Chapter Five Constantly Guard Your Body, Mind, and Speech
People asked me to discuss the conditions of the "Shadow of Perception". In the afternoon, Brother Huang mentioned that he was reviewing his dreams last night because I have asked all of you to closely observe your attitudes and the methods you use to handle things in your dreams. Those reveal our true quality. Brother Huang said that two females showed up in his dream last night to test him, and he passed the test. So it shows that his state of mind is more peaceful now, and he can control himself better in terms of sexual desire. I discussed this issue with some people in the afternoon. Now as people ask me to discuss this issue again, I am going to talk about how to examine our qualities in the shadow of perception, and the relationship between them and our qualities in reality.
What is the "Shadow of Perception"? It is stated in the Heart Sutra that there are five aggregates: form, perception, conception, volition, and consciousness. Perception is the sensation of our body and mind reacting to a certain kind of feeling. At the moment of its occurrence, it is actually being recorded by our inner system and then it is stored in our memory warehouse. The storage of things in the memory warehouse is like the recording of a concert—when the concert is over, the voice of the singer is recorded on a cassette. The cassette is the "Shadow of Perception" of the concert. Do you understand? Whenever the cassette is played, the atmosphere and the sound of the concert can be retrieved. We can hear the same effect of that time. However, it is not the concert. We hear it after the concert is over by the help of the recording equipment. Similarly, there is such a system within our brain to record our mental and physical sensations. Even though an event has already occurred, the memory can still keep the recording of it for a very long time. Even though when the memory in our brain is completely gone, this record will remain in a deeper memory system. It will be kept beyond the limit of this life and the limit of many lives afterwards. In the West, it is called the Akasic Record. In Buddhism, it is called the manas consciousness or aalaya consciousness.
One who doesn’t have a lot of karma or who has entered into spiritual cultivation, will frequently reflect, confess, and adjust his state of mind. Then, he can eliminate lots of his karma through penances and bodily practice. The less one’s karma is, the closer the contents of his dreams are to his real life in the daytime. It is almost similar to that you harvest what you have just planted. As far as the contents of recent days are concerned, if there is nothing that is worth recording, the dreams will show the life of the time farther back, such as the things of a few tens of years ago. During one of the stages, we may feel that it seems that our old friends and classmates in the childhood all come back in our dreams. And many of them are the people who have passed away. They all show up in dreams. Do you understand? That is because we don’t have a lot of karma to cleanse lately. Then, this condition will occur. In dreams, the aggregate of your mental states that have occurred in the daytime and your natural quality at the instant moment will be combined to produce the solutions for problems. This is the manifestation of truer qualities in you. Although dreams and the life in the daytime are two distinct units, a certain kind of memory in the Shadow of Perception is actually copied into your dream. This system will simulate things in your dreams, which is like a computer simulating the solutions. Then, all will show in your dreams. After waking up, you will remember them very clearly. Buddha often times uses this kind of method to help us trace our true quality of morality.
Our lessons are scheduled tightly. Especially after the advanced lessons have been held, everyone’s karma should be cleansed at a more speedy pace. Usually the things that happened a long time ago will start to be projected into your present dreams. Have you had this kind of experience? The things and people you have thought before re-appear in your dreams. However, you handle them with new attitudes. Ha! You find out that people and things are no longer the same as before! Then, if we have resolved most of the past things, we will start to handle the present things. If there is any problem at the present, it will show up in your dream within one or two days. What will be in your dreams? You will dream about what you think in the daytime. Therefore in the Triplet Poem, I talk about "Constantly guarding your body, mind, and speech", which means that if we don’t pay attention to our body, mind, and speech in the daytime, the dreams at night will reveal them completely. What shows in our dreams is similar to the traces of shooting stars that are left by your thoughts of the daytime. Do you understand? Although your thoughts disappear quickly, the marks that they have made remain there clearly.
Therefore, you should review your dreams. I told Brother Huang that that dream did not mean we no longer had the problem of sexual desire. The pass has not been crossed yet. Instead, that kind of dream points out that the problem still remains in our thoughts. When encountering the same cause and condition, the same thing, and the same dream, what you see is different from what I see, right?
Sometimes you have had a special dream and came to ask me. You imagined how to interpret the dream, and found out your interpretation was different from mine. Is the topic and thing reflected in your dream in accordance with your true quality? The foundation of your interpretation is your quality and what you identify with. It is similar to what has happened in the daytime. What you think is good is different from what I think is good, right? The subject is the same thing but there are two different views. This is the difference. In your dreams, there are things that are in accord with the truths and other things that are not. Therefore do not be deluded by the illusions in your dreams. Even though in the Shadow of Perception, or in the dreams, we are still inclined to deluding ourselves. Why do you have this tendency? That is because you have the tendency to delude yourself in the daytime. Why won’t you delude yourself in the dreams? You will!
