CULTIVATE ALTRUISM TO OVERCOME GREED
Master Jun Hong Lu: Nowadays, people tune out when you try to give them advice. They are only concerned about their most-immediate vested interest and end up forsaking spiritual purification. It is very important to be far-sighted. When people seek the Buddha’s blessings for those vested interests, they are essentially praying for themselves.
Let us not forget that the Bodhisattva is the most altruistic. If you are always preoccupied with your selfish desires when praying to Bodhisattva, looking forward to receiving but never giving, it will be difficult to gain resonance with Bodhisattva. Worse still, when prayers go unanswered, you immediately retreat from your practice. This is akin to a child who refuses to put in the hours in studying, and yet, he expects the teacher to give him good grades, and when his performance falls short of expectations, he will straightaway give up on his studies.
Buddhist practitioners must understand that our daily effort in spiritual cultivation is the seeds that we sow and when the karmic reward comes knocking on the door, we are essentially reaping the fruit of our labour.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s World Buddhist Fellowship Meeting, Hong Kong, China, 21 June 2015
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