The final translated excerpt from the transcribed L.A. (USA) seminar, held on May 18, 2008

There is a lot of diversity in this room. We have visitors here from all over from a wide range of religious, cultural and personal backgrounds. And this diversity can raise a few hurtles when it comes to discussing our subject matter.

If I go into the topic deeply , some people will react by finding it very religious sounding―too religious for their tastes. But if I gloss over the subject, then you won't grasp the ideology, and then you won't get the results. It's not easy, but it won't stop me from doing my utmost to share the truth of my inner realizations and knowledge. It won't stop me from sharing the truth of my experience.

Feeling tired?

ALL: No.

If you aren't tired, it verifies that you have entered a state of concentrative absorption while listening. That's because of what we are discussing: the highest level of life science possible.

Discussion of it creates energy. Discussion, language, and the thoughts running through our minds are all being communicated with the spiritual. That connection allows for a flow of energy. Before the beginning of class, I advised a relaxation of body and mind. I did it so that you could approach our discussion in a state of tranquility, and so have access to the benefits it offers.

A number of people came up to chat with me during the break that we just had. I meet a Mr. Jiang from Indonesia who came with his wife... Could you stand up please so we can see you?

Thank you.

We've mentioned some of the many places that the students here have come from, but there are many more that we haven't... like all the different states our friends from the USA have come from.

But back to Mr. Jiang.

Eleven years ago, he lost all feeling in his hand. Can we call that an illness? Just imagine, being able to bite right through his hand with your teeth without causing a reaction: he wouldn't have felt a thing... That certainly is a medical problem.

It made his hands totally useless.

At that time, he hadn't yet discovered what I teach, but he later came across a book we had out at the time. It explained a few simple techniques, and he started to practice them. Well, within three months the feeling had returned to his hands.

I just found out... We met today when he came up and told me a few minutes ago. We both got quite pretty emotional about it. Eleven years of hardship... that's a long time.

It's clear that our meditative teachings are exceptional... miraculous, even. Through them we experience things that we would never encounter through another belief system. From what I understand, our kind of meditation was once commonly practiced by a large number of catholic priests. It means that they were self-cultivators, and many of them experienced spontaneous fasting (bigu). That's when you suddenly, and naturally, stop needing to eat for a period of time. It is a healing period, during which you have access to vital energies.

Let me elaborate on why things like that happen...

In reality, it's all about the sincerity with which you hope and pray―and that's true no matter your religious beliefs, because all religions value gods or spirits that embody great compassion... the ones that save us from suffering. It is the common goodness they share. It doesn't matter if you do it kneeling, standing or sitting, so long as you pray, chant, visualize with all your heart: then you'll benefit from that spirit's energy. It entwines the energy into your living destiny―into your body itself. In Catholicism, there is a select group of people who are equated with supernatural powers. Have you seen them? They exist in Christianity. In the U.S.A., there are people who pass out from having their heads touched by these people, and then when they get up, they can do all kinds of things.

So it's obvious that among western religions, as well as a number of aboriginal ones, there are practices that are self-cultivation based. Still, in the east those same general kinds of practices have been approached more systematically. They've been more reasoned out. As a result, there is an ordering of levels and a clear definition of the individual techniques. This shows that in China and India, these practices became a science, one that's been applied to astronomy, to construction, to biology, to the arts, and to a large number of other fields. They are all inseparable from the inspiration provided by meditative studies. In the western religions, there's a huge number of self-cultivators, but the practices have been gradually diminished from pure self-cultivation to something of lesser value. Even modern Buddhism is like that―lots of people just pick up a "how to" book. They read it in a day, and look to it as a kind of sacred text, but they don't ever really act on it with commitment. It takes the same form and requires the same energy as a religion.

