Teaching on the Heart Sutra, Part 2

Did you all bring the Heart Sutra I gave you last time?The blank space below is for your notes, because the Heart Sutra I teach is not quite the Heart Sutra you hear everywhere else.Mine is the Heart Sutra of practice, so it carries more imagery.It is different from the one everybody recites aloud.Recited aloud, it does one thing.When you actually turn it into your own self, when you set it inside yourself, it does something else.That is why it is called the Heart Sutra: the sutra that sits in the heart.It is the condensed essence of the whole Diamond Sutra.The great Prajñāpāramitā literature runs to more than 800 fascicles.Condensed, that becomes the Diamond Sutra.And the condensation of the Diamond Sutra is the Heart Sutra.So it is condensed, and then condensed again.

I want to get you into this state quickly.Because no matter how many sutras there are, you could not finish reading them in a lifetime.The Tripiṭaka has 108 sections.You could not finish it in many lifetimes.And even if you did, so what?First, you would not understand the meaning.Second, the Tripiṭaka comes in a Tibetan translation and a Chinese translation.The Chinese tradition, of course, comes down to us through Master Xuanzang.The Tibetan tradition has its own condensed collection, translated into Tibetan.So nowadays lamas perform Tripiṭaka rituals.Sometimes they practice for 108 days, sometimes 108 lamas practice it together, which is the bigger version.Sometimes a Tripiṭaka ritual takes a month, sometimes three months, until all 108 sections have been recited.

But I keep saying this about all practice: we do not have many lifetimes of reincarnation to spare, and this one lifetime is not enough time for practice either.So if you put all your ambition into chanting sutras or reading sutras, I think that is slow.Sutrayāna basically takes a long road.To become a buddha through Sutrayāna is hard, very hard, extremely hard.It takes many tens of thousands of kalpas, practically tens of thousands of years of accumulation, to slowly transform and go beyond the ordinary into the sacred.Look at all the abbots of all the big mountain temples in Taiwan, the professional monks and nuns, professional renunciates.They cannot practice properly.Business is busy, chores are many.Running a mountain temple is not so simple.A big temple has many people and lots of money, so you will never go into retreat to cultivate your inner life.There are too many worldly affairs.So the temple is huge, the scriptures are many, the believers are many, but nobody attains realization.

Śākyamuni Buddha prophesied more than 2,500 years ago that in the last five periods of 500 years, no one would become a buddha.The last five 500-year periods, 2,500 years, all come after his parinirvāṇa.Now it is the year 2600-some of the Buddhist calendar, and no one will become a buddha.And he described those four stages very clearly:

In the first stage, few people teach the Dharma, and many practice it.

In the second stage, many practice it, and many teach it.

In the third stage, many teach it, and few practice it.

In the fourth stage, no one truly practices their way to the Dharma.Those who simply believe, or who join the religion, are many.So the real Dharma of the age is gone.Those who become buddhas are gone.Only those who believe in a religion are many.That means we are now in what is called the age of the final kalpa.In this period the Buddhadharma is not the real Buddhadharma at all.It is only building huge temples, tourist temples, and using all kinds of methods to draw in lots of followers.They do not really teach their disciples and followers a real method for liberation from suffering.Try it yourself: go to Fo Guang Shan.Will Master Xinyun teach you to practice?No.Tzu Chi?No.Why do so many people not understand?They think that doing this brings them close to the Buddha.Wrong.They think this takes them to the Western Pure Land.Wrong.They think that if they follow a Dharma master, he will lead them to the Western Pure Land.Wrong.Wrong from beginning to end.That is why, when Prince Siddhārtha was born, he pointed one hand to the sky and one hand to the earth, and said, “Above heaven and below heaven, I alone am the honored one.” That is your own business: only you can liberate yourself from suffering, only your own practice can take you to the Western Pure Land, only your own practice, relying on yourself, can reach the state of completion.It has nothing to do with anyone else.It all depends on you.

So now, as for the several big mountain-temple organizations, everyone knows them well.Everyone knows how many believers they have, how many disciples, how great their wealth is.Not one of them has attained realization.They go completely against the Buddha's teaching.The mind-Dharma he just taught, they violate entirely.It is nothing like it.Chan no longer walks the path of Chan, Sutrayāna no longer does the work of Sutrayāna.It is completely not that.So no one will become a buddha, because none of them has received the true essence.The true essence is not many words, not many sutras, and not that complicated.When explained clearly, it is actually the simplest and most original method.But everyone aims too high, and the simpler something is, the less they value it.The Heart Sutra alone can bring you to accomplishment.The Sarva-tathāgata-adhiṣṭhāna-hṛdaya-guhya-dhātu-karaṇḍa-mudrā dhāraṇī alone can bring you to accomplishment.It is just that you do not know its key and its importance, and you ignore it completely.

Say you chant sutras, that is fine.Yes, some say just recite Amitābha Buddha and that is enough.But that is not enough.Because Amitābha did not become a buddha by reciting “Amitābha.” The Buddha did not become a buddha by chanting sutras.He did it through samādhi, in the Himalayas behind, and four years under the bodhi tree in meditation.He did not join a sutra-chanting group to attain it.One person sat under the bodhi tree and awakened.By what method did he awaken?Something like the state we are about to discuss in the Heart Sutra.The state of the Diamond Sutra and the state of the Heart Sutra are both methods of awakening.If you keep chanting the Heart Sutra, keep chanting the Diamond Sutra, keep chanting the Tripiṭaka, you would do better to sit down quietly and understand life, understand the inside of your body, understand why you came to this world, understand how you should walk this life.Awakening that way will bring you accomplishment faster than chanting sutras there, and more of it.

So do not cling too much to words and texts.Dharma practice is entirely a matter of outlook.You turn the present you into a you whose wisdom has been lifted.You turn the way you used to see things, and change it so that from now on your view is many-sided.Do you look at this matter from the universe?From Asia?From Taiwan?From the family's point of view?From the individual's point of view?These are different.They are not the same.So you must learn to take your mind out of your body and look at yourself.That is how the Heart Sutra is used.

