My karma for learning Buddhism -- my good teachers

(Photo source: Dabu Culture Photography: Miaoqing)

1、 Start

"Hello, I'm Sabrina, the host".

In business dinners, annual meetings of the company, new product launches or summit forums, I will use this sentence to start my hosting work today. Yes, I am a host. As a host, it seems that all the beautiful people will come to me with enthusiasm, especially in Shanghai, where Hang Lung, the Bund, BFC, Xintiandi, Sinan Mansion These gorgeous and retro buildings, exquisite and westernized decorations will let any young girl fall, including me of course. At this time, I don't recall the past, don't think about the future, just live for all the beautiful things piled up at this moment.

I think my life story should be like the characters written in "Small Times" or "The Great Gatsby". Every day, I simply think about whether my lace fishtail dress tonight should be equipped with bright diamond pointed heels or pearl strap heels, and then spend my life with some unnecessary literary sorrow.

In this way, I can enjoy myself as soon as possible. I have long been intoxicated with the wine making in Shanghai at night, pushing my cup and changing it, singing and dancing. However, I am not a person without awareness. When all the splendor fades, I will also feel panic because of the emptiness and loneliness lurking in the bottom of my heart. Of course, I know that all beauties are temporary. When I took off my makeup and put on my heavy velvet pajamas and big cotton slippers to take delivery, I was the same as thousands of Shanghai drifters and all ordinary people living. In the vast universe, under the endless river of time, I was silent and insignificant.

I will also ask myself what I really want. In such a short life dream, what I really want to get is enough to support my impulse to pay all my enthusiasm, even at all costs. I think it is not the host, so I did not enter the enviable TV station that I could have gone to, nor was it rich. So I did not choose to stay in Los Angeles, To be together with a blind date who could have married in this regard for a long time, I can't even try to understand what kind of life I have to live in order to make myself feel stable and comfortable forever.

Until one sober night, I met the Dharma.

What kind of night was it? It was peaceful and serene. There was no disturbance from the wind. The chirping of insects in summer seemed to disappear on the spot, which restored Shanghai to the most calm and peaceful side. I lay in bed, looking at the ceiling in the dark, my thoughts floating in an ethereal corner. Suddenly, there was a strong sense of loss. The alarm bell fell on my heart, making me feel a kind of inexplicable yearning and regret. I had no clue about the appearance of such a feeling, so I had to leave it alone to grieve, but I had to work with it at the same time, so I also felt sad with the sadness. After a period of time, this feeling suddenly left, and everything returned to the usual scene. The night was still calm as usual, and I just lay in bed silently, emptying with the darkness in the room.

I don't know why. I don't feel lonely. I don't miss anyone, and I don't regret anything. Why does such a loss suddenly invade my world. I felt really strange, and immediately began to toss up strange ideas in my mind. I turned over and over, thinking about every possibility. However, at this time, few sober people suddenly thought that such a clear boundary with my emotions would, most likely, be a piece of memory left over from a previous life.

I immediately opened my mobile phone, hurriedly knocked down the words of "previous life" and "reincarnation" in Zhihu, trying to find some unknown and mysterious answers. The light from the mobile phone screen was very bright in the late night, shining my eyes a bit dry. When I read the stories of those who experienced how they were legendary and connected with the imprints of previous lives as if they were novels, But I didn't feel that it was a compilation to cheat traffic, but I felt very familiar because of such a straightforward and sincere statement.

I read their stories about reincarnation and the past life excitedly and nervously: there are younger generation who are eager to meet the deceased relatives, because they recite the mantra to get the dream of the deceased; Have found their newborn babies with birthmarks of previously raised pets; There are young college students who are hit by fortune telling on the street and find that their fate seems to have been arranged for a long time

I slept very little that night.

In the days to come, I will often learn about these stories in these topics. There is no need for embellishment, no need for rhetoric, no need for beautiful writing or rich rhetoric. In these straightforward stories, there is a reasonable but mysterious plot of life. I carefully read my own record and suddenly summed up a rule, All the possible turning points in these stories are because they found Buddhism.

2、 Bodhisattva

I believe in Buddhism, but I have never thought about everything about Buddhism. To be exact, I just remembered Guanyin Bodhisattva when I was alert to danger.