Then, how do we examine the truthfulness in the dreams? It depends on whether you regard yourself as one of the people in the dreams when you look at your dreams. If you look at a dream regarding yourself as one of the people in there, you acknowledge the dream to be real. Dreams themselves are not real. They are illusory. It is "the Shadow of Perception"! If you look at an illusion with an illusion, of course you will have an illusion. You should look at an illusion with a true understanding. So you should look at form, perception, conception, volition, and consciousness in life, as well as the contents of both life and dreams, from the viewpoint of the soul, and from the angle of the soul.
In fact, during the discussion of this issue, Brother Huang thought he had crossed the pass. However, he did not see that the dream had showed that his body, mind, and speech in the Shadow of Form were unclean. Now do you understand? It means that the body, mind, and speech in the daytime had a problem, which was similar to the problem discussed by Brother Xue. This problem also happened to Brother Xue. As a matter of the fact I can let you know. I directly called out the names of Brother Li and Old Brother Guo last night. They are older people. Do you know? They still have this kind of problem. I did not hold back. They did not describe their dreams to me, but I understand everything including the small tricks you do in your dreams. I am such an annoying person. Do you know? Because I have eleven million units of radar, you, from toes to hair splits, can’t escape my radar. He is too effective. Do you understand? Aye!
When I point out who and who has which lesson, it doesn’t mean only this person has this kind of problem. Even though this person has this problem, it is not an individual problem. Don’t think this is embarrassing. In fact as you don’t talk about it, you are more "ugly". (Embarrassment is interchangeable with ugliness in Chinese) I know whether you are ugly or not. Do you understand? Some people exhibit it while others don’t. Some have the courage to exhibit their ugliness while others don’t. For example, when Brother Xue was exhibiting his ugliness, he showed another problem that was the ugliness hidden in ugliness. He manifested another a kind of unhealthy mentality while letting people know his ugliness. This may happen when we are singing. Did you notice that? One time Brother Xue and Sister Cheng were singing the song of "Hai Liu Chops the Firewood". They should just focus on singing, but Brother Xue did not control his mentality. He had sexual desire. An evil thought entered his mind. We could feel that, right? We felt that all of a sudden. That was too terrible!
This crooked-mouth Brother Xue is very evil. This bastard! Although I had put out his blood so much (a kind of Chinese traditional medicinal treatment similar to bleeding and purging treatment in the West), it still can’t be put out thoroughly because he still had evilness inside him. His mind is evil. He discussed himself in depth early on. He left the mountain to cure his crooked mouth. Although he was a crooked-mouth monk, evil thoughts arose in his mind when he got on the bus and saw two young girls. He ran wild with his fantasy. Afterwards, he reflected on himself and criticized himself. He tracked this harshly! He did not let himself get away. This is great courage! However, because his mind was bewildered at that moment, which was nearly lost, evilness permeated his whole body. It is true to say that his body was polluted by it. Do you understand? Energy channels were in chaos and the flows of air and blood were silted up! The treatment he received was ineffective. Do you understand? This was caused by our quality in the daily life. What can change our fates? Doesn’t it depend on our merit? Isn’t everything created by the mind? The mind decides whether the mouth can be cured or not. Brother Song received a good mouth surgery. Other than that he received the surgery at the right time, it was also because he recognized that the problem was due to the heavy formation of his speech karma. Is that right Brother Song? (Answer: Yes.) He confessed to me. I revealed his weaknesses on the way here. He could barely take it. He felt I was insulting him. He felt he wanted to jump out of the car. However, although he couldn’t stand the harsh and direct criticism I made at several events, he admitted that those were truthful. Through this, he reflected on himself many times and discovered that he did not have the courage to face himself. Therefore he eliminated his old attitude. Then, he admitted everything to me. Due to this, his mouth was corrected. Do you know? Ha! Ha!
Therefore, I would like to tell you. Like what I mentioned in previous lectures, we can’t let our body and mind be polluted. We can’t let go our mind. We can’t! Otherwise we need to spend a lot of energy to cleanse it. If a special cause and condition is manifested at that time, there will be a big hindrance. We will miss the cause and condition. This is an on-going process that requires persistence. And we need to pay careful attention to guard the process. Like the story of Radar Soldier I discussed before, you should use a pair of alert eyes as well as a correct method to judge and understand the process. No matter whether an event has happened or is happening, and no matter whether it is in the Shadow of Form or the Shadow of Perception, as long as we treat the issue from the perspective of the soul, we will come up with a clear conclusion, which is "judging everything instantly by the heart". This is not the judgment at the level of the mind. This is the judgment on the level of spiritual consciousness. It must be accurate. It is the answer given by the Creator.
