I would like to discuss how to truly recite Buddha's name, because I would like to publish a booklet to establish connections with the people who have just taken on spiritual cultivation.

    We are familiar with the method of recitation of Buddha's name by using our mouths, reciting "Amitabha Buddha". The monks in temples always tell people to recite Buddha's name this way. Then we may go home and recite Amitabha Buddha. In addition, those cultivators of the Method of Reciting Buddha's Name also say: "One should always recite Buddha's name anytime, regardless of walking, resting, sitting or lying down." Whether one is a monk or not, as there are many who recite Buddha's name, he may think that "Dharma" is easy to obtain. People do not take a look at how well the one who has taught them this method has cultivated himself, where he learned this method, whether this method possesses the power of Dharma, whether it works, whether it can improve people's lives, or whether it can guarantee a good rebirth. Therefore, for something that is so popular, we'd better not easily think that we understand its true meaning, or should not blindly accept it in full. Do not buy something that is too cheap.

    Dharma won't be sold at a cheap price, like bulk vegetables. However, this method is appropriate for some beginners. This is possible. They can try to chant Buddha's name as frequently as they can so they won't incur the karma of speech. The tongue can produce four kinds of karma. The more one recites Buddha's name, the less karma of speech he can possibly incur. However, as soon as he stops reciting it, he may incur karma again. Even when one is reciting it, his mind may drift away, too. When one is counting the Buddhist beads and reciting Buddha's name, he may find that there are illusory thoughts in his mind. Some spiritual cultivator recommended that whenever an illusory thought comes up, one should eliminate it right away. But he misses one point, that is when an illusory thought has come up, it is only one illusory thought, but if one adds another thought-"to eliminate it", there is another illusory thought. There will be two illusory thoughts. There was only one illusory thought, but he taught people to create another one.

    The thoughts in the mind, which appear and disappear according to causes and conditions, should be neither accepted nor rejected. As soon as you recognize them, they are terminated. It is impossible for you even to keep them there permanently. Why do you want to eliminate them? There is no eternity in this material world. Can illusory thoughts remain there forever? If an illusory thought were eternal, you would not need to worship Buddha. You could just worship this "eternity". Who doesn't have illusory thoughts? Why do you want to eliminate them? How do you eliminate them? If you can eliminate them, why do they come back? If they wouldn't come back after being eliminated, you could have attained Buddhahood right there. Have you attained Buddhahood? Who has attained Buddhahood? Does it work? That approach is not the essence of Dharma, but the expediency of Dharma.

    You can think over whether my words make sense. When your body, mind and speech are unclean, illusory thoughts are not the primal causes. Instead, they are the intermediary outcome. You dream at night what you have thought in the daytime. If your body, mind and speech are unclean in the daytime, you will think of those things in your meditation. What is the use to work on eliminating illusory thoughts? Why don't you work on purifying your body, mind and speech? You don't work on the cause but on the outcome. What is that? Then you teach people that this is reciting Buddha's name, as if it is true. If everyone acts this way, what can be changed? Does it work?

    If we constantly try not to do things that harm others, gossip about others, or think about harming others, how can we have illusory thoughts? In this way, if there are thoughts, all of them are right thoughts. Why do we want to eliminate them? Therefore don't just talk. We should start tilling the ground from the springtime. The crop will grow up day by day. We will harvest the crop in autumn. That is absolutely not decided by a one-day effort, but is the result of your efforts for several months. The result is manifested at a time, but its process is very complicated. When it comes to autumn, if we see the crop of others have turned out better than ours, nothing will be changed by fertilizing and watering the ground at that time. That will only tire us out. You wouldn't try it. No one is so stupid! One should start his work in the springtime.