Buddhism was not a branch of any other religion―it's a method of self-cultivation and of developing wisdom. It only became a religion later on. And now, some people read up on Buddhism daily, but don't ever put it into practice. It's like having a cookbook that you look through every single day, but never cook from. It's an incorrect application of your resources. There are times when our wisdom runs up against it's own limitations. Things aren't as clear then. But real self-cultivation should involve practical methods that are applied. That way, you'll reap the benefits and the access the energy. It floods into our bodies, greatly expanding our vision and our mental powers. Our powers of visualization grow and our perception becomes more piercing. This explains why the abhijñā (Chinese: tōng 通) are accessed through the study of meditation. What are they? The abhijñā, or tōng, are spiritually derived abilities, such as the power of divine vision, the power to know past lives, the power to eradicate spiritual contamination, the power to bring the end of suffering and of cyclical rebirth. There are many other such powers, and they can be used as evidence of the level of self-cultivation attained. Most of you will have questions about the individual abhijñā, and how they manifest. Primarily, they arise through meditative application of self-cultivation practices, otherwise, it is very unlikely they will appear.

There is something that happened when I was in Korea that's closely related to what we are studying here today... There were students who had previously studied in other Meditation Halls, under other masters. Do you know how one of them taught his class self-cultivation? He had them copy sacred texts from a big, thick book. It would take about two years to copy a text that large!

They had to work on it every day, and it was exhausting.

Do you think those students attained Buddhahood after all their scribe-work? Well, they didn't. The more they copied, the more they felt confused. They mixed up all the different aspects of self-cultivation―which were teachings meant to inspire reflection, which were notes of import, which were tenets. It was all jumbled together. It became like some kind of tantric religion all its own.

Me? I say that if you want to learn, and to free yourself from illness, don't do anything but this: collect merit through good deeds and practice meditation. It's a process that works for everyone. Just practicing meditation with all your heart alone is of enormous benefit.

Simplified, illness boils down to an energy deficiency... and that deficiency weakens organ function. So to get your health back, you need to access supplemental energy, and to clear the blocks that have formed. Some illnesses are more challenging to deal with than others... they stem from karmic reasons rooted in past life events. They can be mended by cultivating the purest compassion and performing acts of kindness. It isn't that hard really―just practice and do good deeds.

So get to your homework and don't be afraid to do extra!

In the past, great numbers of people self-cultivated this way and healed themselves... they even reached the highest state of being.
Now, let's consider all the people here who have been spontaneous fasting for more than three days... for some it has been as many as 85 days. Clearly, the results that follow periods of meditation over differ for everyone.

Here's a question: Since we are all already born with the power to intuit the truth, how does it become so weak?
 
The answer: It is muddled by all the impurities that afflict the mind. The mind in such an impure state is like murky water: you can't make out anything that's in it, while pure water reveals all it holds.

If your mind is muddle, how can you make out your inspirations and intuitions?

A tranquil mind is like a bucket of water from the yellow river that has settled―all the sludge and coarse grains are at the bottom in obvious layers. The clear water is at the top. The mind is then pure, and that purity equals power and energy in anything that we do... be it analysis or creation, the results are greater.

◆ Is it true that marriage interferes with true self-cultivation?

I've been asked if marriage interferes with true self-cultivation, and if I think it would be better for dedicated practitioners to get divorced if they really want to reach the highest stage.

It may be that the Way of Purity is easier to walk without a husband or wife to bother you, but you've already been touched by the troubles of human interaction. The first week after you leave your significant other, you might feel calmer―more comfortable. But by the end of the next, you'll be bored and lonely. After a few months of silence, you'll be practically nuts from the anguish of having no one to talk to!

I saw a movie about a highly placed imperial official who had always been beyond reproach. In order to keep him from forgetting himself, the emperor had him imprisoned. He was still given good food and drink, but the guards had been forbidden to speak to him. It was suffocating for him and he began to grab anyone who came close, begging them to talk to him. So, self-cultivation and having a family are not mutually exclusive.

Long ago, a Chinese author wrote, "Within city walls, people dream of getting out; beyond those walls are people hoping to rush in." It follows that people who are coupled imagine what it would be like to escape from their relationship, and if they were to live like a recluse, they would incessantly pursue thoughts of having a relationship.