When I was very young, there was a statue of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva in my home. It was finely carved, beautifully colored, sitting solemnly, with a peaceful and peaceful face. The low eyebrows and eyes seemed to perceive all the joys and sorrows in the world, but also showed a kind and benevolent spirit that could not bear to be detailed.

I learned from the TV play, one worship, two worship, three worship, and begged Guanyin Bodhisattva to let my father never go home for dinner at night. The score from today's math exam really embarrassed me. An unknown storm may come at any time. I desperately begged the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, banging my head with no other distractions in my heart. I only hoped that my eight year old self would be safe tonight.

Now for a long time, I can't remember how I survived those nights when my score was low. But roughly speaking, when I was young, my father always seemed to be entertaining outside, so I avoided many dangers. So my heart is full of gratitude to Avalokitesvara.

After nearly 20 years, when I looked at the stories of one experienced person in Zhihu telling about his perception of the past life and reincarnation because of Buddhism, a layer of consciousness in his heart suddenly opened, and I suddenly realized that Guanyin Bodhisattva really exists. Since it does exist, where can I find her?

3、 Motivation of learning Buddhism

So, the idea of looking for Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, which sounds reckless and second to none, was the first motivation for me to learn Buddhism three years ago. When I was a child, I watched "Nezha Making Trouble in the Sea". Nezha came back from the dead and ran away to Taiyi Immortal. The picture was profound and the scene was moving. Guanyin Bodhisattva was in my heart, just like Nezha's master and apprentice, who were so kind and dependent. I began to inquire about the place where Guanyin Bodhisattva lived, whether it was the purple bamboo forest or something else.

I soon learned the answer. Thanks to the convenience of the Internet, I soon learned about Longxuemai clearly. Guanyin Bodhisattva now lives in the Western Blissful Pure Land. In fact, he has already become a Buddha. He is called Zhengfa Ming Tathagata, who fills his position after Amitabha, and is called Puguang Gongde Mountain King Tathagata. At the same time, I also learned that the world we live in, located at the bottom of Xumi Mountain, belongs to the Wuzhuo Evil Age, that is, Nanzhan Island of the four major continents. Being able to hear Buddhism is the most significant advantage compared with the other three major continents.

From samsara to three generations of cause and effect, from impermanence to vegetarianism, from provision to fortune, from giving, precepts, humiliation, diligence, meditation to the gathering and dissemination, branches and circulation of Buddhist scriptures, I have some clear context foundation. I felt extremely excited because I recognized such a world, but just like reading the story of Zhihu reincarnation before, I quickly accepted these seemingly mysterious and mysterious information and thought it should be so.

The rearrangement of all cognitive structures forced me to fall into another meditation. It was an unknown mystery that human beings have been tracing back and exploring since ancient times and seemed to have solved at the end of space and time in the universe. It was also an ultimate problem that puzzled me for a long time, but was forced to forget for many years because of my studies and trivia. That was, where I was born, Where to die.

I began to understand the composition, system and solution of life and death from Buddhism, which is a huge work, and I even don't know how to start. After a while, I heard some Buddhist scriptures and modern Buddhist books, read them eagerly and quickly, and soon I found the answer. The only answer is Pure Land Dharma.

It is known as the Pure Land World "surpassing all Buddhist lands in the world of ten directions". Of course, there is a more authoritative and accurate description in the Buddhist scriptures: "All Dharmas, incarnations and changes among all Buddhas in the Ten Directions of the Dharma are from the Infinite Life and Blissful World."

4、 Confused

The ultimate goal of learning Buddhism is not to have a happy family, to have future generations and to change one's mind. However, when many people talk about Buddhism, it seems that it is limited to this. It seems that Buddhism is to make their lives smoother.

However, in the Buddhist scriptures, it is clearly said that all actions, such as dreams, bubbles and shadows, dew and electricity, should be observed as such; Clearly, I said that the law of karma is like lightning, because of reason, there are various karma; It is said clearly that Bodhisattva sees desire, like avoiding fire pit; Bodhisattva sees greed, like avoiding miasma sea; As I said, love is like burning a torch against the wind.

At that time, I also felt confused for a long time during a year of studying Buddhism.

At the beginning of 2019, I began to eat vegetarian and recite Buddhism, determined to embark on a path of life and death, and made a permanent farewell to my past self. Ignoring everyone's surprise, I changed from a showy hostess with different hair colors from time to time to a converted Buddhist disciple who held a long string of Buddhist beads and ordered food with a bunch of rules (no onions, onions, meat, garlic, and eggs and leeks!).