Why can the Heart Sutra remove obstacles?I said just now that all obstacles and all suffering come from your own mind.They are all created by your own heart.Since the Heart Sutra can break through the suffering produced by your inner thinking, you should use the Heart Sutra's point of view to dissolve these things, so that the things that give you pain and obstruction are all none of your business.Take your child.The more you cling, the more you suffer.Why?The more you cling, the less they pay attention to you.If you say, each follows their own conditions, and I will just give you my best blessings, then they will turn back.Because if you put the suffering in front, they will not turn back.You have already put the suffering in the distance between you and them.Pain and torment are sitting right in the path of your mental power, the power you want to use to pull your child back.The suffering stands in front forever.Whatever I do, the suffering blocks it.Your conviction cannot get past it.It cannot reach your child and produce the pulling force.You understand, right?

How do you make mental power work?Let's say now you are the child, and I am the mother.The child does not turn back.“My future will be so bitter.My child doesn't pay attention to me, my child hates me, what will happen...” Every day I think about these things.Then this pain and bitterness sits right between me and my child.Do you follow so far?I am describing the mindset from before.Is it like this?You have certainly put that bitterness and hatred in front, and only after that comes the child, and behind the child is more bitterness, because the child hates you.It must be this crossing of things.Now you want to send out a thought from deep within, telling them, Mama is coming to your side, and I like you again, I love you again.But at this moment the bitterness and the hatred you created yourself are still wedged between you and your child, like the Ju Men star, stuck right there.Then the mental power you send out cannot produce any pulling force on your child.So that is why you must first take away the bitterness and the hatred.Then, when I send out my blessing, the pain will not block the mental power I have sent.

So when you seek wealth, never think of your poverty, never think “I have no money.” If you do, the obstacle between you and the money is “I have no money, I am suffering.” And the force you send out, trying to pierce through this “no money, poor” to reach the money, cannot get through.This is how mental power works.This is you, this is the obstacle, the suffering, the afflictions.What you send out from here is whatever you want to get.This is what we mean by the eight sufferings, right here.To get what you want, you must pass through the eight sufferings here before it can come back.If you always feel you are poor, then when you want to get this thing, you must empty out this thing, the eight sufferings.Otherwise, when you send out your mental power, “poor,” I have obstacles, I am in pain, I am troubled.Then you chant sutras, a whole pile of sutras, any sutras are the same.To get over here, this “poor” pulls you back over here.Do you see now?

This is the concept of how the practice version of the Heart Sutra is used.When I send out my thought, I should not say too many unpleasant things to the bodhisattvas.If your thought is to reach and be transmitted to the bodhisattvas, the buddhas, the dharmadhātu, you have to come over here.And then you tell them, I am so poor, I have no money, I am drowning in debt, can the Bodhisattva please help me?Impossible.I am so troubled, my child won't stay with me, I'm in pain, can the Bodhisattva please help me?Impossible.I have so many obstacles and cannot get out, can the Bodhisattva please help me?Impossible.Why?Because this is already blocking the space between you and the Bodhisattva.Your mental power gets here and is knocked out by your poverty, pain, obstacles, and troubles.It cannot get in.So the Taoist saying of Taishang Laojun, “Fortune and misfortune have no gate; a person brings them on himself,” applies.These are all things you yourself take out to block yourself.All of this obstruction and torment, you take out yourself.Standing in front, these are karma, the karma of the eight sufferings.If you carry the eight sufferings and karmic force, how can you meet the Bodhisattva and the buddhas of the dharmadhātu?They do not have these things there.But I am carrying these things, they block me in front, and it is impossible for me to go see the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

I have found that asking the buddhas and bodhisattvas to protect and help me is not possible, because this is your business, your karma, so I cannot help you either.

Say I call the buddhas and bodhisattvas on my mobile phone.What is the thing in front?An interfering “cover-channel.” What is a cover-channel?The phone signal is very weak, on and off.One reason is that there is stronger radio interference nearby.The second is that nearby buildings are too tall and cut off the signal from the base station.That is a cover-channel.So if you do not first empty these things out, you cannot reach.This is called this shore, and that is called the other shore.

Suppose you want to swim from this end to that end, and in between it is full of what?Hidden reefs, waves, sharks, all the dangers are in there.You will never get across.So the final line of the Heart Sutra, in general translation, is “gone beyond, gone beyond, gone beyond,” from this shore of suffering beyond to the other shore of happiness.You have to go beyond.Beyond what?Beyond these things, over to the other side.That is liberation from suffering.So this also covers how to practice and how to launch your mental power: first use the Heart Sutra to empty out the obstacles, and then the messages you send out can get a response.That is why, before practicing any Dharma, you first practice entering the dharmadhātu through the Heart Sutra, instead of coming into the dharmadhātu, or asking the buddhas and bodhisattvas to relieve your suffering, with a body full of dirty messages.

Suppose President Tsai Ing-wen at the Presidential Office wanted to see you today.If you still showed up in work clothes, all scruffy, the military police at the front would not let you in.Improper appearance.Should you clean up?You would wear a suit and tie, everyone wears a suit.First, do you have proper manners?Second, do you have an invitation card?They check.Did you register beforehand?On such and such a day you may visit the Presidential Office.Otherwise you cannot go in.It is not that simple to meet the buddhas and bodhisattvas, to meet the Buddha, to meet the buddha realms.Impossible.By the same principle, if today you want to practice, to recite a sādhana, whether Green Tārā, or the Five Wealth Gods, or Vajrakīlaya, or Kurukullā, any sutra or sādhana, of course I hope to get the protection of the bodhisattvas and get what I want.But if you have not let go of these poor roots, these so-called unclean things, you cannot get the dedication back from your request.You cannot, unless you pierce through it.If you carry poverty, carry “I'm so upset,” carry “I'm so in pain,” carry “I'm so tormented,” carry “I'm so poor” when you ask the wealth gods, then empty out these problems on this shore, and when you go to that shore you can pass without hindrance.Of course, having no money is a fact.But in this moment you have no money, so do not put the no-money into your attitude when you ask the bodhisattvas, confusing your mental power.If right now there is none, then there is none, and that is emptiness, and emptiness means it is gone, so there is nothing to seek, no need to benefit myself, it doesn't matter.Then your mental power is strong, and the effect of the practice, of this sādhana, is different, very effective.So whether a practice works or not, you must establish this concept.It must be established.

Say you want to send out mental power, every day sending out the intention of your heart, saying what I want.There was a book published before called The Secret, then the second one, the secret of the secret, and so on.I am now preparing to write one called the secret of the secret of the secret of the secret, because all of that is stuff I already taught long ago.