    Spiritual cultivation requires correlation, which is to do what one should do, at the right time and with the right strength. That is Dharma. It doesn't mean that to work hard on the mouth is ineffective at all, but it won't be very effective. One should emphasize the cultivation of the heart. Therefore the Chan School (Zen) proposes: "The heart is Buddha and Buddha is the heart." But the mundane men now interpret the recitation of Buddha's name as using the mouth, and so work on their mouth. Look at the structure of the Chinese character for "recitation", which is composed of the word "now" on the top and "heart" on the bottom. It means your instant heart is "reciting", which is "instant thought". The so-called "reciting Buddha's name" means "every thought is engaged in the thought of Buddha", which is then true recitation of Buddha's name. If you don't think of Buddha and just make mistakes and talk about correcting them all the time, you will repeat making mistakes and correcting them everyday.

    When children make a mistake in their writing homework, they need to erase the wrong and re-write it. At the end, the paper gets torn by frequent erasure, and then there is no need to erase anything. What do they need to correct? If they write every word meticulously, stroke by stroke, do they need to erase any word? Isn't this principle very simple? It is a passive method to work on the outcome. You won't learn anything. That is absolutely not a right method, nor would that be the focus. You should teach children how to identify words and remember the order of strokes and the structure for every word, as well as its meaning. Then you should allow them to practice writing with full concentration. Don't be like a kitten trying to catch a fish, always correcting its mistakes. But if the first stroke of the word a teacher teaches is wrong, all the repetitions of the word the children practice will be wrong. However, the teacher tells the children to erase them. It is him who taught wrong!

    Therefore when one teaches others to recite Buddha's name, if he doesn't understand the true meaning of reciting Buddha's name, how do others do it right? There are lots of people today who recite Buddha's name, but who knows how to recite Buddha's name? What is the true recitation of Buddha's name? For the goal of liberating yourself, you close your eyes all day counting the Buddhist beads and reciting Buddha's name. If everyone is reciting Buddha's name, who goes out to make money to support you? Who cooks for you? Who washes clothes for you? You just do this but nothing else all day. You say it should never be interrupted. Don't the monks and nuns in temples also have to go to the toilet? Do they go to the toilet with Buddhist beads? When they are on the toilet, where has Buddha gone? Is Buddha still present if the mouth gets crooked? It won't be reliable if Buddha resides on your mouth. What do you do when you are asleep? Which monk counts the beads and recites Buddha's name when he is sleeping? It is to cheat both yourself and others. Why do you say that one should recite Buddha's name during walking, resting, sitting and lying? How can you cheat others like that? This is something impossible to do, but everyone now thinks this to be the truth!

    No matter what we do everyday, we should always try to hold on our true heart and engage it in spiritual cultivation. The first indicator of a true spiritual cultivator is that he thinks of others all the time. You may not understand what he is doing. Even those who receive benefit and convenience from him may not accept him right away. However, all this won't affect his mind. This is that every thought is engaged in spiritual cultivation, which is truly "the recitation of Buddha's name". He may not do things well. Similarly, I have to wear a bib at meals, otherwise I will "leak" food. You may say: "Master, you discuss that people should have "consciousness". How come you don't have "consciousness"?" It is not that I don't have consciousness, but it is because my hand can't work well. Now my eyes and hands don't coordinate with each other. It is their fault, not mine. One who knows it is wrong should correct the wrong. How do I correct it? To cut the hand off? I figure I can wear a bib. So I just need to wash the bib instead of the clothes, right? I saw Wu-qiu wearing a bib on the other day. I learned it from him. Children can be the teacher, too.

    When our heart is in the right state, we don't need to be held responsible for the outcome. Isn't that stated clearly in the Bhagavad-gita? One who enjoys any outcome is not you, he, or me but is the master of senses, Hrsikesa (the master of senses). Therefore I would like to tell you: "Just do it. No matter what the outcome is, you are not held responsible as long as your act is for the convenience and benefit of others. Your action matters. It doesn't matter you do it correctly or incorrectly. You are not credited if you do it correctly, nor are you held responsible if you do it incorrectly." This kind of act is devotion, but not desiring for rewards. Therefore a devotee doesn't have faults.