Therefore, sometimes in the Shadow of Volition, there are some conditions that people can’t detect or are unaware of, and so unconsciously allow them to develop. They are manifested in the way that our behavior seems to go out of our control. Sometimes when we are working, we sing a song unconsciously. We are unaware of it. We are still working. Do you know? Although we are unaware of singing during working, the song is still being sung. We repeat a specific line or a particular song for a long time. The singing lasts a very long time.
As far as this is concerned, I have discussed the story of a man called Bao-chan. We took bus rides in a city. The whole trip took more than forty minutes. We changed a bus during the trip. He kept singing a line in the song "The Sound of Ocean Waves Is Still the Same", including when we got on another bus. He did not stop humming. Then, we walked to the entrance of a stairway. I thought I should stop him, otherwise it would be an uncivil thing. I yelled at him, "Bao-chan!". He replied, "Humph?" I said, "What did you just do?" He said, "What did I do?" I said, "You tell me what you have just done?" He said, "I didn’t do anything." I asked him, "Are you sure?" He asked me, "What did I just do?" I said, "Why do you want me to tell you what you have done? Don’t you know it yourself?" He said, "I don’t know." I said, "You were singing." He denied, "I was not." I said, "Look, I heard it." He said, "Look, don’t I know if I was singing or not?" His eyes opened up widely. I saw that, thinking that I should forget about it. He has sung for more than forty minutes, but he insisted that he did not sing. He was unaware of it. That kind of state is similar to sleepwalking. Do you know that? That is our Shadow of Volition. It is because our behavior is in a kind of regular rhythm but our consciousness is engaged in another kind of development at a different level. Do you understand? It means that what you think and what you do are two different kinds of things.
For example, we may think of a question while walking. We think that this problem is such and that problem is such. We do not pay attention to the road under our feet, or to how we walk. After entering into that state, we would be unaware of anyone who passes us, including someone we know. We concentrate on the contemplation of problems, and finish the walk unconsciously. Have you had this kind of experience? You don’t know whether your legs are walking, how you walk, or whether you have dropped something. Therefore when someone comes up to you and asks, "Alas, Did you see a purse?", you would reply, "What purse? I did not see it." "Weren’t you walking along the path?" "Right, I was walking along the path." "Along the path? You did not look at the road. What did you look at?" "Alas, it is true that I didn’t look at the road." "Who would believe that you didn’t look at the road while walking? Did you pick up the purse? Don’t say you didn’t look at the road. What did you look at?" Then you are unable to tell him what you have looked at because you don’t know what you have looked at. You don’t know who was seeing at that time, or who was walking at that time. That was because the partial activity of your body and the activity of your mind fell into two different aspects. Aye, your memory was in an unattended state.
When our memory is in an unattended state, what can it remember? The activity of the feet or the heart? For example, some people are used to sitting with their legs crossed and shaking the chair. It is a four-legged chair. The carpenter worked hard to make chairs. But these kinds of people sit on two legs and so only two legs of the chair land on the ground. Then, the chair squeaks, which sounds so painful. I get upset whenever I see this. The people of older generations criticize those who sit on two legs of a chair as having a low-down disposition. What is a low-down disposition? It is an off-balance mentality. The person’s mentality is unstable or not down-to-earth. It is not only that he likes to move. Therefore he may fall off the chair if he doesn’t control it well. The people beside him would feel very happy to see that. He should be made aware of his off-balance mentality through this kind of punishment. But he may not. He may return to that state of off-balance again. He still sits on two legs of a chair. Do you know? So this is called the illness of a low-down problem.
Some people also like to shake their legs, looking like having a spasm. They don’t know why they want to shake. If you slap him, he will be angry, "Why did you slap me?" "Why did you shake?" "I did not shake." Hey, he doesn’t know he was shaking. It seems a subconscious thing, or a kind of need. But he doesn’t know. When you see him shaking, or his legs shaking, doesn’t his face look like he is very pleased with himself or like that he has won some lottery? Do you know why? Do you know? That is the Shadow of Volition. At that time, his inner state of mind is in another kind of state. He is exhibiting another kind of emotion unconsciously. And his excitement carries the physiological characteristics of his previous lives. Have you seen a dog peeing? It only raises one leg. Do you understand? Dog! Some people will unconsciously manifest their animal characteristics of previous lives through a certain kind of symptom.