So when I saw it I said, that's what I taught.The basic idea is to use mental power to place an order with the universe.But the greatest principle is that when I place this order, there can be no obstacle in between.If there are obstacles in between, then the time for your order to come back is long, and these things will cancel it out.So in the wealth-god practice you have to turn yourself into the wealth god.How do you become the wealth god?In the Esoteric wealth-god practice, you yourself become the same as the wealth god, the yidam.I am Vaiśravaṇa.Then the wealth within the universe can connect with me.I am the same as you, so if I want to take wealth, only Vaiśravaṇa can take wealth, so I become Vaiśravaṇa and can take wealth back.

If I am a pauper, then in the wealth realm they see you are a pauper, how can you come and take money?So imagine: I am Vaiśravaṇa, I have a great deal of money, I have great generosity.As long as it is for spreading the Dharma, mainly for Buddhist disciples, these are Vajrayāna disciples, anyway I want this money for spreading the Dharma, to benefit beings.It will not disappear.Then wealth will come.If I want to raise this money, to solve a difficulty, and the debt doesn't get paid, that is your business.All of that is your business and has nothing to do with me.If what I'm saying has to do with you, then it is useful.Because this debt is your business, not mine, so why should I help you?

Because you are asking the buddhas and bodhisattvas, what you ask for has to be connected to the buddhas and bodhisattvas, right?If it has nothing to do with them, why would they bless it?When you practice Kurukullā, you must be like Kurukullā: young, beautiful, full of vitality and allure, pretty as a flower.If you often make flower offerings, you will be like Kurukullā with a girl's heart, and romantic luck will come, and benefactor luck will come.The principle is the same.You cannot think, I'm ugly, I'm fat, I'm chubby, I have no popularity, and then go practice Kurukullā.That is no use.Do you understand so far?So if you want to be a princess and marry a prince: someone said this before, if you want to marry a prince, you can find a way to turn yourself into a princess.So if you ask Kurukullā, you must turn yourself into Kurukullā.If you ask the wealth god, turn yourself into the wealth god.The principle is the same.Understand this section and then continue.If you don't understand, figure it out first.I'm explaining it here.

Got it?In any practice, in sending out any mental power, in doing any undertaking, never put the obstacles in front of yourself first.You cannot ask the wealth god from the angle of being poor.You cannot ask the bodhisattva to protect you from the angle of suffering.You cannot treat yourself as one big problem and toss the problem to the bodhisattva.That will not work, and the problem will never be solved.You have to remove these things.Although they still exist, you treat them as not existing, and then you ask.Then the power will not be stuck dead.

If you put these things in front of you first, you can never get through.To what?The other shore.Practice is the same.If your spirit is blocked, you cannot reach the other shore of liberation, because you have put the suffering in front, right?In front it must be full of light, full of good, full of joy.Then we can enter the good other shore.If you put all this pain, torment, and hatred in front first, then you enter the asura realm.That is the window of six-realm saṃsāra.These are the eight sufferings.

We are talking about the eight sufferings right here.The eight sufferings.So how do you turn the eight sufferings into not-eight-sufferings?You rely on the state of the Heart Sutra, because the facts are the facts, but if you flip your way of thinking, they are no longer the original facts.Bitter melon is very bitter.But with proper handling it is not bitter.That is the method.What do you do beforehand?Soak it in water first, right?Bitter melon, you soak it in water, add a little sugar, and then cook it.So the bitter melon a chef cooks is not bitter at all, it is delicious.

Our grandmothers in the countryside long ago just chopped it up and stir-fried it.Bitter!Not tasty.Why?No technique.The same bitter melon, the same people, only the cooking is different, and so love and hatred arise toward the bitter melon.Is the bitter melon innocent?It is innocent!Right?You are innocent too.Why?This is having no method to handle things.This is having no method to receive even the slightest blessing from the bodhisattvas, because you cannot empty these things out.Anyway, it makes no difference, and in fact that is how it is.

Why not put it down and say: bitter is bitter, so what?Torment is torment, so what?The child not coming back just means the conditions have not matured, no big deal!Then the mental power you send out is strong.Think of them every day, and they will come back by themselves.Don't leave hatred stuck there, don't leave that pain blocking the way, and they will come back, because now there is no obstacle.This is the Heart Sutra.This is important, so take notes.I have already given seven or eight points quickly, and I have made them clear.So whether you do sādhana or meditate, it is just this: I want to reach the other shore, so I cannot carry these things with me.

Second, put down the bundle.Chan Master Budai said it, right?“Put down the cloth bag — how free!” Chan Master Budai carried a cloth bag so people would see it and say, “Why are you so foolish?Carrying such a big, heavy bag on your back all day,” and you say, “Can't you put it down?” I am telling you, every person carries a cloth bag, and so they are not free.So he said, cloth bag, cloth bag, put down the cloth bag, how free!Everyone has this bag, this bundle.Everyone carries a bundle on their body.What is this bundle?First, the stinking skin bag.The soul carries a heavy stinking skin bag, and is tormented by this skin bag.Like me, I am tormented by a toothache.One moment it torments you here, the next moment there, and your mind hurts.When the flesh is tormented, the mind wavers.So every day you carry the flesh bag, that is one cloth bag.Second, whose bag do you carry?The bag of your six relatives.Third, you carry the burden of finances, the bag of endless desires.There is not one that cannot be put down, yet even after leaving home you cannot put it down, cannot put it down.Everyone has several bags.Since they cannot put down their bags, what are they?Less free.The cat is also your bag.If it dies today, congratulations, you have put down the bag.It has gone off free.It is not waiting for you to feed it, it doesn't need to eat.And you are free, you don't have to fuss over this cat every day, eating, drinking, pooping, sleeping, and everybody is free.So sometimes death, this kind of liberation, is not a painful thing.Every matter has this kind of thing happen.It is called liberation.Then each goes their own way, so this is certain to come.

This is a very big principle, and you must understand it.If you can take it in, you have picked up a treasure.If you cannot, you have listened for nothing.So how do you use the Heart Sutra to be liberated from suffering?If you can accomplish it through the Heart Sutra, if you understand what I have said, you are liberated.And the Heart Sutra can also bring wealth and turn your fortune.It is just like that, the principle I just explained.