I began to frequently go in and out of the temple and participate in all the good deeds I could know, such as releasing life, offering lights and building the temple. I donated most of my money. I seemed very busy, but there were too many places to help. My ability was very limited, even if I donated a large amount of money, it would be a drop in the bucket in front of a charity project.

I gradually felt confused, and at the same time, the knowledge and opinions of various opinions on the Internet made me fall into an unprecedented dilemma. Today, someone said that you should recite the incantation of so and so, and you will achieve great success; Tomorrow, someone will say that we should work hard to feed so that all living beings can be satisfied; The day after tomorrow, someone said that the golden sand would be sown to make the deceased free from pain and happiness

It seems that I have become a running tool, not producing insight, but a knowledgeable porter, running from one end of a crowd to the other, and from the other end of a crowd to the other, Running around, nothing is gained. I don't know what it is. It's called practice 。

I clearly know that I have not taken any real step in front of my ultimate life problems. I have no assurance of life and death, nor the support of Buddhist wisdom. Once I miss this world, the road to rebirth will be long, and I will be doomed.

I felt anxious because of the thick barrier with which I could not start with the Buddha Dharma. My troubles were still surging, and my life and death were still nowhere to be found. I didn't know what the problem was. I felt that I had done everything, but I couldn't reach the answer I wanted. The answer seems to be close at hand, but it seems that it is unreachable. I am like a man who tries his best to plunder the air from high into his pocket. From a distance, I can only feel that this man is jumping and bustling, but he is just tired and has nothing to gain at the same time.

5、 Good knowledge teacher

In the winter of 2019, I returned to my hometown from Shanghai for the Spring Festival. During the outbreak of the epidemic, people were terrified, and my community was forbidden to go out. I began to focus more on searching for Buddhist content, trying to find some clearer answers. Suddenly one day, I found an article and clicked it. The words in the article were very sincere, and there were earnest exhortations between the lines. The content pointed out the mistakes that many current mages said about knowledge and vision, and at the same time, all kinds of revelations about money distribution and great virtues of the founder were quoted everywhere. The most important thing is that this article is about life and death, and it is about real practice, It has nothing to do with wealth, nor with children, nor with the people's heavenly blessing that all people are crying for. It is just saying that Buddhism itself.

I felt extremely happy, and carefully read several other articles. The contents written in them are very consistent with the Buddhist scriptures, emphasizing the suffering of the five desires, the difficulties of love roots, and people chasing the world's vanity, running against the truth forever These are the principles that I can only see from the Buddhist scriptures. It seems that modern Buddhists seldom talk about them. After all, the words frequently used by everyone are "blessing", "victory" and "merit".

I quickly read another two or three articles. Although I felt extremely precious and rare, I was slightly afraid. This is an article written by a monk mage. The title seems to be a bit harsh, pointing out many mistakes in current knowledge.

I carefully added the WeChat message that Shifu left on the public account, asked Shifu many questions, and displayed all the previous puzzles one by one. From feeding questions to various spells, from golden sand questions to death quilts, Shifu answered patiently and concisely. I promised thoughtfully that my confusion still seemed unsolved, and it seemed that I could try to add some extended questions to the rest of the pause.

In the silence, Master said that he would go to see Master Yin Guang's Wen Qian, which contains detailed information. I know the "Engraving Master Wen Qian". I once read the electronic version of "Engraving Master Jing Hua Lu" with the Kindle. Because I felt awkward with the words of the Republic of China, I struggled and slowly, so my subconscious and master reasoned that I could not understand it. In my subconscious, it is obvious that the modern vernacular of the public account is more convenient and easy to understand. Master then said, how can college students not understand it? Just read it slowly. If you want to see it, you should buy a paper version and be respectful.

Because of this encouragement, I immediately placed an order for a book, and then searched the video page of the teachings shared by Shifu in the circle of friends, clicked in, and found that Shifu had already told a lot of scriptures, including more than 100 episodes of "Four Commentaries on the Sutra", "Amitabha Sutra Money Dispelling", as well as "Longshu Pure Land Text", "Path in the Path", and "Persuading Bodhi Heart Text" And more than 20 classic lectures.