    The Buddha fell down when going on alms round. His hands got cut and bled. Saint Prabhupada also had a car accident and almost died. Maudalyayana got struck by a rock and died. Did all these obstruct their stages of fruition (spiritual positions)? Milarepa died of poisonous elixir. Jesus Christ got nailed on the cross and died. What did they do wrong? Therefore, Buddha is in the heart. You should use your heart to recite Buddha's name. Every recitation should be engaged with the heart. This "heart" is not "the heart organ". All humans share one "heart". There are many individuals, but there is only one "heart". There is a controller of the heart that is consciousness.

    There are two aspects of consciousness: material consciousness and spiritual consciousness. If your every thought is fixed in spiritual consciousness, you are then a person who thinks of Buddha in every thought. One with spiritual consciousness is detached from false-ego. He "breaks" the four marks of existence (i.e., to destroy the delusion of the four marks of existence: arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing). He doesn't do things for himself. He won't be deluded by fruitive activities. He won't be perplexed by material rewards, controlled by material, deluded by the false marks of existence, driven by profits, or polluted by the material world. The whole essence of his life is manifested as devotion and living for others, as all his feelings are directed toward others. He is thinking of Buddha in every thought, wanting to do this in every act, and doing this all the time. It is not just talking about it with the mouth.

    When you see someone is pushing a cart and it looks like the cart is going to turn over, you are still reciting "Amitabha Buddha" over there. But another person rushes over and helps this guy out. Who do you think is reciting Buddha's name? Who is not? When people are suffering, you just keep reciting "Amitabha Buddha" over there. When people are exhausted, you also keep reciting "Amitabha Buddha" there. When people are dying, you are still reciting "Amitabha Buddha". Do you think "Amitabha Buddha" is something that is uttered by your mouth? Is this "the recitation of Buddha's name"? You don't care about other people. The only thing you care about is whether you can attain Buddhahood or not. Can you attain Buddhahood this way? Isn't this kind of person the most selfish man? As no one is doing things that benefit others and people are just concentrating on reciting Buddha's name for their own benefit, no wonder this world couldn't turn into the Pure Land (the Ultimate Blissful Land).

    In Master Kun-jing's description of the Pure Land, "The Trip To the Pure Land", no one over there is reciting "Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha" like the way you do. Your current quality will determine your quality at the time of death. You should do what you should do! When you see something you should do, that is the manifestation of your own cause and condition, testing the level of your heart-whether it is for the benefit of others or yourself. When your heart is for the benefit of others, you are Buddha. When your heart is for your own interest, you are demon. It is so simple. This is about the recitation of Buddha's name.

    Buddha and demon can be discerned by where your "instant thought" is-whether it is for the interest of others or yourself, or whether it is engaged in devotion or profit-driven activities. So can heaven and hell be discerned that way. If you can achieve it in every thought, you are truly a spiritual cultivator. If there is one thought away from that, you should correct it. This is truly "the recitation of Buddha's name". What about your method of reciting Buddha's name? You don't use your heart but use your mouth. If one could attain Buddhahood that way, the tape player would be the first one to attain it. We can predict "the future Buddha of tape player". Well, it doesn't have to wait until the future. It can attain Buddhahood now. Don't you know some people play the tape that recites Buddha's name incessantly? Is it a Buddha?

    Of course, for those in old age, the unhealthy, or the people having lots of free time, it is fine for them to concentrate on reciting Buddha's name. By reciting Buddha's name, they can control their six senses and stop them from drifting away or thinking of other things. They can just recite "Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha" in a natural and relaxed way. You can't criticize them to be wrong. But if you just recite Buddha's name without doing anything, and pursue it as a goal, it is wrong. When it's time to sleep, you don't sleep but recite Buddha's name instead. Others need sleep. Therefore you should do things at the right time. You shouldn't do things at inappropriate times. This is the distinction between right thoughts and illusory thoughts. You can contemplate it!