(Writing on the blackboard) From here to there: liberation, turning fortune, removing obstacles, freedom.You have to pierce through this bundle.First, go beyond the eight sufferings, including not getting what we want.Do you still remember the eight sufferings?Let's recite them: birth, old age, sickness, death, meeting those we hate, parting from loved ones, not getting what we want, the raging five aggregates.How to remember them: of the eight sufferings, four are bodily and four are of the mind.The ones above are sufferings of the mind, the ones below are of the body.How many sufferings of the mind?Meeting those we hate, parting from loved ones, not getting what we want, the raging five aggregates.

The suffering of birth: birth, old age, sickness, death, are these related to the body?Then not getting what we want, parting from loved ones, meeting those we hate, the raging five aggregates, are these sufferings of the mind?So all the eight sufferings revolve in the middle.To leave these eight sufferings, it is not about leaving them, it is about piercing through.

Last time I told the senior sisters: to pierce through, to break through.“Pierce” means awakening.Sitting in Chan meditation, inward contemplation, piercing, and breaking through with the vajra heart of the vajra scepter.This is shattering.Now everyone look at the vajra scepter.Does it have four prongs?One, two, three, four.Those of you who brought a vajra scepter, take a look.Do you have one?Come, this is a five-pronged scepter, right?Then here in the middle is this point, and above are four prongs, below are four prongs.The four prongs above can turn into four kinds of wisdom.And the four prongs below can also turn into four kinds of wisdom.One is compassion and one is wisdom.That is called the union of compassion and wisdom.Both can turn.

You turn not getting what we want into seeking nothing.That is another kind of wisdom.Parting from loved ones: if you don't cling to love, there is no parting.That is very simple, right?Meeting those we hate: complaining, looking down on others, jealousy of others.Everyone should turn back and examine themselves.Instead of looking at others' minds, look at your own mind.The raging five aggregates: five kinds of baffling emotions arise.Then put your mind on right thought, on the Buddha, on the Bodhisattva, let your mind have a refuge, a teacher to rely on, a place to return to.Then there will be no not getting what we want, no parting from loved ones, no meeting those we hate, no raging five aggregates.

Have a refuge, so the mind has a harbor to dock in.Refuge: I place my mind on the buddhas and bodhisattvas, on a flower, on a lotus, on a vajra scepter, on a sutra, on the sun, on the moon, anything will do.Why should I place my mind on not getting what I want, parting from loved ones, meeting those I hate, the raging five aggregates?Turn the mind.Let the mind have something to rely on, and the four sufferings of the mind will not arise.So are “taking refuge” and “having a refuge” the same?Yes, the same.Everyone has taken refuge but still doesn't understand what taking refuge means, and then your mind has no place where it can rest at ease, so you get tormented.

What about birth?To keep birth, old age, sickness, and death from arising at all, why?This is saṃsāra, changing bodies.Where is the body born?Where is a human life born?Where is a cat born?Where are dogs, cows, monkeys, pigs, gods born?And then finally what?The end is death, and the process in between, sickness, leads to death.These are the four problems of birth, old age, sickness, and death.Whatever creature you are reborn as, you have to face birth, old age, sickness, and death.This is the turning.So we must train, train birth, so that it becomes what?Deathlessness.Like Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal.Yeshe Tsogyal also lived 200 years.They trained the deathless vajra, no sickness, no short life.One trains the mind, one trains the body.Then the four sufferings of the mind do not arise, and the four sufferings of the body do not arise.But training the body, for most of you, is a bit too slow.

Otherwise, in Esoteric Buddhism you still have to train qigong, train breathing and exhaling, train vase breath.So later I may teach some breathing methods, and also the Amitāyus practice.The longevity practice is not just reciting a sādhana.It teaches you how to inhale and exhale, to open the channels.You have to open the channels.Open the blood path, and you will not get sick, will not die early, will not age early.So sometimes practicing Vajravārāhī or Kurukullā makes women youthful and beautiful, and they do not age.Men who practice Victory Vajra and some other vajra practices become stronger and more vigorous.These practices help relieve the suffering of birth.

And turning the mind can turn the four sufferings of the mind, to do what?Pierce through.What is piercing through?Passing through from here, passing through the middle, which is piercing through the central channel.Pass through the four sufferings, pass through the sufferings of the mind and of the body, threading through the middle, and they cannot obstruct you.That is called piercing through.What does the Chan school use?Penetration, Chan meditation, samādhi.“Investigating the phrase,” using speech to awaken, penetrating this.When Chan penetrates, think of Monk Yunfang, who had no desires his whole life and carried nothing, wandering and staying at temples, right?Sleeping with the sky as a tent and the earth as a bed, eating if there is food, and if not, it doesn't matter.That is putting down, freedom.When everyone penetrates, it is like this.In Vajrayāna, when it comes to piercing through, you begin retreat and meditation, you specifically practice piercing through the central channel, and then the eight sufferings are gone.

What we are talking about now is relieving the eight sufferings through changing your outlook.First use the Heart Sutra to transform your thinking, your way of thinking, your present view of suffering, your view of obstacles, your view of not getting what you want, your view of parting from loved ones, your view of meeting those you hate, your view of the raging five aggregates.Change the view.Change your view of birth, old age, sickness, and death.So living together peacefully with cancer cells is also this kind of state.Change the view, so you are no longer afraid and no longer tormented, as long as everyone gets along peacefully.

Change your view.No money, change your view, right?Many illnesses, change your view.That is, do not cling to the point of pain.For example, the more you cling to the pain, the more the pain intensifies.Does everyone follow?Take a small child to the dentist or for a shot.He cries his heart out and struggles.If the nurse is pretty, and second, knows how to coax the child, gives him a candy to shift his attention, gives him a balloon to play with, and then, going along, slips the needle in.That is called shifting.Understand?So don't keep focusing on the point of pain, it will make it heavier.The child getting a shot thinks harder and harder about the pain, and at the instant the needle goes in he almost faints, as if being murdered.Why does he feel it more?Yes, the more you focus on the pain, the more it hurts.The more you focus on poverty, the poorer you are.The more you focus on hatred, the more you hate.So you get no good result.That is why the Diamond Sutra says, “Dwell nowhere,” do not fix your place of pain onto one point.“Dwell nowhere,” and only then can the mind that leaves suffering, as I described, arise, “and let the mind arise.” Only then can a new view and a new mind arise, a new mental attitude with which to see this matter.When we were children we saw a matter one way, and when we grew up we saw it another way, and we felt that as children we were so childish, so stupid.At least we had that thought.The principle is the same.Because of age and added experience, you consider your old view childish.But if the mind has grown, you look at your earlier thinking and find it childish, and now that you have newly grown, you find the present you childish, right?That is the growth of wisdom.Then looking back at yourself, you discover you were wasting time, wasting life, doing things meaningless for your future, because you were just waiting for birth, old age, sickness, and death, no different from raising pigs.