That's especially true in our technological age.
There's no rest and no escape. Everyone has a cellphone now, and you leave it on all the time. If you turn it off all day at work, then you'll have trouble waiting for you when you get home! We don't even give ourselves real down time.
But if you actually went some place that was deserted, everything would be calm around you, in your external environment, but what about your internal world?

You wouldn't be able to stand it!

For that reason, I say that it is best to find your peace wherever you are (e.g., to feel at home wherever you go), rather than seeking to change everything in order to find peace.

If you are already married and have partner in life, you'd be foolish to throw it away in your search for inner purity. As I see it, within the hustle of normal life, we are given abundant opportunities to find that our purity, especially when we hold its attainment as one of the heart's inner-most bearings.

Purity isn't something you can chase after, even though freedom from suffering is exceptionally important.

After what we've just considered, it should be clear that family does not interfere with self-cultivation. It isn't harder for married folk.

Little monks who are separated from the broader society at a very young age... What do they know about the affairs of the world? Of family? Of human relationships and love? How could someone totally unaware of all these things offer salvation to the rest of the world?    

There is a story that will be well-known to a number of you called "All Women are Tigers." 
Personally, I've never compared women to tigers. [Humorously] Still, I guess that sometimes a woman could be like a tiger, or a cat, or a rat...

In ancient times, there was an old master, who had come to the conclusion that humanity as a whole was fully corrupt, and incapable of purity, or wisdom. In sum, he felt that humanity was beyond cultivation to anything higher.

He had previously taken two disciples, one aged ten, the other twenty. But when they came to him from their homes, they brought with them the moral pollution of their mundane families... corrupt tendencies such as greed, lust, irresponsibility, and aversion. He sent those students away and declined any other disciples for the following decade.

Eventually, the master's extreme age began to trouble him, and he felt the desire to pass on his learning rather than allowing it to die with him.
He thought to himself: "I’ll be smarter about it this time—I’ll find a very young child, one that has yet to be corrupted by his home environment and understands nothing of the world. Then, I will raise him to be pure.”

Sometimes, the will of heaven aligns with the will of man, and so the monk quickly found for himself just such a child.

The raising of a young child was hard on the old monk, who became both father and mother to the boy. By the time the child was seven or eight, the monk felt his health failing. Out of necessity, he began to pass responsibilities over to his young charge.

Though they lived in mountainous isolation, the monk and the boy needed things that could only be purchased down in the nearest village. Knowing that shortly, he wouldn’t be strong enough to make the trip himself, the old monk decided that it was time to show the boy how to get there, so he could buy those things that were required.

“I must be more careful this time,” thought the monk. “I must ensure that the boy won’t be turned by the things he sees in the village, or run off, like my earlier disciples, so easily distracted by women.”

As such, the old man lay down some ground rules for their visit to the village: “I cannot stress the importance of keeping your wits about you down there, my lad, for there are powerful, vicious tigers in the village.”

The boy asked, “What do tigers look like? How will I know them?”

“Their hair will be longer than ours; their skin lighter; their gait, flowing and graceful; their dress, lovelier than ours; and their lips, redder. Take care not to draw their attention!”

"Why?" asked the boy.

"Because they are exceptionally dangerous and will eat you if they can."

And boy and monk descended from their mountain home together, and the boy experienced the village for the first time. He was lost in the sights. Karaoke here, a song lounge there, Disney products, restaurants and amusements.

The monk told the boy to return to a specific spot at selected time, and reiterated his warning regarding tigers: "Don't provoke them and keep your distance; don't respond if they address you, otherwise you'll be eaten."

The frightened boy promised to have no contact with tigers whatsoever.  

The old man then gave the boy some money and told him to buy himself something he liked.

As the sun was about to set, the two met at their rendezvous point. The old monk noticed that the boy hadn't spent any of the money he'd been given.

