the spirit of the Dharma.

We study Buddhism for the sake of others, not for ourselves. Without this understanding, one is not a Buddha.

Standard ordinary people are all planning and justifying themselves, and they don't have the breath of a bodhisattva at all.

For example, if a man wants to build a palace on a vacant lot, it is easy to do. If there is no land, it is impossible to build a palace in the air.

The first secret here is that if you don't have the root of your merits in your heart, you don't need to talk about the Dharma. I don't have the ability, I don't have the foundation, isn't it a big delusion to want to become a Buddha? Bai Juyi's poem:

How can empty flowers have to be fruitful, how can the sun flame find fish more.

Perturbation is Zen Zen is movement, and non-Zen is not moving.

That's it. So we need to examine ourselves, what is the foundation!

All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas make a vow to achieve the pure realm of the Buddha land, not just talking about emptiness. Emptiness is just the convenience of moving forward! But if you can't first attain self-emptiness, you can't talk about spiritual practice. Therefore, it is necessary to first cultivate to the level of emptiness, and then to cultivate the subtlety of dependent origination. For example, there is a piece of land with a quadrillion-old house built on it, and there are poisonous snakes and beasts in the house, and there is feces, and all kinds of dirt.

You have to clean it up first, or even tear it all down, and build a new house, that is, you have to empty it before you can achieve life.

However, to only talk about emptiness is to see the side, to be stubbornly empty. Speaking of practical truths, we ordinary beings are initially empty thoughts, delusions of empty sixth consciousness, and karmic habits. Slowly influenced, only then did the seventh consciousness of self-grasping be emptied, and the person was empty and I was empty. Finally, since beginninglessness, the habits of the eighth arya consciousness have also been emptiness and purification, and emptiness and purity are two sides of the same coin.

Although the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have attained emptiness and have cultivated into the land of existence, their minds are still unattainable, and they are still empty.

So, the Buddhist scriptures also call emptiness as ruru, which is really wonderful, you say it's empty, it's not empty, you say it has, it doesn't have. According to the minds of sentient beings, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas should know the amount and establish the realm of other Buddha lands, and that's it. Here the Buddha told us the highest points of Dharma practice.

All bodhisattvas have a straight mind, but what is a straight mind?

Is it straightforward? No, a straight heart is a heart without deceit. When you study Buddhism, you have to study the psychology of sentient beings.

All sentient beings have a distorted mind, and flattery means flattery. For example, we wear clothes every day, we have a distorted heart, we are afraid of being ugly, we shoot people's ass, and we put on makeup to make others feel good-looking. You say that you don't wear makeup and don't wash your face, but you're really distorting yourself, and you're going to be yourself. Therefore, we have a distorted mind everywhere, and unless we have realized the Tao and understood the nature, we are sincere.

Straight heart is like the three words of the Kun hexagram in the Book of Changes, straight, square and big. The full name of the "Huayan Sutra" is "Dafang Guanghuayan Sutra", and the three words of Dafang Guang are straight heart, big heart, broad-minded, tolerant of all sentient beings, achievement of all sentient beings, not for themselves. The Buddha said that the straight heart is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when the mind is truly pure, the purpose of cultivating the precepts, revising, and cultivating wisdom is to achieve the Straight Heart and the Bodhisattva's Pure Land.

Because the bodhisattva has achieved the pure land of mental consciousness by cultivating the mind in the ground, when every bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, he will not lie or distort sentient beings to be born in his country.

The Pure Land sect says that Amitabha Buddha wants all sentient beings to return like parents remember their children, but children prefer to go away and not miss their parents. Parents miss their children unlimitedly, and the Buddhist scriptures teach us to recite the Buddha with the heart of parents remembering their children, so that there is no one who will not die.

"The deep heart is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when the Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, sentient beings with sufficient merit will be reborn in his country." The deep heart is the opposite of the shallow heart. If a poor man picks up a large bag of money on the road, he will be so happy that he can't sleep that night. Rich people who have made a lot of money in a business may only smile and say that it is okay, which is a matter of depth of heart.

Everyone is very happy when they meditate a little bit of the realm, thinking that they are about to become a Buddha, and tomorrow they are afraid that the realm will fly away, which is the shallow heart.

When you do your morning and evening homework, you should recite Ananda in the "Lengyan Sutra":

Deeply dedicate this to the dust

Yes, it is called repaying the grace of the Buddha

What is deep heart? The deep heart is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, all merits, all good and solemn, there is nothing that is not cultivated, "do not do all evil, all good is pursued". Today I asked you to do a small thing, and immediately I thought why I was looking for me, why not someone else? How can merit be achieved in this way?

What is "full merit"?

It is the solemnity of all goodness. Everyone likes to talk about Zen, what frog dives into the water and plops, the lotus blossoms, it's really crazy.