Sometimes, the acts of the Shadow of Volition are due to the highly imbalanced state of our mind and our body. At that time, Maya energy will take advantage of the chance to enter us. Do you follow me? Your body is rented. There is one who wants to use you as his tool and make you shake to exhibit its need. Do you understand? Sometimes it just uses one leg of yours, but you don’t know it. However, that leg is still attached to your body. Of course, this kind of utilization as well as the kind that the bodies of shamans are used by low-level living entities, which I discussed in the morning, are all due to a kind of unhealthy quality, and the unclean state of body, mind, and speech. Because of having this kind of disposition, one will be used by the living entities whose qualities are similar to his. Do you understand? That is how things go.
Therefore, it is a very strict thing to guard body, mind, and speech. It is very strict. Alas, this is the most difficult lesson for Buddhist cultivation. Therefore, form, perception, conception, volition, and consciousness are the remaining magnetic fields on the other side left by our behavior. Their power of influence can still be found in our present emotion, quality, and body, mind, and speech. They are manifested incessantly. Do you know? We can take advantage of these chances to examine ourselves.
Therefore, do not treat it as Brother Huang said. This thing is not so simple. It is absolutely not so simple. It is not only Brother Huang. Let me tell you that ninety nine point nine percent of the world’s population have not yet attained to the platform that Brother Huang assumed he had attained. Including Brother Huang, they are absolutely not on that platform. He said that he passed the test. No, it is absolutely not true. And he still has a long way to go. He needs to strive hard to attain to that platform. That platform is not so simple to attain as you guys talked about. It is boasting.
You may ask me, "Master, how do we transcend to that platform?" Alas, let me tell you. You won’t understand it even if I tell you now. The way you walk, work, eat, and all of the qualities you show represent whether you have achieved it. It is a composite index. It is absolutely not a single physiological manifestation. Absolutely not!
It is similar to the condition discussed by the crooked-mouth Brother Xue. I did not save his face at that time. Did you hear me? (Answer: Yes.) When he intended to exhibit his ugliness when asking questions, he was also exhibiting another kind of ugliness. Therefore I scolded him at that time. "You such a superficial man. You are exhibiting yourself. Do you think I don’t understand you? I want to dig out your subtlest roots!"
This lesson is not so simple. This lesson is absolutely not so simple! This lesson is a big fundamental lesson for spiritual cultivation. However, it is absolutely a crucial lesson. It can’t be solved by just adopting one kind of method, by the effort of a short time, or by just attending a lecture. No, it can’t. It needs penance. You may see that someone attains this kind of platform in a short time in this life. It is because he succeeded in the cultivation of higher level in his past lives! It will be achieved only after sufficient penance and cultivation of many lives in the past. Otherwise, it is absolutely impossible! Do not overlook this matter!
Brother Xue discussed his condition yesterday. Some of you were present; some weren’t. As this lecture is being taped, there is a little inconvenience to talk about it. Even the condition he discussed is an absurd viewpoint. Let me tell you. When our physical organs are in the state of desire, they may be manifested as exciting. However, it doesn’t mean that you are exhibiting desire at this manifestation. Don’t you see little male babies? After they were born, their penises are hard. Do they have desire? It is an erection! But they don’t have desire! Have you observed that? When they are held by their mothers, do you notice they hold their little fists tightly. Do you think they exert strength? Show me if you can do that! Now, are there any of you who still hold your fists tightly? Let’s see how long you can keep that! You will let go very soon. Do you believe it? But you can see the little babies holding their fists tightly day and night. Have you ever seen that? Do you think they exert strength? Their erection doesn’t represent desire. It has nothing to do with desire. Do you understand? After passing this lesson, no matter how young you are, or in whichever state you are, your physiological mechanism may be manifested as in the state of desire, but your psychological mechanism is not in this kind of state. And your physiological mechanism absolutely doesn’t have this kind of need either. Do you understand? It is not like what Brother Xue discussed. He was bullshitting!
Some of the young cultivators can’t observe themselves in their dreams. When it is gradually approaching the dawn, which is from 11p.m. to 5a.m., our energy becomes more and more active. Why did I urge you to get up and meditate? It is because when the daytime is approaching, which is after 11p.m., our energy will gradually get active. Then this kind of manifestation of life energy will activate our physiology and turn it into an active and exciting state. Due to the unclean state of our body, mind and speech, this kind of reserved life energy will be used to exhibit the unclean state of the daytime in the Shadow of Perception, which is like the performance of a puppet show. Do you understand? Are you clear? The show is like what was discussed by Brother Huang.
