People who eat meat have more desires and random thoughts. It’s not easy for them to attain samadhi. People who don’t eat meat, however, are content and have fewer desires and random thoughts. When the Buddha was in the world, he encouraged people to be vegetarian, but he didn’t force them. Why? Because …
Category Archives: Venerable Master Hsuan Hua
Strictly Uphold Precepts and Learn to Be Patient
Upholding precepts means not having a temper. Precepts are a cultivator’s life. If one transgresses them, this would be as grievous as having one’s life cut off. Before Shakyamuni Buddha entered Nirvana, he told the Venerable Ananda, “Take the precepts as your teacher.” This shows how important the precepts are. “Strictly” means with …
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Great Good and Great Evil Can Transcend Fate
Fate can be changed, and the power to do so is in our own hands. Once there was a man named Yuan Liaofan, who was originally named Yuan Xuehai and was a famous Confucian scholar in the Ming Dynasty. He pursued scholarly studies in his youth, but because his father wanted him to …
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Where Do Blessings and Wisdom Come From?
If we do a lot of meritorious deeds, we will have blessings; if we listen to Sutra lectures and speak the Dharma, we will have wisdom. In the past, Shakyamuni Buddha “cultivated blessings and wisdom for three asamkhyeyas of eons, and planted the seeds for good appearance for a hundred kalpas”. And so he …
Eating Meat Is Equivalent to Taking Poison
When animals are killed, the hatred they feel produces a kind of poison. All animal flesh contains a kind of poison. This poison did not come into being in a single day, or even in one lifetime. It has been accumulating over many lifetimes. People have been murdering one another and brewing …
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Be the Master of Your Own Fate
A person\’s fate is flexible, not fixed. Everything is in his own hands. An ancient saying goes, A superior person is the master of his own fate.He determines his own destiny, and creates his own blessings.Calamities and blessings are not fixed;We bring them upon ourselves. Heaven, Earth, and Mankind are known as …
Our Goal in Cultivating the Way Is Buddhahood
Cultivation of the Way requires proper knowledge and proper views. You must not confuse right and wrong. You have to distinguish black from white clearly. Why does a person want to cultivate the Way? Because he wants to become a Buddha. How does one become a Buddha? The first step is to …
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Cultivation Requires Perseverance
Cultivation is not a one-day affair. Rather, we must cultivate in thought after thought,from morning to night, month after month and year after year. Even though you don’t notice a tree growing, day by day it imperceptibly gets bigger. After ten years or a hundred years, it can be made into good lumber. …
In Cultivation, Every Thought Must Be Pure
Virtuous people have auras of white, while evil people are surrounded by darkness.Whether you do good or evil shows in your appearance. All the evil deeds I have done in the past,Came from beginningless greed, anger, and delusion,Created by my body, mouth and mind,I now repent of them all and reform. Due …
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To Change Your Fate, Do Many Meritorious Deeds
A superior person knows how to determine his own fate.One can establish one\’s own destiny and seek one\’s own blessings. In the world, there are many things which you might think are good, but there are also bad things which occur within them. You might think you\’re very happy right now, but in …
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