The Best Motto

📖Master’s Reading

Life cannot be without storms, but we can learn to face them from a different angle. Worldly affliction and fear often come from taking things too seriously; once we feel "this is terrible," the matter grows huge. So we need two best mottos for life, to recite whenever we meet a hard pass: "The Diamond Sūtra says nothing is any great matter; the Heart Sūtra says so it is."

The great wisdom of the Diamond Sūtra teaches us to "abide and subdue." Whether a good state comes or a bad trial arrives, just tell yourself in the heart "nothing is any great matter," and like tai chi deflecting a thousand pounds with four ounces, you pass every hard pass. When you do not treat difficulty as an earth-shattering thing and set down clinging and fear, the heart reaches peace and balance, no longer disturbed by outer circumstance.

The Heart Sūtra leads us to see through the truth of the world. When you see through arising and ceasing and see clearly the cause and effect behind phenomena, you suddenly awaken and say: "So it is." When something happens, do not rush to complain and resist, but first calmly accept the fact. Acceptance was never admitting defeat but ceasing to drain your own strength. When the heart calms and no longer fights, wisdom naturally appears and helps us find the complete way out.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• Understand that affliction all comes from taking things too seriously.
• Meeting adversity, silently recite nothing is any great matter.
• See through arising and ceasing and realize: so it is.
• Calmly accept the fact and stop draining your strength.
• Acceptance is not admitting defeat but ceasing to drain your own strength.