However, at a certain stage, your sexual organ may be erect but you are not in a dream. The state of your dream is still clean. You do not feel the erection. You don’t have the sensation of desire. Nor do you have desire in your dream. Let me tell you. A person with clean body, mind and speech, although in the state of erection, doesn’t have any sexual desire, regardless of being awake or asleep. What I am saying is true. If you don’t believe it, you can ask Wu-lai about whether he has ever been in this kind of state. Of course, it doesn’t mean that he does not have any sexual desire. That’s not it. Do you understand? But sometimes when you have an erection, you don’t have sexual desire while at other times you may have.
Some of the older cultivators have found that their physiology was reversed. Alas, this kind of thing is possible, including the occurrence of sexual desire. This is not a bad thing. This is a good thing. It is truly a very good thing that you should be happy about. With your withered body, if there is no postnatal energy, isn’t it a lie to talk about perfecting yourself in this life? Can it work? To perfect yourself in this life has to use postnatal energy. What can the people today use if they don’t use postnatal energy? They have to use both their prenatal and postnatal energies.
People today are heavily tied up with material. How do their bodies collapse? How do their bodies deteriorate? Isn’t it due to the dispersion of postnatal energy? In terms of the reversal process, it is a lie to say that they don’t have to use postnatal energy to achieve liberation. That is bullshit! Regardless of whichever lineage or method of spiritual cultivation, remember that you can’t succeed if you just cultivate the mind but not also the body. It won’t work for people today to just cultivate their minds without physical practice. It will be futile when you get old if you just cultivate the mind without physical practice. However, if you just cultivate "life" but not also "nature", no matter how much effort you put into the practice, it won’t work. Do you understand?
The people of ancient times and of the Age of Gold spent almost all their time in meditation. Their life expectancy was a hundred thousand years. Most of their lives were spent in meditation. It is different from us who spend most of our time in making a living. Even though they spent a lot of time in meditation and one meditation lasted a thousand years or ten thousand years, they couldn’t become liberated if they didn’t receive instructions from a spiritual master. Do you understand? With the instruction from a spiritual master, the people at that time hardly needed meditation. All of them could become free right away because they were very clean. Their reliance on material and their desires were very light. They were not like the people today.
However, when it came to the Age of Iron, people’s mores had been rusted. They are heavily dependent on material. Can we still talk about that we don’t need to use postnatal energy? When one’s postnatal energy doesn’t return, it means one is still losing his energy and can’t gather his life energy. It proves that his body, mind and speech are still unclean, his morality is not re-furnished, and he has not returned to the simple and genuine primordial state. What can we talk about? Those schools or religious groups with precepts can’t produce an enlightened person within several tens or hundreds of years, not even to speak about the groups that don’t observe precepts. They talk about that it is not this or it is that. That is all bullshitting. It won’t work!
Therefore, in order to succeed in this life, one must take the path of dual cultivation—of mind and body. Success is absolutely impossible without physical practice. It is also absolutely impossible to succeed by just cultivating the body. Therefore the attainment of Dharma is to obtain both practices—one refers to the mystic body postures; the other refers to the confidential practice of the mind, transmitted by the heart and instructed by the mouth. You must obtain both practices. It won’t work if you just obtain one of them.
As far as the various methods of physical cultivation today, including Buddhist methods, are concerned, if there is no "practice of added effect" in the body postures of a specific practice, this practice doesn’t underline the use of postnatal energy. The teachings of that spiritual master won’t lead to enlightenment. This kind of method won’t produce any enlightened person. If what he teaches is the lesson of enlightenment, which can help you become liberated in this life but not how you will be after you die, he must be able to keep you with him, track your behavior, and take responsibility for your success. It is impossible for you to obtain Dharma if you have never seen your spiritual master. That will be only a teacher. What he teaches will only be a basic method or an ordinary method! If you don’t believe it, you can try to cultivate that kind of method and see how long it takes for you to get enlightened. Look around and judge whether those who transmit this kind of method to you are enlightened people. Of course, it doesn’t mean that the spiritual master is not an enlightened person. But he may transmit other methods to his personal disciples. You may not know those. If we can’t see the spiritual master in person or can’t obtain those kinds of methods, it won’t work. We can only cultivate preparatory lessons. It is still far from taking the true lessons.
You will obtain liberation whenever you are enlightened. Without enlightenment, there is no liberation. Perhaps you will get a key. However, that key is not equal to the lock. You can’t mistake a key for a lock. Have you found that key? Can you open all locks with one key? Is that true? How do you know whether the key works? You must find the lock and try it! If it can open the lock, it is the right key; if not, it is not. What do you think it is? What do you think it is? What do you think you have obtained? This is the principle!