    After my explanation, don't you understand the truth of reciting Buddha's name immediately? If we follow this rule, our body, mind and speech must be clean! Then you can check what kinds of illusory thoughts you would have. When your body, mind and speech are clean, those so-called illusory thoughts will be focused on the problems of spiritual cultivation, on trying to solve them, and on considering the interests of others. It must be like that. Then why do you need to eliminate them? When you think about something, that is the manifestation of the Transformed-body of Buddha to remind you of doing that thing tomorrow. Why do you need to eliminate it? If you don't want to think about anything, let's empty your brain and fill it up with cement.

    Can a living human enters into a tranquil and extinguished state in this world? Can one who is made of flesh and blood, and has feelings and affections, just feel himself but not other people? Should one strive to become a person who doesn't have love, and doesn't know sore, numb, itchy, painful and swollen feelings? Is that better? What good is that? If it is good, you can come over here. You will be good after I give you a smack. It is so strange! Even after we leave this body, our consciousness absolutely doesn't disappear. There is no such know-nothing existence. How can it be possible? Who did you hear it from? Does that tranquil and extinguished state mean you will know nothing? If it were knowing nothing, who told you that? How can one who has attained that platform know that is knowing nothing? Does it make sense? It is a lie! That tranquil and extinguished state is at the level of numbness.

    Similarly, when you start to sit on the lotus position, you will feel your legs get numb in a while. They won't hurt if you pinch them. Then you talk about knowing nothing. How can it be possible? "He" (your consciousness) clearly knows they are numb. How can it be that he doesn't know anything? He doesn't feel pain but feels numb! If He did not know numbness, how could you know they are numb? That is a kind of consciousness, which doesn't deny the existence of numbness. Do you understand? At that time our goal is not to just let the legs crossed over knowing nothing but numbness. That is not our goal. Our goal is to transcend the boundary of numbness, and finally return to knowing everything.

    Therefore the tranquil and extinguished state in the limited boundary is similar to the condition in which our legs get numb. You should remember that is not ultimate. What is your value for the eighty-four thousand species in this material world if you don't do anything and just enjoy that tranquil and extinguished state? Is it the tranquil and extinguished state that makes them go through the cycle of life, death, disease and old age, have feelings, and survive in the face of environmental changes? How could you manage them if you knew nothing? Therefore we must step out of this erroneous zone. True recitation of Buddha's name is to be a good person with a whole heart, but not just using the mouth.

    If you have learned to just use your mouth, you will be inconsistent between your within and without. Look at those who recite Buddha's name all day. They look very humble when they are reciting, but as soon as they go home, they will show a different look to their wife or husband, changing to a different personality entirely. That proves it is not an ultimate solution and won't work, as it won't change people. Can it eliminate the distress of life, or solve problems? If one doesn't resolve his distress when he is alive, can he become free of worry after he dies? Have you ever seen any tree that is a water-willow tree when it is alive but becomes a poplar tree after it is cut down? If it is a water-willow tree when it is alive, it will become the wood of water-willow when it dies. It will never change its nature.

    Life and death are two marks of existence, but the nature won't change. When you are full of distresses in life, speaking incorrect principles due to delusion and acting as a double-dealer, won't you become a cow-head and horse-face after you die? What will you become? Therefore, a well rounded method will make allowances for people in different situations: high level, middle level, low level, old, young, weak, unhealthy, or healthy. Different situations demand different approaches.

    For example, you have to eat machine-made noodles every day at home. Then you come to see me. If I still cook machine-made noodles for you, although you won't say those are not delicious, you won't think the food is special. Although you may politely say that "the noodles Master cooks are very delicious"-perhaps they are more delicious than the noodles you cook at home, they are still machine-made noodles. If I cook hand-made noodles instead of machine-made, you may still think, "Ah, although they are a little different, they are still noodles. I don't want to eat noodles now. I would rather have other kinds of food." If I take you to the "Vegetarian Restaurant of Mercy" to eat, you will think, "Wow, I have never been here. It would be wonderful if I could come back again, perhaps every day." Although you may not say that, your eyes would reveal that to me. Is that right?