What is Zen? The patriarchs of Zen Buddhism said: "The actual reason is not a dust, and there is no way to give up a law in the ten thousand lines." "Can you fix it?

The actual rational ground is not subject to a single dust, that is, to throw away all the karmic habits and troubles of the next life, and the actual rational ground is the reality of the world, and it is not subject to a single dust. Thinking together is action, and practicing the method of not giving up one law in the door of ten thousand lines is the solemnity of all goodness.

Lao Ne recited again, "The deep heart is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when the Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, sentient beings with sufficient merit will be born in his country." "The heart should be deep, kind, tolerant, and kind, so deep, when the Bodhisattva establishes the Buddha land, more sentient beings with all the merits can be reborn in the Buddha country!

Don't think that you can die just by saying the name of the Buddha a few times, you should recite the Buddha like parents and children. This is just the merit of cultivation, and you also have to have the virtue of "having sufficient merit". The Pure Land Sutra tells you that all beings who have been reborn in the Western Elysium are all bodhisattvas, that is, bodhisattvas who do not retreat from the eight places or more, and who have already possessed all the merits in their hearts, so how can there be a reason not to be reborn, and this is its secret. Therefore, ordinary sentient beings, with the idea of greed and delusion, want to be reborn in the Buddha realm, how arrogant and stupid they are!

"Bodhicitta is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, Mahayana beings come to rebirth in their kingdom." The act of bodhichitta is great compassion, great joy and great giving, and true enlightenment.

Clear-mindedness is bodhicitta and true Zen Buddhism is a person who does not have compassion and joy. If you are compassionate and giving, if you are wise, and if you can't express your will, you dare to say that you have a clear mind, and you are absolutely useless.

Some people think that sitting up and being a little bit pure, understanding a certain bit of truth is Zen, and they can't keep the rules and precepts, and they are arrogant and ignorant, that is not enlightenment, that is the seed of hell.

Bodhichitta is the mind of enlightenment, and those who have developed bodhichitta are necessarily compassionate.

The enlightened person is still the same person, but his heart and mind, life and work are completely different from before, the person who is usually narrow-minded has become lenient, the person who is nested has become the sky, and the habit has changed completely. Some young people came to me without first saying their names, and they wanted to talk to me about Zen and ask me to confirm them, which was extremely arrogant.

Alas! I have to say that I don't know Zen. If you want to learn Zen, read the Vimala Sutra first! Let's start with the line! Bodhicitta is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, so when a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, Mahayana beings come to rebirth in their kingdom. There are no Mahayana sentient beings who do not make compassionate vows, and the true Mahayana must have bodhichitta, so Mahayana sentient beings will be born in the Pure Land of the Buddha Kingdom.

"Charity is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, all beings can be reborn in their kingdom." True generosity is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and all sentient beings who are able to give up are qualified to be reborn in the Buddha's Land. Although we keep talking about generosity, we all hope that others will give to us, Dharma generosity, financial generosity, fearless generosity, which point is given to others? "Everything can be giving" is not just giving money or giving, this is external giving; There is also inner charity, which is to empty all troubles, delusions, and even body and mind. All sentient beings who can give up are absolute selfless, bodhisattvas who have no self in human beings and no self in the Dharma, so that they can give up everything and be qualified to be born in the Buddha kingdom in the future.

"Holding the vows is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when the Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, he does the Ten Good Paths and fulfills the wish that all sentient beings will be reborn in his kingdom." When the vows are truly pure, it is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land.

People, even all five, are based on the ten good karmic paths. Being able to attain the ten good karmic paths, and then dedicating the good results to all sentient beings, is the standard for attaining the precepts, and then you can be reborn in the Buddha realm.

"Forbearance and humiliation is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when the Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, the thirty-two solemn beings will come to give birth to their country." When everyone sees forbearance and humiliation, they think that they are beaten and scolded, but it is just a superficial text and has nothing to do with it.

The real forbearance is eight words: "If it is difficult, it can be done, and if it is unbearable, it can be endured." ”

Our world is translated as the world of sampa, which means to be able to endure and endure. People in this world have a particularly strong ability to endure all the sufferings of the material environment, because the world is not perfect.

There is only one will, that is, to tell others what you know and see, and whether you listen or not is your business, which is one of the acts of forbearance. There are so many things day and night, and if you don't do it for yourself, you are also humiliating.

Bodhisattvas in the world are all practicing forbearance, humiliation, and asceticism. The "Diamond Sutra" says that the Buddha cut off his body for King Gori, and was slowly cut by a knife, but he was still able to endure it, so it was achieved.

It's not that you are cut like a Buddha, we are all slowly being cut off in this world, and the bodhisattvas who start their hearts are sacrificing themselves.