So in ordinary times you should clear out the garbage, clear out the garbage of the eight sufferings.Clear it out ordinarily, and then you won't be nervous now, because you took it out yesterday.Today you are not nervous.The garbage truck carries away its load and we are not affected.But if we have piled up three days of garbage and miss the truck, then when we hear the sound we panic, and when you can't dump the garbage, it stinks to death.So everyone, in ordinary times, rush to take out the garbage, right?

So every day you should clear out the garbage of your heart.Clearing out the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight is enough.How do you clear it?When things come, you are not nervous, not panicked, not unable to figure things out, not unable to let go, not tormented.Clear it out in ordinary times, clear it until finally you pierce through the four above and pierce through the four sufferings below, and you attain freedom from suffering and gain happiness.Of course this is also when the central channel opens.The reason the central channel cannot open is also the four sufferings above and the clinging of the four sufferings below, so the middle cannot be pierced.In the vajra scepter, the middle of the two upper sections will not be pierced through.The newest way of explaining awakening uses the Diamond Sutra as an analogy, so you must make your mind firm like a vajra scepter, it will not knock you down, and will not casually let you fail to hold firm.Keep a vajra heart in your chest, which is to use the Diamond Sutra as an analogy for the four new sufferings above and the four sufferings below.

Yes, this is called the preliminary practice.Before reading the Diamond Sutra, before the Heart Sutra, there is the preliminary guidance that tells you, in practicing this sutra and in listening to this sutra, what attitude I use to learn this.That is the preliminary practice I am talking about now.So many TV Dharma talks, or Dharma masters teaching the Heart Sutra, never mention this.This is the preliminary practice of Esoteric teaching, not the preliminary practice of Sutrayāna.So when you understand the preliminary practice, we then begin to diligently practice the Heart Sutra, to break through the sufferings of the body and mind, to pierce through, not to go beyond.So I say it is piercing through, not going beyond, smashing it.When you meet obstacles in everything, if you go beyond it, that is not leaving suffering.It is not leaving it behind.What you have to learn is that there is fundamentally no suffering.That is the real state.Liberation from suffering is not yet the state, though everyone thinks that doing this is impressive.

Liberation from suffering is not yet the state.Where does suffering come from?Originally there is no suffering.It is because our state of mind is not enough that suffering arises.So if we take this thing called suffering away, then where does suffering come from?As I said just now, I can't even write the word “poor,” which means I will have money.The principle is the same.Not knowing the word “poor,” often I take all the “poor” inside me and paint it out with correction fluid, tear it off.So if you think that nothing is suffering, then there is no suffering.If you think everything is annoying, every matter is suffering, right?When you are in a bad mood and walk into the garden, you see the weeds and get annoyed, weeds growing again, so hateful.But when your mood is good, you see the grass fresh and green, and think, leaving a few trees and a little grass here to look at the green is not bad.

So all things are blameless.It is only because of you that suffering or hatred or resentment arises, that not getting what we want, parting from loved ones, meeting those we hate, the raging five aggregates arise.They are all caused by you, nothing to do with anything else.A young lady walks down the road, right?You go chasing her, can't catch her, and from love hatred is born.And when hatred is born, what?You take a knife and chase her down, a life is lost, the young lady is dead, and you are caught and jailed for life.Because of not getting what you wanted, though “There is originally not one thing — where could dust alight?” right?Because you didn't get what you sought, bitterness followed, so all suffering now is created by yourself.So from now on, look at everything through the state of the Heart Sutra.Then suffering-states are less likely to be created again.That is how it is used.

So when you see something, love it or not love it, first recite the Heart Sutra.The young lady is beautiful, you chase her, first in front of her you recite the Heart Sutra, “Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deep...” The other person thinks you are crazy and leaves, and there is no not getting what you want, no parting from loved ones.None, and that is good.Something not so good becomes good instead.Sometimes the arising of conditions is not necessarily good, and sometimes the ceasing of conditions is not necessarily bad.So is the cat's death good?

Good.Why?It happened that you came to practice, and then provided a place to bury it in earth.If you hadn't come to practice, it would have died on its own.Not good: “a dead cat hung on a tree.” In the countryside they hang it on a tree branch.There are still many in the countryside, bag after bag hung on the tree branches, those are dead cats.In the countryside they used to do this, hang them to what?So that the head would come off.“A dead dog is set to float on the water.” When a dog dies they throw it into the river to let the water carry it away, and a dead cat is hung on a tree.I don't know how it started, but I remember in the countryside before there were many, bag after bag hung in the trees, and those were dead cats.

You must learn to listen down to the bone.Let what you say be what I said.If I speak until my voice burns, and then I ask you to speak and you cannot, there was no reception.That is why I want you to take notes.The notes are for your soul to read, for the karmic creditors beside you to read, telling them to put it down.Put down what?Meeting those we hate.I put it down, you put it down too.It was all a game, a dream.What persuades the karmic creditors?Use the Diamond Sutra to persuade them, use the Heart Sutra to persuade them: everything in the past is like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow.A game, a dream.In this life I didn't know it was like this before, from now on I will work harder to correct myself and not make this mistake again, so let's all let go.

Say the criminal case finds him not guilty, then the civil case still requires compensation, and then it is easier to talk, right?If you can't even pass the criminal case, how can you talk about civil compensation?“Give me back my life” means give me back my life, and they keep chasing to kill.The same.And say the criminal case finds not guilty, and the other side feels unwilling.On the other hand, there was a murder that was ruled not guilty.He killed his mother, chopped off her head, and threw it into the street, and was ruled not guilty because he was on drugs.Should I take a bit of drugs too, so that if I go chop someone up I'll be not guilty?How could that dinosaur of a judge do this?At most he should only have been spared the death penalty, but not guilty?He chopped off his mother's head and threw it from upstairs to downstairs.It wasn't just beheading, he hacked her many times, and even cut off her hands.And he was ruled not guilty.The judge is an idiot.So there is far too much unfairness in the world.And the judge who ruled not guilty, will the dead person look for him?She will appeal, right?She will certainly appeal, and the appeal turns into karmic creditors.So many judges, after retiring, go and become monks.