    Therefore, the causes and conditions in life are constantly changing. We must respond them respectively. We can't adopt one model and apply it to all causes and conditions. We can't transmit one method to all and tell them to follow this method only. Everyone has different causes and conditions. The Creator transmitted the method of chanting to Lord Caitanya (the seventh incarnation of Creator) because he was unintelligent. But many of you are pretty intelligent. I have taught you something but you don't follow it. That proves you are smart alecks. If you can transform that "smartness", you will become a real smart person. That will be true intelligence. That will prove you can board the Way not by way of that slowest method.

    If you don't eat machine-made noodles, it doesn't mean that you have to eat hand-made noodles. I can also cook rice, stuffed pastry, deep fried cake, a variety of desserts, and a full, formal banquet combining 108 Manchurian and Chinese delicacies. And every dish has its unique taste. You can choose! I know you have only one stomach, but you can choose to satisfy your palate. If you are satisfied, let me tell you that the Creator will be satisfied, too. You eat the food, but the taste is enjoyed by the Creator. I am willing to serve you, lessen your suffering, and provide you with more choices. I have many different methods that suit different levels and different causes and conditions. Therefore this is called Perfect and Sudden Method (Yuan Dun).

    Do you know how Buddha Sakyamuni described Yuan Dun? It includes the School of recitation of Buddha's name, the School of chanting, the control of breathing and meditation, the opening of energy channels, heat cultivation, and deep-concentration, etc. Of course it contains leaving the body, too. And it doesn't require your sense of discrimination. You just need to listen to me and take it. After I take you to the Vegetarian Restaurant of Mercy, please don't scurry off here and there. Then when I tell you to dig in, please don't just look at the food. You can eat what you want and eat as much as you like. If you can't reach the dishes far from you, you can rotate the tray and dig in. Can't you be satisfied? I guarantee your satisfaction, because I have furnished all the conditions you need, which is enough for you to make a choice.

    This is the Method of Yuan Dun, which is different from any other method. Most Buddhas, when coming down to this world, just transmitted single aspect of Dharma. It is only the Method of Yuan Dun in which one will attain Dharma eternally. He doesn't need to look for more. Don't I know how big your appetite is?

    This is how to recite Buddha's name correctly! Especially for those beginners, they don't have to see me immediately or receive my instructions, but they must not forget that spiritual cultivation needs to begin with acting as a good person, instead of using the mouth. Don't regard the words as the true Amitabha Buddha.

    The meaning of Amitabha in Sanskrit is eternal, shining, precious and opulent as gold. The gold we see in this world is the reflection of external light. In Brahmaloka (the abode of Brahma which is also called the Pure Land), however, the color of gold is unlike this. It is clear, but unlike the transparency of pine resin. The transparency of pine resin won't emit light. The essence of gold in the Pure Land is very clear and can emit light by itself, which is not merely the reflection of sunlight.

    Let me reveal a secret to you. Hardly any scientists today, perhaps no one, understands that gold is a very valuable energy form. They don't know how to use it. They turn it into ornaments, or coins to represent money. They don't know that gold itself contains powerful energy. It is powerful energy. I am not going to instruct the method to the people in this world. I will instruct it to the people in the future world. Gold is an energy form that won't produce pollution, unlike gas, coal or nuclear energy. Have you ever seen a UFO? The real UFO, not a fake one, must employ a kind of energy that is related to gold. We let it stay over there and do not make good use of it. It is wasted. However, people go about digging that black pasty stuff and then burn it and produce the by-product of black smoke. Humankind is so ignorant. So, gold is eternal and free of rust. Buddhism calls it infinite life and infinite light.