To endure humiliation is to bear everything, and to bear what cannot be borne is to bear; If you can't do it, you still do it. When we go to the Buddha hall to recite the Buddha, we have to find a good place to sit down, and we have to strive for this kind of mentality, and this kind of mind becomes a problem. Forbearance is the pure land of all bodhisattvas, and there are 32 phases of Buddha, 80 kinds of goodness, how did the solemnity of goodness come about? It is the achievement of forbearance and humiliation, not as some people say, offering flowers to the Buddha, and then they will grow beautiful in the next life, and then it will become a business.

Diligence is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when the Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, he diligently cultivates all meritorious beings to be born in his country.

What is True Diligence? In a word, it means to diligently cultivate all merits.

Therefore, all scriptures are precepts. When we look at the Vimala Sutra, the precepts are all in it, each one is a precept, which one do we do?

When we study Buddhism, how many minutes or hours do we practice all the merits? In addition to being greedy for comfort and raising himself with dozens of catties of meat, he did not diligently cultivate all merits.

How is this the practice of the Dharma?

These verses are very clear and easy to understand, so why should I be so serious?

Don't think it's easy to understand, but in fact, you don't understand it.

That's not chanting sutras, it's creating karma, creating unremembered karma, what kind of retribution will you get? Idiot! Reap the rewards of foolishness.

The Pure Land mentioned in the Vimala Sutra includes all the Pure Lands of all the Buddhas of the Ten Directions and the Third World, unlike the Amitabha Sutra, which specifically refers to the Pure Land of the Western Blissful World, the only difference is this, but the principles and principles are the same.

"Meditation is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when the Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, he will not disturb severing beings in his kingdom." Here we are very clearly told that the principle of meditation is the four words "the mind is not disturbed", that is, the mind is controlled in one place, and distracting thoughts and delusions are placed in one place. For example, cultivating the Pure Land and reciting Nan Wu Amitabha Buddha is not disturbed, that is, the mind is in one place, and the heart is in the sentence Nan Wu Amitabha.

When we meditate, we covet a pure, comfortable, and serene mind, which seems to be fixed, but in fact, we are not single-minded, and it is not a real revision. The real revision is initially intentional, not unintentional. Ordinary people are so ambitious, they want to be empty when they come up, they don't care about anything, they sit very comfortably, and they think this is a revision. This is drowsy, not fixed! The more you cultivate, the more blank your mind becomes, and the more you cultivate, the worse your body becomes.

You may ask, don't some Zen masters teach people to be careless? The reason why you don't have to be mindful here is that you don't have to be delusional, you don't want to give up your mindfulness.

He said the first half of the sentence: You have to participate in the second half of the sentence! If you don't need any mind, then it's good to learn, so why bother learning Zen? Otherwise, learn to sleep! Therefore, true meditation requires that the mind is not disturbed, that the mind is collected, and that all delusional thoughts must be withdrawn.

Some people say, then I just take my mind back, and my body doesn't care, but that's completely wrong. The four major thoughts of the body and mind, the body and mind together are one mind, the mind is not chaotic, the body is not chaotic, there is no need to talk about the qi veins, and the qi veins are naturally harmonized.

The Buddha statue before the Sui and Tang dynasties was right, and the sitting statue of the person who had to be determined was like this, or a thin waist, no stomach, especially the stomach did not protrude, and it was not hunched over.

Really control the mind in one place, or chant the Buddha's one thought, at this time, the body is naturally single-minded, this is called the mind is not chaotic, and the preliminary determination.

The cause of this meditation is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, which is preliminary. Then you can ask, can you become a Buddha without taking your mind?

Of course, don't take the heart, becoming a Buddha is a useless thing after the path, don't use your heart to keep the mind from being chaotic and naturally not chaotic, or be single-minded.

Therefore, meditation is the foundation of all Mahayana Buddhism, and here it is said that meditation is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and this is the truth, so that these sentient beings with concentration can be born in the Buddha kingdom in the future.

"Wisdom is the Bodhisattva's Pure Land, and when the Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, he is determining all sentient beings to be born in their kingdom." Wisdom is Prajna, and the wisdom of Prajna is not wisdom, and people in the world are learned, and their minds are clever and thoughtful, not necessarily wisdom, but scattered.

True wisdom must be the correct concentration of all samadhi, starting from the undisturbed mind, to the point where there is no need to be disturbed, uncertain, there is bodhichitta in the concentration, there is an enlightened mind, this is the correct concentration, so wisdom is the pure land of the bodhisattva, because when all bodhisattvas become Buddhas, they rely on the concentration of wisdom and other holdings to be able to rebirth in the Buddha realm.

Cultivating wisdom revision is the cultivation of the Pure Land Method, and when the Bodhisattva who cultivates this method becomes a Buddha himself, he will be reborn in his Buddha Kingdom because of the power of wisdom. The next life of the Buddha refers not only to the rebirth of sentient beings in the Buddha state, but also to the bodhisattva's own rebirth of the Buddha state, which is especially explained here.