I selected the "Chanting Buddha and Possessing Devil Debate" written by Master Sheng'an with the least number of episodes. There were only four episodes. Then I wrote down all kinds of words that Master said in my notebook solemnly and joyfully. In the propaganda video, Master explained the key points listed by the master of the provincial nunnery, stating the numerous obstacles and difficulties that practitioners will encounter, how to distinguish them and how to deal with them, analyzing them layer by layer, in simple terms, clear and incisive.

I felt the whole person suddenly enlightened.

In the days to come, I began to listen carefully and orderly to the scriptures, listen to the Dharma, calm down, and carefully read the various books recommended by the founder Dade. This is obviously different from the "modern Buddhism" I have been exposed to in the past. All words reveal the key points of life and death so accurately. It turns out that the end of good law is not the end, and there is no need to be persistent in the world:

You see, when he was old and ill, and when he was young and idle, he had something to worry about. He could not recite Buddhism for a long time. How could he be on his deathbed? What's more, you are a fool. If you say such nonsense, you will surely misuse your body and mind! And the business in the world is like a dream, like a dream, like a shadow, like a sound, which one is effective? Which one can replace life and death? If you spare no efforts to create Jialan, increase your permanent residence, seek fame and position, and make connections with officials, you will be called to do more good deeds, but you have never known that you have violated the Buddha's precepts of "not practicing Tao and creating Jialan". Don't you see the saying: "There are many mistakes and achievements. Heaven is not over, hell is the first place, life and death are not clear, all become bitter. When you look down and suffer, you will know that what you have done in your life is just adding shackles to the shackles, adding locks to the locks, adding firewood to the soup in the wok, and helping swords and spears on the sword tree. If you lose your body under the cassock, there will be no recovery. When an iron man hears about it, he will also cry!"

You have been practicing Zen all your life, and you have never understood Zen. It is easy to see teaching, and teaching is unknown. So far, your thoughts have not died. You have to say a few words of Zen, say a few words of teaching, write a few words, and do a few poems. There are four ways to read, the ancestral way to remember, and three ways to learn. Glancing at your emotion, you are locked in a thousand robberies. But you have no decision, and you have many feelings. Therefore, there are many ends and interruptions in mindfulness. However, the heart of interruptions in mindfulness is also the three ways of locking.

——Master Tianruweize's Pure Land or Question

"The only thing that can be saved is the fame, the benefit, the sweet love for soft thieves, and the anger and anger. Although there is Buddha power, there is no way to save it. A traveler should make great efforts to stop it."

——Master Miaoye

There are many, many, many, so profound and straightforward words, which enlighten my wandering heart. My previous perplexities were solved, and the lingering mysteries were opened one after another. "All living beings have the wisdom and virtue of the Tathagata, and can't be proved because of delusions of separation", "All living beings come from nowhere, lose their own mind for things, lose their original heart, and are turned by things, so we can see the big and see the small", "Bodhisattva's cool moon, often travel, after all, is empty; all living beings have a clean heart, and Bodhi is in the middle", The path of practice is no longer a castle in the air. Once again, I made a permanent farewell to my past self, and moved forward quickly and step by step towards the bright future.

Now, I have read a lot of works of the great virtue of the founder that could only be seen from afar, If I have to say something in summary, I will only hope that you can go on your own Yes, the unprecedented firmness raised by finding the answer 。 When the tiny self questions the boundless universe about birth and death, it turns out that there will be a response between the sky; When the dusty self inquired into the long river of history about how the world moves, whether there is an end to life and death, and what is the meaning of everything in reincarnation, the benevolent has already written the answer for us.

These answers are in books, silently presenting the truth for all living beings. Although they are silent, they are the clairvoyant cries of all things when they sleep deeply; It is only a small space, but it also has vast mercy to break the edge of the world. When the world is prosperous, it is all for profit; The world is bustling, all for profit. When you are trapped in a trap and cannot extricate yourself from it, and when you are obsessed with lust and glory and mistakenly think that it is permanent, remember that the words fixed in the book always want to break all this impermanence for you.

I am very grateful to my Shifu. It is Shifu's insistence on promoting Buddhism for more than ten years that has helped me find my way home. It is Shifu's efforts to break down evil and show righteousness for more than ten years that have helped me understand the true face of Buddhism.

The thorns of my desire on the path of practice have been pointed out for me by Shifu. I will still move forward carefully, but also with extremely firm faith and courage. On this bright road, I will walk calmly and die without regret. Although there are thousands of people, I will also go. (Text/Sabrina picture/Miaoqing)