Dharma is not so simple. Ancient people were willing to sacrifice their bodies to attain Dharma, or to sacrifice their lives to attain Dharma. I would like to ask the people today what they have sacrificed to get Dharma. If you can get it easily, what kind of Dharma is that? Is that fair? Isn’t it a lie to delude people? If Dharma is similar to a kid’s game, aren’t Buddha relics equal to donkey’s poop? Is that true? It is a big lie. That’s not the truth. You can think it over.
Therefore, even if the people today encounter a spiritual master, not to mention that most of them won’t encounter one, they can’t understand his words. If they don’t understand his words, he doesn’t have time to play a zither to a cow. If he is transmitting a method of immediate enlightenment in this life, he can’t teach a lot of disciples. He can have a lot of students but he absolutely can’t teach many disciples, because he can’t track the behavior of a lot of people.
Some say that it can be achieved by the energy of Transformed-body or by inner energy. Don’t lie. To a non-awakened soul, can inner potency work? If the inner potency can work, the Creator has it. His potency is much more powerful than any spiritual master, right? Think it over. Why does He want to send people down? Why does He send people down to transmigrate to human form? Isn’t it very contradicting? The Creator can just do it from his throne, right? It is because it won’t work!
Look at Milarepa. He achieved Buddhahood in his present life. How many disciples who accompanied Milarepa’s spiritual master made the same achievement? You can read the Biography of Master Milarepa. How many of his disciples succeeded in their immediate lives? Have you read the book, "Living with Himalayan Masters"? That Swami Rama took refuge in fifty-one spiritual masters. They only taught one disciple to succeed. It is our imagination that the attainment of Dharma is similar to digging out peanuts. Humph?
It is not easy to obtain Dharma. The people today delude themselves with the mentality that they can buy things at lowest prices. If Dharma is so cheap, what is the worth of it? Execution is the standard to examine Truth.
Therefore, any modern person will be fortunate if he can encounter a spiritual master, and the master wants to transmit to him all the practices that can lead to liberation. It must be done by the approval of the spiritual master, but it is not that the person can get whatever he wants. If he can unify himself with all of the feelings of the spiritual master and gain favor by the master, he can then obtain the transmission. This is called "association"! If you reserve your feelings and make requests to the spiritual master based on your own standpoint, he is unable to give you anything. He won’t even talk about what he wants to give you. He won’t discuss anything. He just shuts up his mouth. Do you understand? Do not be the person with a one-sided wish. You will be wasting your time. Even though you have seen the master in person, it won’t work. It also won’t work even if you accompany him all the time.
Didn’t I discuss the story of Two Potatoes? Master Marpa was the spiritual master of Swami Rama. Marpa was an enlightened spiritual master with great achievements. He taught both Swami Rama and the person "who ate two potatoes". Don’t you know that? The person who ate the potatoes accompanied him for eleven years, but he was still a student. You think that it must work if one sees a spiritual master personally. However, this person saw his spiritual master everyday, and still couldn’t become a disciple. What is the good of it? He wouldn’t be enlightened in his immediate life. Do you understand? It was because he was not faithful! Therefore, many enlightened people have difficulty saving their spouses or all of their kin! It is easy to save other people. Some people see their spiritual master everyday. But what is the benefit of it?
It is very important to have this kind of association. The foundation of this association is your feeling. When you have adjusted your feeling to an extent that you completely take refuge in your spiritual master, you won’t have room to think about other things. Your mind, body, and speech will be naturally clean. You don’t have to talk about taking refuge. You will automatically take refuge in him because you no longer think about anything else. Do you know? You will be naturally clean. When we focus on a certain thing, we don’t notice other things. Did we discuss the five aggregates, didn’t we? This is how things go. As we are used to be absent-minded, our body and mind are separated. They are not in harmony or unification. When we are busy in taking care of this, we lose something else. But when we are in full concentration, our six senses won’t drift away. Do you understand? There is no way for them to be detracted!
Therefore, taking refuge with body, mind, and speech is not just a phrase to recite. Constantly guard your body, mind, and speech! How do you guard them? Would they be guarded by just reciting, "constantly guard body, mind, and speech, constantly guard body, mind, and speech"? Similarly, when someone says "I will repeat chanting "master, master", does that mean he remembers his master? Who knows if you have feeling for him or not? While your mouth is repeating the name of your spiritual master, where is your feeling? Your feeling should be attached to your spiritual master. Is your heart truly touched by him? Do you really believe in him? Does your heart truly have the absolute confidence in him?