There was also a prosecutor before who was vegetarian, and in the end still became a monk, afraid the karmic creditors would come for him, to see whether the Buddha would protect him, whether the master would protect him, using the Buddha's name to block them, to see whether he could be protected.That is impossible.Do monks get sick?Do monks die?Monks also have bad moods, don't they?It's all the same, no difference, only the clothes they wear are different from yours.No hair, everything else the same.Do they need to eat, drink, poop, and sleep?The same.Exactly the same as pigs.Since it is the same, leaving home in the mind is what matters, leaving home in the body is not important.

Renunciation is renunciation of the mind, not of the body.Get the situation straight.If after going forth there are lots of monks who think about women from morning to night, then what did you go forth for?Shave your head, put on a kāṣāya, and go chasing girls.If you love chasing girls, why go forth at all?You create obstacles for yourself, deliberately wearing a cap.Didn't a teacher in Tainan wear a wig and plain clothes, go to dance halls to dance and chase girls, drink beer and eat meat, and then return to the temple, take off the wig and become a monk and Dharma master again?Then what do you go forth for?Don't go forth.Going forth has no meaning.Last time someone told me that in the south there is an obstetrics and gynecology clinic that specializes in what?Abortions for nuns, and business is very good.They specialize in abortions for nuns,

So why go forth?If the mind is not there, don't go forth.If the mind is there, what's wrong with not going forth?So I feel these people cannot figure it out, cannot let go.They have turned practice completely wrong, completely wrong.Good, open your Heart Sutra.When I gave it to everyone, I left a blank space in the middle for your notes.So if you do not understand, it is because my punctuation is different from the original Heart Sutra's punctuation, and the wording is also different.

Last time I explained the whole Heart Sutra, there was a passage about the Buddha rising from his seat, no?This “seat” means he was sitting there in the place of meditation, and emerged from samādhi.Here on page 4: rising from samādhi, calmly seated.Did he come out of samādhi?From samādhi, we call it moving calmly in the midst of meditative samādhi.

May I ask, in what state was this sutra spoken?In the state of samādhi.It was spoken in the state of samādhi.Was it spoken in meditation?Samādhi is the third stage of meditation, deep meditation, called profound meditation.So here is the proof: the sutras the Buddha taught and the things he described were spoken inside meditation.I have this experience.That is why I say that many of the Dharma things the Buddha conceived do not really exist as persons, that there are no real nāgas and deities of the eight classes and so on out there.They are things seen in the dharmadhātu of meditation.What is spoken in profound meditation is called inner language.So many of the sutras of Buddhism were not lectures.They were not lectures.They were spoken from the inner state produced out of the realms seen in meditation.That proves what I said earlier: many mantras and sutras, the Buddha awakened in meditation, and the mantras he spoke were also spoken from within it.The non-human beings he saw, the nāgas and deities of the eight classes, were also seen inside it.That is why, when I ask my inner-sect disciples to practice the maṇi-jewel, in the course of practicing the maṇi-jewel, these phenomena arise.They are indeed all produced in the inner realm.In the inner realm, the nāgas and deities of the eight classes appear, even the Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities.

Good.They all appear in the inner realm.And the inner realm is the dharmadhātu.It is practice turned inward, not practice turned outward.You must get this straight.So from now on, when you practice the Heart Sutra, connect with the meaning of the Dharma I have taught, and then begin your practice.Do not just pick it up and start with “Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deep...” You will not enter the inner realm.That is only outward recitation.These states will not enter inside and take effect.It is only outward chanting.Where are the real karmic creditors?In your memory, in your chest, in your root chakra.Three points.Karmic creditors live there.So when you want to liberate your karmic creditors, do you liberate them outward or inward?Inward.Because only by living inside your body can they torment you, steer your fate, direct you to do things, make you do wrong investments.It is all stirred up from inside, and this has been confirmed.Where do they hide?In your ganglia.And their memory carries memories from many lifetimes, right there in your body.So you must liberate them from the inner realm.Teach the Dharma for your own inner self.From now on, there will be a part where, when you listen to me teach the Heart Sutra, you close your eyes and listen quietly, then guide the Dharma I have taught into your body, so that the karmic creditors lodged in your ganglia and in your body can hear it.Listening with the ears and listening with the heart are different.Then the karmic creditors within are moved by you, and take refuge together, the Fourfold Refuge, and everyone practices together.But if they are unwilling to practice with you and want to ruin your good work, then for no reason you make wrong decisions and do wrong things.No one decided it.Your inner realm decided it.So who is directing the game?The karmic creditors are directing the game.So you must awaken them from within, not toward the outside!Get this straight.

Everything is the inner realm, nothing is the outer realm.To dissolve all problems also starts from the inner realm.So “Do not seek the Buddha on far Vulture Peak; Vulture Peak is right in your own heart.” So where is the Buddha?In your heart.The heart is where all the past, present, and future of memory lie, and where it takes effect is in the chest.The chest area, from the throat all the way down to the thoracic spine, is governed by the thymus.Here the images of the past, present, and future can surface.What is this area called?King Yama.As it is written in The Secret of the Spiritual Light of Life, this area is the karma-mirror platform of King Yama.At the time of death, the life-review flashback first appears right here.It can even trace back to childhood, to past lives, all appearing here like a movie playing, playing continuously, and from your past to your present many things appear.The flashback of a life appears right here in the chest.So what is our work?To purify this area, the karma-mirror platform of past and present lives.The Sixth Patriarch Huineng and Shenxiu have that famous exchange.Shenxiu said: “The body is a bodhi tree, the mind a bright mirror stand; always diligently polish it, let no dust settle.” Say it, brothers and sisters.

And what about the Sixth Patriarch Huineng?He was on a higher level than that.As I just said, do not turn suffering into a fact.So this is the wisdom of Huineng: “The bodhi has no tree, the bright mirror has no stand; there is originally not one thing — where could dust alight?” The state I just described is this state.There is originally no suffering.It is because you cannot get what you seek that I speak of suffering.It is because you treasure something that I speak of suffering.So with parting from loved ones, that is why I speak of suffering, right?It is because you love that you must face parting, and so suffering arises, right?Meeting those we hate?You cannot bear to see others do well, comparing, jealousy, looking down on people?You're not as good as them, it can't be.Not suffering.And then reason and wisdom cannot balance, he says emotions fluctuate wildly, you cannot control your emotions, baffling emotions come, bipolar disorder and depression come.