“My disciple,” said the monk, “is there anything you’ve seen that you’d like? This is our first time here together, and there might not be a second. Tell me what you'd like and I'll get it for you.”

"I dare not, master."

"Nonsense, my son. Don't be shy, speak up!"

Relieved, the boy announced "I want a tiger, master!", and he pointed at a girl standing nearby.

"But they are dangerous man-eaters!"

"I want a tiger so badly, that I would willingly be devoured."

Furious, the old monk exploded: "IMPURE! I've raised you since you were a babe. How could you have become so lustful!"

What does this story tell us? That it isn't from having or not having family, close friends, or romantic feelings that a person will be able to awaken and reach enlightenment. These come from true understanding and knowing. Only these bring true awakening.

I was in contact with a monk once who was an exceptional self-cultivator. He had the most benign countenance. Unfortunately, he fell seriously ill all the same. It was expected that he would soon pass away... but he didn't.

He'd always been really good to me, so while he was unwell I often prepared meals for him. One day, he started sobbing, and I asked him why.

"I'll be dead soon."

I thought of a show on TV where they grant the last wish of terminally ill individuals, and so asked him what his last wish would be.

"I only hope that in my next life, I'll marry and have a family."

I was still relatively young at this time, and I didn't really understand, so suggested that fever had muddled his senses―I thought it odd that such an accomplished self-cultivator could want marriage and family, especially since people actually leave their wives to become monks.

"How can you have cultivated for so long only to want marriage in your next life?"

His answer was simple: I would understand when I was older...

As I see it, unless you have encountered most of what life is made of, you are unlikely to find ultimate emancipation from it. Instead, it will remain an unsolved riddle.

And when I say "it", I mean human nature.

How else can we see our greed, our ignorance and our obsessiveness? All of our errors? If a person has no concept of what it is like to have a family, to experience that kind of love, or what there is between a man and a woman, then they are unaware of a mighty part of existence.

The point is, that it is through understanding and personal knowing that Emancipation is found. After you have properly seen the world, and then made the best of it, that's when freedom occurs.

In both Hinduism and Buddhism, there are many noble and virtuous individuals who have been fond of the lotus flower. It grows out of muddy ponds, remarkable in that it must grow in filthy, murky water.

The lotus' ability to bloom depends on that mix to provide what it needs. And despite its origins, its blossom is of the utmost purity: "From muddy waters, but untainted" (出污泥而不染).

It represents the process of self-cultivation, by which we emerge purified through all the greed, the errors, flaws and negative habits, etc. They are our "muddy water," full of the required nutrients. Without it, there is no blossoming emergence "from muddy waters, but untainted."

So marriage has its value. So does love. The truth is that anything in life can lead you to Enlightenment. Objectives make a big difference here―our objective in self-cultivation is to free ourselves of suffering, not to ignorantly hold on to an image of pure ignorance.

If your heart is not still, then mutely seeking out life in a quiet place can as easily lead to insanity. And the calming of the mind is not the final goal... again, we are seeking the end of suffering.

It's great to self-cultivate when you have a family! And becoming a monk isn't bad either. They both have their advantages. The more we can understand of the world, the more we have the capacity to reach true Liberation.

When people say "Liberation" in this context, they are often thinking of something like death, and that's a false notion. Our Liberation is about removing obstacles―all of them. It's about having complete freedom.

Let's say that you're under a lot of stress to buy a house, and your income isn't that high...

In Vancouver, Canada, I met a meditation student who had been a student of tantric, esoteric studies for over a decade. He had also discipled under a number of great dharma masters. Unfortunately, his results were no greater for his efforts. His yearly income was no more than about 100 thousand US a year, and he had only recently found himself that well-paying a job.

Well, the house he wanted to buy was a 3 million dollar property, and so one day this grown man came to see me, crying: "Master, I'm suffering!"