The moment that any cultivator has absolute confidence in his spiritual master will be the moment of his enlightenment. Do you understand? If this thing is not done, the moment of enlightenment or the chance of enlightenment will never occur. As you don’t trust the Creator, will it work when you pray to Him? You have never believed in the Creator. Do you know that Little Yu who came here last year? Why didn’t I like this kid? She got a fatal disease and looked dying. She asked me to cure her illness. I told her, "The illness can be cured. Yet how much money have you spent to cure the illness, and what treatments haven’t you tried? Why couldn’t the illness be cured? Now you got an idea to come here to cure your illness. Therefore I want to tell you that the Creator won’t cure someone who doesn’t trust Him." She told me that she believed in the Creator. A day later, she told me that she lied to me, she just wanted her illness to be cured, and she didn’t believe in the Creator. Can this person’s illness be cured? Is that right? That’s how things go.
When you are not wholehearted to your spiritual master, or you are not one hundred percent in accord with your spiritual master, how do you obtain the essence of his lineage? Can you understand what he discusses? If you think differently from him, can you understand his words based on your own feeling? Right? Does that make sense? You will never obtain his Dharma. You are listening to him here. However, each listener has a different mind, and hears a different story. Each one will understand a different thing. Do you believe it?
Therefore, the work of constantly guarding body, mind, and speech depends on how we adjust our relationship with our spiritual master. This is the most crucial lesson. This lesson is always the only and most important lesson for all spiritual cultivators! Other than this is not that important! It is because you will have everything if you have this! (Applause.) One who still doesn’t understand this issue is an idiot. Do you understand?
The heart will follow whatever we think. We had better think of our spiritual master. Therefore, when we think of him everyday, it is likely for us to think of him at the time of death. If we don’t think of him everyday, it is unlikely to think of him at the time of death. The time of death is the decisive moment. However, it depends on the effort we put into our daily life. Whatever we regard as the most important thing in our daily life will be the most important thing at the time of death. If one regards a saving book as the most important thing in his daily life, his eyes would keep open at the time of death, because he wants to but can’t tell where he hides the saving book. Do you know? He would be thinking of that problem. And he hopes that you can figure this out. If you say it right, he will close his eyes. Do you understand? Alas, it is like that! The last thought at the time of death is the thought that you have nurtured in your entire lifetime, and that your feelings in the entire life have been attached to. Do not have the idea of leaving it to luck.
I must clarify this to you. A lot of kinsmen of Buddhas were not saved! Do you know a person called Maudyalyaayana? I would like to suggest to you not to be fooled by Dharma. Dharma doesn’t lie to people but you use Dharma to fool yourself. These examples that I have discussed are provided to you as the foundation on which you can recognize the "living" Truth, not the "dead" Truth. Maudyalyaayana was one of the ten great disciples of Sakyamuni. He had attained the spiritual status of Swami. However, what happened to his mother? Didn’t she go to hell and become a hungry ghost? "When a man attains the Way, nine generations of his paternal and maternal relatives will rise to heaven." However, only Maudyalyaayana’s mother couldn’t rise to heaven. She even couldn’t transmigrate to human form. She could not be saved even though Maudyalyaayana asked Sakyamuni to help her. Do you know the story behind the service performed on July 15 for the repose of a dead person? Isn’t it originated from Maudyalyaayana’s intention to save his mother? He asked all the monks to help him. This story has passed down till today. It is not only a fiction. It was a true story.
When a man attains Buddhahood, his relatives who had passed away did not know that he would attain Buddhahood in the immediate life. Therefore there is no reason for them to resent him or not to resent him. Do you know? Then, during their transmigration on other destines, if a descendant of theirs attains Buddhahood, they will be all saved, because they are within the previous and later four generations. However, the present generation is different. I mean the relatives who live with him. If any of them is hostile to a Buddha or slander a Buddha, he won’t be saved. He will even go to hell, even though this person may be the mother of the Buddha. Do you understand?
Alas, do not think it can work just to be the relative of a Buddha? There are a lot of foes among the relatives. Previous and posterior generations don’t have this problem because they won’t feel superior to or have conflicts with a Buddha. Therefore they can be saved. Thus, anyone, including my relatives, should not feel lucky or superior. You must ask yourself whether you place me in your heart and whether you trust me. Do not lie to yourself. Otherwise it would be too late at the time of death.