Not getting what you want?Isn't it enough just not to seek?Just go with conditions, right?What is mine will come, and what is not mine, there is no need even to say goodbye.Why say goodbye?Many people say thank you, no need to see you again, meaning don't be entangled: I don't want it, and I don't miss it.If you seek nothing you get nothing, if you get nothing you worry about nothing, no grudge, no regret.Just go with conditions.So if it's mine, cherish it.If it's not mine, no need even for goodbye, because it was never mine.What was I doing here just now?So when you train to this level, there is no suffering, because those are the machines that manufacture suffering.These eight sufferings are all suffering-manufacturing machines.Do you know that?Then don't manufacture.But this is about practice.Practice it in everything.So practice the state I just described, and your mind opens up more and more.Although you don't get what you seek, once you reach this state, with the attitude of “if I seek, the conditions come; if I send it away, the conditions cease,” there is no obstacle point in getting things.It comes without being sought.Not getting what you seek turns into coming without seeking.It is just whether I want it or not.You have to reach this level.I decide whether I want it or not, rather than seeking, “bitter if I seek and can't get, bitter if I get and it disappears.” I wave and it comes, I don't need it and it goes.That is called freedom.

So the first line of the Heart Sutra, in all of history only I teach the Heart Sutra this way, because I don't even need to look at the book, I just write it like this.This is the true practice version of the Heart Sutra.Of course inner-sect disciples must know how to practice it, and the real practice mantras of the Heart Sutra are different.Because I don't know the attitude everyone has toward seeking the Dharma, originally it isn't divided, it isn't about entry-level refuge disciples, inner-sect refuge disciples, Dzogchen disciples, originally no division.But many people come to dip their soy sauce, lacking respect for the Dharma.Today I want to teach something very precious, and he pats his bottom and walks off without listening.That is contempt for us, contempt for the Dharma.But I feel there has to be some division, a range suited for refuge disciples and a range not for refuge disciples, though of course you all should practice.The deep Dharma is different.

First, you can accept it.Second, you seek the Dharma humbly.Then I am willing to teach you.But vessels and spiritual capacities differ, so I have no choice but to distinguish.Because your attitude in practicing the Dharma is only “maybe, maybe not,” what I give you is also “maybe, maybe not,” right?If you absolutely must have it, if you must seek to get it, then I must give it to you.Your conduct and your attitude in seeking the Dharma decide what you learn.My Dharma is very deep, extremely deep, so deep you cannot see the bottom.It depends on how deep a Dharma you want to ask for.The deeper your question, the more brilliantly I speak.For shallower questions, we will just pass over them.

Keep this idea in mind, don't be polite.If you believe your realization and your attitude in seeking the Dharma are as firm as a vajra, and you know what path you will walk in the future, and you don't doze off when you listen to me, and feel today that listening fills your spirit with the sacred, then I must keep learning like this.Don't be polite.If your capacity is good, you learn things of good capacity, so the water rises and the boat rises with it.All of your aspirations decide how far you will learn.Because it is too deep, it is different for beginners, intermediates, and advanced.If the vessel is not good, it depends on your attitude in seeking the Dharma.

First, the first line of the Heart Sutra must be “Contemplate.” We take it one line at a time: “Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deep Prajñāpāramitā, clearly saw that the five aggregates are all empty, and crossed beyond all suffering and distress.” “All suffering and distress” is the eight sufferings we mentioned.Good, there are a few things to notice in it: “Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deep Prajñāpāramitā.” There are many explanations.I can answer in a few points.

The line “when practicing deep Prajñāpāramitā”:

What does “a long time” (多時, “duo shi”) stand for?A long time.“Duo” is a long stretch of time;

“Practicing deeply” is meditation.Let's look at it from here;

What is “contemplating” (觀)?Contemplating with the mind, not looking with the physical eyes.Inner contemplation doesn't use the eyes.Why does spirit-seeing practice tie a black cloth over the eyes?Right, because it is not seeing, it is contemplating.Contemplation is using the mind, carefully, attentively observing.Any objection?No more physical eyes.It means my eyes are closed, and I am observing finely: what have I done in this life, from birth until now, what meaning has there been in this process of my life?I live in this world, with whom have I formed bonds, with whom have I formed hatreds?Contemplate, think with the mind: this is contemplating, not looking.At this time, do not use the eyes.In the whole use of the Heart Sutra, the eyes should be closed, and that is how to memorize it.Good, contemplating.

And “at ease” (自在)?No restraint.And no thoughts of any kind, at ease, no obstacles, and nobody saying I want to pursue anything.I simply observe myself carefully, examining myself: “Each day I examine myself three times,” I am reflecting on myself, observing myself, so this “ease” has no purpose.

And “Bodhisattva”?A person who practices.

And “practicing deeply”?I begin to carry out depth, Prajñā-pāramitā, carry out depth.Now aren't there courses of the spirit?Called self-examination, self-inspection, inner review, inner self-reflection.That is called my practice of deep, self-development of wisdom, the way I raise my wisdom.I must do meditation, deep meditation, to open my Prajñāpāramitā wisdom.“A long time”: sitting for a long time.I have sat for three hours, and suddenly my head goes pop!“Clearly saw that the five aggregates are all empty.” Contemplation first, and then illumination (照) arises.It lights up.What is illumination?When you go to feed Niuniu, do you have to take a flashlight to shine on it, or you can't see where its mouth is, right?Where it got stuffed.So you have to shine a light, and shining means it lights up.

So after meditating for three hours, a long time, suddenly it lights up.The maṇi-jewel appears, light appears, and then with a ding!it lights up.“Clearly saw that the five aggregates are all empty.” It is no longer the world you see now with your physical eyes.It is the world seen from within, and you discover all the thoughts around you are gone, tables and chairs all gone, you enter a kind of empty world, “the five aggregates are all empty.” At this time I have no suffering of any kind.That is “crossed beyond all suffering and distress.” In this state I forget every kind of suffering, there is only the emptiness of meditation, the whole world is hushed, no thoughts at all.You must have “clearly saw that the five aggregates are all empty.”