"How?" I asked. "Everyone is envious of your achievements, your educational background is outstanding, you've got a good job, a wonderful wife... I don't know what could be causing you so much unhappiness."
"I want to buy a big house."
"Well then you ought to be troubled!"
"Please Master, show me the way clear of this suffering?"
"Alright... the way clear is to not buy a house."
"But I've already promised my wife."
"Well then leave her."
"I can't leave my wife!"
"So don't buy the house. If she actually loves you, then she'll be content to live with you in an outhouse. And if she isn't, then your love is a lie."
"Even if you moved into such a big house, there would still be problems to fear...
“You have a family of three. Imagine how empty the house would be... Even if you didn't have to worry about ghosts causing problems, your family would start to have troubles of their own making. Do you believe that your family would be able to withstand the pressures of living in a place like that?"
"I just have this dream of giving my wife a beautiful home."
"Do you also dream of her living in the White House? This stress is all of your own creation... you're not using your head, but are acting out of selfish desire. You're obviously going to suffer when you behave so impractically... you're wearing yourself down. Would there be this much stress if you got yourself a more reasonably sized home? With such a small family, why not pick something cozier that encourages intimacy. For the three of you, I think about 1000 square feet is best. If you're in anything bigger, you should move. It would be the best thing for your family."

So, what would you consider "wisdom" to be? Or "Freedom”?

They are the ability to analyze situations clearly, to set yourself up well.

The key to it all lies in sorting out your xin [heart-mind]. Doing things that are truly beyond your ability is the result of selfish desire. After such an act, much greater trouble is born. It will spread to your family and then to all who surround you.

But enough. Studying wisdom like this is mediocre at best. This is "wise," but that is "unwise"... it's not easy to explain. But after you've learned a bit, you can master a number of the processes in life―you will master them by stages. Everything has degrees, just like feet and centimeters.

◆ Is it best to give charity and to aid others without receiving anything in return?

This is an excellent question. There is a lot to it.
Like should you give money to the poor, thinking that in so doing you are paving your way to wealth. That's very low-level behavior, and yet it is also the most natural human response.

"When I give to charity or do good deeds, what's in it for me?"

If the answer is "Nothing," then a lot of people do exactly “nothing” to help anyone else.

And yet, to my mind, when I truly do a good deed, there is a benefit to me. A true benefit. A lot of people won't understand what I mean by "true benefit," so let me explain.

I think that everything exists on different levels, and when good deeds are performed with a direct gain for the doer in mind, progress through the levels is very slow. When I do good deeds without direct personal benefit for myself in mind, then I gradual rise through them, and the merit [positive karma] that I accumulate for each act is greater. This question, therefor, holds the key to teaching us all how to reach the most expansive field of fortune, merit and karmic return.

When we first think of performing charitable acts, we are often held back by the thoughts like, "Why should I help?" Here, we say that you should help because it will benefit you. There are levels of how much you get from them... When you no longer help others out of a desire for any personal return, that's when the level of return will be the highest. Thank you so much for bringing up this issue!

◆  Can we benefit by chanting the the Medicine Buddha Heart Sutra at home by ourselves?

By all means. Haven't I already mentioned that it isn't a matter of ritualism? Is it only after an abhiseka blessing that you can chant it? [abhiseka: a blessing, or transfer of energy, from one person to an individual or group, often visualized as light flowing into the head; sometimes a form of baptism.]

No.

It is a tool for freeing the masses, and it only requires sincerity. That's what allows for a connection to be made, a connection with the miraculous.

We've covered a lot of information here today, but the most important thing to remember is to apply the lessons when you return to your everyday life. All of you who are here now have a destined relationship to each other and to our meditative endeavors―you are blessed. I hope that we will all share the practice together again soon.

Remember! Self-cultivation needs to be applied before it really comes together; otherwise, the results don't really emerge. A few chants, a few blessings, a few abhiseka, or the wearing of good luck charms, they have their benefits, certainly. But the most fundamental problems, they can only be unraveled through the practice [application] of self-cultivation.