We need to clarify this in advance. I don’t lie to you in the lesson of Bhagavad-gita. We have promised this to each other since the beginning, right? The only requirement is that we don’t lie. We must be honest in the proceeding of a true lesson. True is true and false is false. If you don’t want to talk, you don’t have to talk. As long as you talk, you need to be honest, right? Talk it through! This is called the lesson of Bhagavad-gita, a saintly lesson. When a saint vs. a saint, even if they may talk about ugliness, it is also beautiful! Do not try to hide anything! Do you know? O.K. I discussed today how to examine our dreams, as well as how to guard our body, mind, and speech. To sum up, there is a solution. Did you remember? That is if you want to control your body, mind, and speech, the most convenient method is to associate with your spiritual master and take shelter in your spiritual master with all your feelings. You have to do it. You have to execute it. The spiritual master does not need you. It is you who need this. Do you understand? It is your own business if you want to lie to me. It is not my business. What I need to do is only that when you are honest, I will give all you want to you; if you don’t want it or you are not honest, I won’t give anything to you. Then it is over. Do you understand?
Everyone was interested in the way the lesson was held last night. Do you have any more questions today? If so, I will answer you right away, O.K.?
Brother Guo asked, "I clearly knew the dream when I was in the dream. I also could remember it when I just woke up. However, after a while, or in the daytime, that kind of clearness turned into vagueness. I could no longer remember the dream." In fact that kind of dream you don’t have to remember because it is unnecessary to remember it. Some of our dreams are in an illusory state; some are not. Of course, those dreams that are not in an illusory state are based on our natural and truthful qualities in the daytime. Due to that truthfulness, some Buddha or Bodhisattva may give us a test to check whether or not we are in a perplexed state. If we are not, they will then give us a private lesson in our dreams. When you wake up, he won’t let you discuss the lesson that you received in your dream. So don’t worry whether or not you remember it. It is not in your brain. The programs of your brain do not store that. Your mouth is not reliable. So he won’t allow you to talk about it. That is called "the mystic yoga system". Do you know? Do not think that all the lessons have to be taught by the mouth. When a lesson needs to be taught without, it will be taught without; when it needs to be taught within, it will be taught within. Doesn’t the Creator know the word "appropriate"? Does He need you to teach Him that? At this time, many lessons are manifested within you. When you wake up, you no longer know them or understand them. Those lessons have been held. Do you understand? Those are true things. Those constitute nearly all the lessons that we truly receive. (Master laughed.)
All of our efforts in the daytime are not the necessities of cultivating Buddhism. Remember those (the efforts in the daytime) are just preparation. We obtain inner lessons (in our sleep) based on those (preparation). When we can maintain unpolluted in the daytime, we can then obtain this kind of lessons. Do you understand? Alas! Is this clear?
Therefore, even though I personally and quietly repeat adjusting everyone into a harmonious state, it may fail. Then, I have to scold you. You will be alert, chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha. Alas, when your karma is eliminated, I will grab the chance to preach. You may say, "I understood it at that time. But later on, I can’t remember anything." Right, that’s it! You won’t remember anything. Do you understand? Is it right? Are you like that? Let me tell you. You heard the discussion in a certain lecture. At an instant moment in the lecture I adjusted you to the most suitable state. Then, when you try to hear it again by playing the tape, you are no longer able to talk about anything and don’t have the exact perception that you had at that time. If someone else listens to the tape, it won’t be as effective to him as to you who were there listening to me and looking at my eyes. However, if you have listened to my lecture in person in a well-adjusted state, when you listen to the tape of the lecture again with a peaceful mind, you will find the aftertaste so wonderful. So beautiful!
Those, who were not present, can’t get this kind of feeling and may feel that it is not so attractive. They can only listen to it based on their level. Their level has not been baptized. Their karma has not been cleansed. Therefore their spiritual consciousness may be covered up so that they can’t hear the spiritual consciousness in it and can’t receive the spiritual power. Do you understand? That’s how things go. Therefore, the opportunities in front of your eyes are the most important. They are the most important.
What is this kind of thing for? Do you know? The purpose of this kind of thing is: once you understand it, you can transmit it to your disciples afterwards. When you adjust them to a harmonious state, my energy can then become effective. Did you hear that? Otherwise how can it work? It is provided to you for the purpose of executing this mission. Do you understand? At that time you may say, "When the master was giving this lecture, I was there, and the situation was like that." Oh, that kind of effect can be very powerful! Then, everyone will be…Alas, their hearts will rise with such a high-level faith! In a short moment, O.K., they will be all filled with it. Do you understand? I provide these historic texts to you as your evidence, as the evidence of your views, to help them develop faith. That’s what it is for! I have put that into you. Do not be attached to this external one. Do you understand? This one is still alive, which is manifested as an external thing. This is a living spiritual master. If you are not interested in him, why do you offer things to "it" everyday? Silly goose! Do you understand?