Here is contemplation, here is illumination.These two are paired.Without contemplation there is no illumination.Do you all understand?Do you understand?This is talking to yourself, talking to yourself.Do you understand?When I have looked at myself for a long time, with eyes closed, I no longer look at the outside world, I look at myself, at my skin, at my flesh, at my bones, at my belly, at my intestines, at my heart.Looking, looking, at last, after a long time sitting, suddenly how is there a flash, pa-pa-pa-pa, flashes of light burst out, and when that light shines down there is nothing left.The body is gone, even the place where I am sitting is gone, everything is blank, so there are no aggregates.What are the aggregates?Things made of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.Tables and chairs are all made of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.All gone.Sometimes I don't even have the eight sufferings or anything, I don't think of any of those things, I have become an idiot.So “crossed beyond all suffering”: passing through all suffering, and later there will be more.This is originally what can let me empty out suffering.I don't even remember anyone, I don't even think about owing money, all is empty.To this section it is explained like this: when I have meditated for a long time, and my mind opens, I see that most things do not exist, much less suffering.Peace!This is crossing beyond all suffering and distress.You can go beyond from here, no eight sufferings appear.This is how the general explanation is written.

What comes after?Then Śāriputra appears.So today we will just talk about these two lines, from “contemplate” up to the act of “illumination.” After that Śāriputra comes.The practice version of the Heart Sutra, when it reaches Śāriputra, we recite the śarīra mantra, and at that point the śarīra mantra goes in.“Therefore, Śāriputra, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, perception, formation, or consciousness,” and afterward these conditions will arise.Good, this is how the ordinary Heart Sutra, the practice version of the Heart Sutra, and the Heart Sutra of profound meditation differ, completely differ.

So Sutrayāna doesn't get to this.It doesn't much talk about this, it speaks of the change in the nature of mind.But in Esoteric teachings it speaks of the deeper level.Good, if you convert it into inner practice, it is a different level, a different concept, and different technically.So whether you use the Sutrayāna way, or the Chan way, or the Vajrayāna way, the Heart Sutra you explain is a completely different state, not the same.It depends on your capacity, on your capacity.Some people with ordinary capacity can't even sort out the ordinary Heart Sutra.If I want to enter the Heart Sutra of śūnyatā theory as taught by Chan, they understand even less.And if, like me, I'm teaching the state of this Heart Sutra as Vajrayāna practice, and entering into actual practice, they cannot enter at all, right?So the levels are extremely different, so look at the division I just made.Can you absorb university knowledge with an elementary school education?No?Then there's no way.Because given the time now, never mind elementary and junior high, you have to get to your doctorate as quickly as possible.

There isn't that much time.Three years of junior high, three years of high school, four years of university, then graduate school, then doctorate, and a doctorate isn't even a sure thing.Some take eight or ten years and still don't get the doctorate.That means life is too long.So to reach liberation from suffering in this lifetime is difficult.So you must compress.You must make elementary and junior high into geniuses and go straight to the doctoral program.This deep level is at doctoral level, so everyone should awaken well.Just these two lines, think them through first, and also the preliminary practice I just taught.Once the preliminary practice is understood, look back at the main practice.This is the concept of inner, inner-inner meditation.And do not take Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva as a person, that is wrong.So you must put down clinging, and when you put down all worries to meditate, that is called what?Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Ease.Only then is it the Bodhisattva of Ease, a very free practitioner.Only then can you enter this state.If you still cling to many things, you cannot enter the states below, you cannot clearly see that the five aggregates are all empty.So the first prerequisite, what you need to do now, is be at ease.Never mind.The check will bounce, deal with it tomorrow, never mind, think of something tomorrow.Put it down.This time is your own.Then you are Avalokiteśvara, and only then can you enter “when practicing deep Prajñāpāramitā.” If you can't sit two minutes before wanting to get up, why?Anxious?No patience?If I feel I have something to handle, I cannot possibly reach the time of Prajñāpāramitā.So punctuation differs, explanations differ, the state you reach in reciting the Heart Sutra differs, so isn't my punctuation different?

That's all for today's Heart Sutra.On the sheet I gave you with blank spaces, you can add notes.But the guiding text up front is the preliminary practice.I have said a lot about it: the concept of how to pierce through the eight sufferings.You must first train yourself.Train yourself to know that the plot of the eight sufferings is like this, and how do I pierce through it, so it won't stand in front of me as an obstacle.Whatever I do, don't think first of my suffering.If you think of your suffering first, the obstacle appears first, like picking up a stone and smashing your own foot, then saying I want to run faster.The principle is the same.You cannot put the stone of suffering in front and then start running.We often hold a wrong idea: wanting to do something, we first put the miserable things in front, and then pray to the bodhisattvas to solve the difficulty.

That blocks myself, and I cannot reach the bodhisattvas' other shore.So take these away first, put them to one side, and only then can you establish the channel of communication with the bodhisattvas, and strengthen the way your mental power is projected.If you can't get through when you ask, that is called not getting what we want.Why?The method was wrong, so you do not get what you seek.That's all for today's Dharma.It was very detailed, extremely detailed.From now on, when I have taught to a certain level you will all memorize it, memorize the text, and then we will practice the Heart Sutra from meditation.

After you have a feeling for the Heart Sutra in meditation, then practice it, doing the Heart Sutra's obstacle removal, the way to remove obstacles: visualize the image, and use the Heart Sutra to destroy it and smash it.You need to clap your hands, recite the mantra and clap, and this turns the Heart Sutra into a practice weapon.Second, there is also the Tibetan version of the Heart Sutra, because the Tibetan version is closer to the Sanskrit pronunciation.So if you want to practice, you can recite the Chinese version and also the Tibetan version.Do both: first finish the Tibetan version, then the Chinese version, so that both the conscious and the subconscious can receive it.Within the obstacle-removal method there are a few mantras, perhaps three or four mantras for removing obstacles.You clap to remove obstacles, to destroy all the suffering, to destroy all the obstacles, and you can keep practicing like this.So do this action often, and by the end there is nothing left to smash, and with a pa!you suddenly awaken: “clearly saw that the five aggregates are all empty.” This takes constant practice, and if the Heart Sutra alone can bring accomplishment...none of you had ever heard that the Heart Sutra could be done this way, right?So it was worth it in this life just to hear this practice.Good, good, I'll stop here for today.The homework really must be done.Go home and review.Some of you may need to listen repeatedly, then write out your own reflections, and that is yours.If you go home and do not practice, do not listen to the Dharma, do not take notes, do not organize, then no matter how much you listen it is useless.

Excerpted from a teaching by Master Urgyen Topden Rinpoche, September 12, 2020